Sekret by Lindsay Smith- Series Thoughts

Lindsay Smith's Sekret is a historical fantasy/science fiction novel duology taking place in 1964 and follows primarily Yulia Chernina, a Soviet girl who discovers that she has the ability to read minds. From there, she is taken by the KGB and trained as a spy to weed out Soviet dissenters and American spies. The first book, Sekret, takes place primarily in the Soviet Union, the second, Skandal, in America. Warning: the first book has a "love triangle" though it's fairly obvious who she'll end up with. Personally, I'm not too bothered by them myself, as I don't really see what's so rage-inducing about them- only time they piss me off is when the girl doesn't think she's attractive. But regardless, if you are a love triangle hater I'd skip this one if I were you and save yourself all the rage. 

I adore the covers of these books and they look fantastic together on my shelf. And the story idea is just as great. Seriously, Sekret went on my want list as soon as I heard the synopsis on Booktube- and I'm not a historical fantasy fan. But, sadly, both these books could have been so much better.

I did really enjoy the first book. It was fun and action packed and brainless, with a really great spy novel vibe. The second book... not so much. In fact, it was basically a repeat of the first book, but taking place in America now as opposed to the USSR. In fact, I would have been just fine with this book being a standalone, but hey, I suppose I should be happy with the fact that it was only a duology, and not an entire series or even a trilogy. Because fuck that. 

I also think that both these books didn't really have much staying power. I kind of got over Sekret in like a week and am sure that Skandal will go the same way. 

The characters were alright. I didn't really hate anyone, but the villains were fairly obvious and nothing anyone did really surprised me. In fact, as I really enjoyed the writing and the action, the characters actually ended up as the weak link in the story. Honestly, it's surprising that the books got as "high" scores from me as they did with such bad characters, because, while writing trumps both, I usually weight characters over plot.

I think I've made it clear that Sekret is my favorite book of the two. In fact, I recommend reading Sekret just as a standalone and not feeling forced, like I did, to read Skandal. Unless, of course, you like reading the same book over again, but in a different place. But for what it's worth, this duology is good slump reading, though they aren't masterpieces. For that purpose, I liked them just fine.

Sekret: 7.5-8 out of 10

Skandal: 6.5 out of 10

Overall Series Rating: 7 out of 10