What do readers think of Beautiful Assassin by Michael C. White? Write your own review.

Part spy novel and part romance, I enjoyed this book for the most part, but found it pretty predictable. I had difficulty with the idea that Tat'yana was so naive as to not understand the spying that went on and that was expected of her. We live in such a cynical world now that this kind of innocence was difficult to comprehend. That and the implausibility of Tat'yana's friendship with Mrs. Roosevelt made this book a little hard to really get into.

When I first started this book I was a little bit skeptical but once the main character's narration began I was enthralled. The chapters describing the day to day life of a sniper in the Red Army in 1942 are fascinating. When the story moves to the US the book becomes an enjoyable historical thriller. I really enjoyed it.

Tat'yana Levchenko is a sniper in the Red Army during 1942. She is the heroine of Michael C. White's "Beautiful Assassin", a WWII - era thriller.

Levchenko travels to America as a goodwill ambassador with a stated mission of obtaining financial support and materials for the U.S.S.R as well as to persuade FDR to open a 2nd front in Europe. The US is already fighting in the Pacific but the Europeans desperately need them to enter the war in Europe. Stalin and his secret police have another agenda - one that Tat'yana wants to ignore. Her only goal is to return home and continue killing the German soldiers who are battering her country.

FDR's wife, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt takes a liking to the young woman and she becomes the darling of the American press. Reluctantly, the beautiful sniper goes along with her espionage agent handler's demand that she spy on the first lady. In the end, Tat'yana must make a fateful choice involving an American army captain she's grown to love.

I found the first half the book much more enthralling then the second half. Levchenko's ethical dilemas about spying on Eleanor Roosevelt are interesting to a point but I found her romantic struggles after arriving in the U.S. to be a bit annoying. I struggle with women being made to appear too much the victim that you just want to shake them to snap them out of it or they are such a heavy that you find them annoying.

So for me this book was a struggle and only mildly enjoyable.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It was a bit slow moving and drawn out at times, yet fast paced in others. As a fan of historical fiction, I enjoyed the aspects of the story that highlighted the tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during WWII as well as the insight into Eleanor Roosevelt’s personal life … although the friendship between Tat’yana and the First Lady as well as the interplay between Tat’yana and her superiors is a bit far-fetched and unbelievable at times. Overall, this book (for me) was just okay.

This novel should be a rip-roaring good read. It is carefully written, the plot structure would get an A in a creative writing class, and the characters are dutifully developed. Michael White has done a good job of crafting his novel.That is where, however, this book gets into trouble.

All the good work is overshadowed by a lack of art. I wanted more tension, excitement, and suspense. After all, the main character was a rare creature in World War II Russia . . . an excellent female sniper. I wanted much more than I got and left this reading feeling frustrated and unfulfilled.

I really wanted to like this more than I did. The author did give enough information about the war to keep me interested, though just barely so. I just didn't connect with any of the characters, even the "Beautiful Assassin" herself. Overall, I found this to be a disappointing read.....

I was first introduced to Michael White's talent when I read “A Brother's Blood.” I have since read several of his subsequent novels, and always enjoyed and admired the detail, as well as the link to history each novel contains, and his ability to create the story vividly in a particular historical period, remaining true to that era. This book falls short. It tells the story of a young Russian woman who gains fame as a sniper during World War II, and who the Russian higher-ups send to the United States as an emissary (carefully monitored in the inimitable Russian fashion) in order to try to get Roosevelt to hasten his involvement on behalf of the Russians. The relationship that develops between her and the first lady belies believability. While it was an entertaining novel, it was a bit far-fetched. It might make a good movie, though, since movie audiences tend to be less discerning than readers, and don't necessarily care whether or not a story is plausible, as long as the movie is entertaining. As a reader, though, I prefer to read a book that is not only entertaining, but also creditable. I'm a little disappointed, since my expectations were higher.

What spy would let a reporter drop in on her in her old age and readily tell her story of being a deadly sniper, a spy and a defector to this complete stranger? That's what I'm asked to believe in the first pages of Tat'yana's story. OK, I said, I'll go along with this but let's hope the story line improves. It did not - I was disappointed in the characters, the plot, the historical aspect of the story and the writing style. I did read it and was so happy to put it down. I thought the 1st part of Tat'yana's story as a sniper was the best part - it held promise but as she became a hero and then a spy in America, the story lost its punch. After that fairly strong start, it did not hold intrigue, suspense, thrills, depth, emotional strings, historical insight for me. I would not recommend this book to friends, didn't care about the characters, wouldn't replace it if lost during reading and wouldn't read another book by author - my 4 points required to rate as a "good book". MK