Romancing the Spy: 6 Thrilling Spy Romance Books

During an operation gone wrong, a beautiful redhead swoops in to save the usually cool and collected super-spy Yardley Whitmer. Much to her shock, it’s her girlfriend. Or, ex-girlfriend. They’re still in the process of breaking up. But it turns out Yardley isn’t the only one who’s been holding back in their relationship. KC works as an analyst for the CIA, too. Now, they’re stuck working together on a mission involving KC’s secretive mentor and a dangerous code that could take down the entire grid. Too bad they can’t decide if they’d rather kiss each other or kill each other.

Dove Barkley is not a spy. She may work for the CIA as an analyst, but that’s a very different thing. Try telling that to the bad guys who mistake her for her super-spy of a sister, though. She’s in way over her head, but Mendez, the man who claims to be her sister’s actual spy partner, says it’s too risky to pull out at this point. Now, she’s running from a group of actual assassins with some information in her head that could prevent a national tragedy. Also, there’s mounting evidence that Mendez might not be who he says he is—no matter how handsome his face may be.

A superstar and a spy are thrown together in this tale of unlikely romance and intrigue from the author of Warcross, Legend, and The Young Elites. When a crime boss sets up a private concert with pop sensation Winter Young for his daughter’s birthday, the elite spy ops group Sydney Cossette works with takes notice. Sydney is sent in to pose as Winter’s private bodyguard, and the two are tasked with infiltrating the crime boss’s inner circle. The pop star and the teen spy couldn’t have less in common. Winter is suave and sassy. Sydney is razor-sharp and deadly. But as they work together to take down a deadly crime ring, they realize their differences may be exactly what makes them so great together.

A P.I. is pretty much a spy, right? Adjacent, at least. So this thriller romance from the author of The Girls I’ve Been fits right into this spy-centric list. When private investigator Mel Tillman gets a lead on the girl who disappeared from her life years ago after they buried a body together, she’s not sure what she’s expecting to find. It certainly isn’t Chloe Harper holed up in the wilderness surrounded by a series of booby traps that would make McCauley Culkin jealous. But as Chloe reveals her side of their story—the story that began the night of her 16th birthday party—Mel realizes there may be more bodies to bury before they’re through. She just hopes it isn’t her or Chloe.

Since we’ve already established P.I.s have a place on this list… Here, have another! Rival private investigators discover they’ve been hired for the same job: a seemingly simple missing person’s case. But these two, who have a little too much in common to get along, quickly realize they’re being set up. Now, with a small army of killers on their trail and some unexpected sparks flying between the two of them, they’ll have to figure out their feelings, the motive, and the true killer behind this murder.

Working a job as an assistant to a couple of highly successful married spies is no easy task—especially when you’re not-so-secretly in love with them. Kierra can’t keep doing it anymore: it’s time to give her notice. But before she can leave, her bosses whisk her away on one final assignment in Serbia. They complete the mission, dispatch the dictator, and decide to stop denying themselves what they all really want. Katrina Jackson describes it as: “If James Bond had a wife and they both wanted to shag the receptionist.” Sounds incredible; I’m in.