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Expand Your Horizons 2024 task, a book with a one word title.

Spy thrillers aren't my go-to genre but it reads more like the National Treasure movie franchise with more dismembered body parts but predictable in... of-course-someone-will-double-cross-another.

At 12% into the story, I‘m just not loving it, and quite honestly, I‘m not invested enough to continue. I purely checked this out for the hype, which I usually wait for a very long time before curiosity gets the best of me, but sadly it‘s just not for me. There are plenty of other books out there to try!

@dabbe - #HailtheBail !!

This was fine. But there are other spy thrillers out there that I liked a whole lot more. Like James Rollins, Steve Berry, Ted Bell. Basically glad I got this out of my holds even though it seems to have lost its hype.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

So true! 🩵🦋🩵 #Orphan

For some reason I never really clicked into this book. It wasn't badly written, the characters were pretty well fleshed out, there was lots of action, but it never really engaged me as I like to be engaged. Oh well.

I decided to read it because of all the hype &strange rumors… but past the intrigue I do not get it…
There‘s nothing horribly wrong with it, but the writing style (& 🎧narration)are very light &fluffy even when the subject matter deserves some gravitas, I didn‘t connect with any of the characters throughout the story & it was predictable af.

This is the second book I‘ve read this year that was supposed to be a spy novel but was really something else in spy clothing! I‘m giving the first a pass bc it was the first George Smiley and le Carre basically created the genre… but this book has no such excuse. This is a heist novel and it tries a little too hard to be Hollywood, even if it is a movie tie-in.

Photo is of a cow butt I saw in Denver for no good reason. Just thought it was fun…

This was a fun and exciting spy novel. Treasure, spys, adventure.

I‘m reading the companion book to the movie Argylle. The movie was a fun, campy caper involving an author whose books appear to come to life. It reminds me of Romancing The Stone. The book is supposed to be a book she has written- not a copy of the movie. There was big secrecy on the author- with a fake IG account, etc. That‘s a story in itself. I‘m enjoying the book, but it‘s doesn‘t have the campy humor as the movie. 👇

I hope Conway got a big chunk of money for this, because while I was entertained by it, there is no way for it to live up to the hype. It also has a ludicrous climax and the audio is poorly done—the narrator is flat and has so many British pronunciations in her “American” accent that it‘s tremendously distracting. But I thought it was a fun book! (I went in with zero expectations.)

This was nothing special. Can't believe it's supposed to have been written by a woman. Boring spy story.

I'm Team Marketing Ploy

This book had massive potential, the classic orphan recruited to work in the CIA to take on a world power with treasure hunting involved. I will say I was invested in the story but the writing was a bit clunky and I think with a bit of refinement from the author their books will become better! Argylle is pulled from the jungles of Thailand and recruited to work in a top secret team trying to find the famed Russian Amber Room before the Russians do

I have not heard great things about this book- and had not heard the TS theory!- but this article is entertaining and I'm kind of interested in seeing the movie. 🤔🙃

https://www.vox.com/culture/24047134/argylle-elly-conway-taylor-swift-authorship...

Masterpiece? No but a decent spy novel. Yes, there is a film and weird things about who write it.

Anyone read this (tagged book) yet? Opinions? Theories? I saw the movie trailer and can‘t decide if it‘s genius to put out both within the same couple of weeks or completely deranged.

Saw this yesterday and also found out it‘s based on a book… so now I have that on hold from the library. This movie was bonkers but so much fun - hoping the book is even more so. Anyone read it?

Is this a literary masterpiece? No. Is it an entertaining, thrilling read? Yes! I treated it like any other debut (held my breath and crossed my fingers lol). It‘s a decent debut, I‘ve certainly read worse, but I agree the typo in the ‘Authors Note‘ is unfortunate. As if this book needed another conspiracy attached to it, but I wonder if it was planted? There‘s no way an Editor would‘ve missed that, especially on the first page 🤔

When the first sentence of a new book has a typo. 🤦‍♀️

I‘m officially set in the belief that this was written by AI after reading this. I only picked it up because of the movie, and likely never would have touched it otherwise. Its premise is a classic spy novel: hot-shot new agent has to stop bad guy Russians who want to bring back the Soviet Union. The plot itself feels like a side plot even though it isn‘t. The writing is so thick and ridiculous (a sign of AI), that it feels like entire ⬇️

I had to pick this one up because of all the buzz around it. With a movie based on it coming out in a couple weeks, to the rumors of this being written by Taylor Swift under a pseudonym, to the mysterious identity of author Elly Conway, this has been one on the minds of a lot of people. I wanted to of course read the book before I see the movie.

I am very intrigued with all the hype this book has generated! Apparently, I am the exact sort of person this book marketing team is targeting because I couldn't resist grabbing myself a copy! 😂📚💕

I chose this book on cover art alone knowing nothing of the story as I started reading. It wasn‘t jiving with me so I went Goodreads to realize a film is already in post production - Henry Cavill plays Argylle. Then it got even more confusing because the cast of the film includes the author, and the preview seems like a comedy while the book is not. The true identity of author Elly Conway is also a mystery - no, it is not Taylor Swift. ↓

Look what came in today!! iykyk

The movie preview looked funny and ridiculous, rumors swirled that Taylor Swift wrote the book, and Libro.FM gave me the audiobook for free, so I made it my first full book of 2024. The book is not funny, the only ridiculousness is the outdated Russian baddies and Nazi gold train plots, and there‘s no way Swift wrote this bland spy novel. It‘s a 2⭐️, but I was mostly bored. #JanuaryReads