Finished The Moneypenny Diaries by Kate Westbrook.

This is a James Bond-related book, focusing on M’s famous secretary, Miss Moneypenny. Basically, the book is a year of journal entries from Moneypenny’s point of view during 1962, when she became involved in the Cuban missile crisis, among other adventures.

The book manages to weave in quite a bit of the Bond lore from the Ian Fleming titles while still making Moneypenny an independent character with her own adventures. During the course of the year, Moneypenny finds out what happened to her father, is asked to be a double agent, and falls in love with a man who may or may not be an enemy spy. I found it interesting to read about Bond’s world from the point of view of someone else.

For those who might not be so familiar with the Bond novels, there are plenty of footnotes about various characters and events mentioned (and yes, Bond himself does appear throughout the book). The footnotes are helpful, but after a while, they started to annoy me simply because there were so many of them. Having to read them interrupted the flow of the story for me.

Overall, I’m giving this one a thumbs up, but really, Bond fans will probably enjoy it more than other folks.

Up next: Warsworn by Elizabeth Vaughn.

Books in my TBR pile: About 10.