Guest Author Monday

Please welcome today our guest author — Juli Alexander

Thanks for inviting me, Leanne!

Bond. James Bond. We love our spies.  In fiction and cinema, spy books, spy movies, spy TV shows… the public eats them up.  I have as many spy shows on my must-watch list as I do vampire shows.  Burn Notice, The Americans, and Covert Affairs… I can’t get enough of them.

Spy books populate the bestseller lists in romance, mysteries, and young adult.  From dashing James Bond types to butt-kicking Annie Walker, we want to date them, to be them, to live their extraordinary lives.

In Undercover with the Hottie, I send Amanda and Will to New York City for some spying on the UN community.  Coincidentally, in real life, spying on the UN is a hot topic right now.

Thanks to files leaked by former intelligence contractor, Edward Snowden, the NSA’s spying on… well, just about everybody, has been revealed.  As governments around the world react, the US government is working to ensure allies that this behavior will not continue. Among the many statements from the US is the promise that the US is not now and will not in the future, spy on the United Nations. World leaders have been quick to point out that the US has not been able to state that such spying has not occurred in the past.

I don’t want to get into a big political discussion, but here’s the thing.  There is always a give and take between civil liberties and safety.  After 9/11, Americans gave up some civil liberties in the interest of protection from terrorist attacks.  Do I want to have someone watching or listening to me? No.  But if I get on the phone and say certain words or go on the internet and research how to build chemical weapons, do I expect someone to be paying attention? Yes.  In fact, I hope someone is paying attention in case the guy next door is doing those things.

Now, let’s say you are a citizen of a European country and are distrustful of the U.S.  Don’t you expect your own government to keep tabs on the United States?  We learned in the seventh grade that friendships could turn ugly fast, that blind trust even in a friend, or ally, doesn’t always serve us well.  Would an entity as complex and constantly evolving as a nation or a government not bear watching?

Please excuse my detour into reality, but the topic should be provoking thoughts and intense discussions in high schools and universities around the world.  Don’t we all know it’s going on but just pretend it isn’t? Does spying fit into the category of, “Everybody does it.  Nobody talks about it?”

What do you think about the issue?  Where would you draw the line?  Feel free to post a comment.

In popular culture, spies are generally heroes, but current popular opinion would likely cast spies as villains.  My spies in Investigating the Hottie and Undercover with the Hottie are not the bad guys.  Their mission, other than to save the world, is to entertain.  Like most spy novels, the Hottie books bring adventure, comedy, cool gadgets, romance, and clear good guys and bad guys.

The Hottie series is The Princess Diaries meets Mission Impossible.  In the first book, Amanda was investigating Will.  Now they are working together, and they are sent in to uncover a possible plot against the UN.  That’s right.  The US can’t spy on the UN, but who will suspect a couple of teens?

With their budding romance, Amanda and Will can’t wait to spend time together.  If they were to go in as boyfriend and girlfriend, they’d have the best of all worlds.  GASI, the agency they work for, has other plans.  In Undercover with the Hottie, stealing kisses may prove more difficult than completing their mission, more difficult than saving the world.

Available now:

Supernatural Six, featuring Three Wishes, a YA/NA boxed set with New York Times Bestselling Author Elle Casey, Tawny Stokes, L.G. Castillo, Brenda Pandos, and Allie Burton

Coming later this month:

Text Me, featuring Stirring Up Trouble, a boxed set with YA authors Amanda Brice, Shana Norris, Shel Delisle, Lindsey Brookes, Kate Avery Ellison, Elle Strauss, and Cindy M. Hogan

December releases:

Investigating the Hottie in audiobook for the first time!

Undercover with the Hottie (New Release!)

Thanks, Juli!! I’ve enjoyed hearing about your hottie books and what other releases you have available now and coming soon.