Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Like many of us, Lex has a busy life, trying to juggle motherhood, her relationship with her husband and her career. Unlike many of us, Lex has a rather unusual career - she is a secret agent, fighting the baddies, The situations that arise from this cocktail of circumstances and events are often funny, sometimes endearing.
If you look for a light, pleasant read, then this is for you. If you look for a hardcore action spy book, then maybe give it a miss.

Thank you to the editor and Netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest and impartial review.

The Nursery is the second book in the Alexis Tyler series by Asia Mackay. Lex Tyler is a working mother and secret agent, Juggling espionage and the terrible twos is a problem Lex faces daily and this book like the first is very funny.

A great follow up to the previous book. A great storyline that kept you intrigued along with brilliant characters made for a highly enjoyable reading experience!

Love Lex's character and the fact that she works for an organization that is not frequently featured when it comes to even spy thrillers. The plot is engaging. Can't wait for another installment hopefully!

Lex Tyler is back and still struggling to be both a good mom and agent. Her daughter Gigi is a toddler now so trying to cope with her secret agent work plus attention seeking tantrums at home ain't easy....and that's just from her husband Will who (understandably) doesn't get why his wife is always absent. Both in body and mind. What he doesn't and can't know is Lex is dealing with a traitor in MI6....one that threatens both national security and her fellow agents. Too many have been lost already and Lex is determined to do what it takes to hunt them down.

I loved Killing It so was looking forward to this. And I was right to. It's often laugh out loud funny and always entertaining. It does lull again sometimes, strangely in the action so that may well just be me. Lex is sort of unlikeable but in that way your friends are when you know they're making bad decisions! And we all know a child like Gigi...in fact I think I live with one. It's been compared to Killing Eve and I get those comparisons but I feel it's selling Lex Tyler short. Shes far better than that. I'll be watching for part 3 soon.

This was just not for me.
I found the main character to be contradictory and the story to be far fetched.
This Could have been so much better if the author had decided whether it was a comedy or action.
In the end it was neither and was tedious reading to put it mildly..

A sequel to Killing It. Lex is a secret undercover agent for a mysterious government agency but also a loving wife and mum to a young daughter. A much-needed light read.

More adventures, or misadventures of Lex and Platform eight. She’s tasked with finding a double agent in the secret services, and action and danger surround her.

Her home life is arguably more challenging. The mother of a two-year-old, she faces the terrible twos on a daily basis. Combining motherhood and being a spy leads to lots of drama and many humorous moments.

The plot is fast-paced and well written with twists, danger and delightful comic moments. The characters are vividly created but believable, and it’s easy to like Lex, the main protagonist.

Perfect escapism. A delightful mix of laughs and thrills, and parenting moments that are relatable for any parent.

I received a copy of this book from Zaffre Books, Bonnier via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

A must read, evenly paced great character, a wickedly storyline, can’t wait for next book from this author she is on my must read list.

A great follow up book to the last one. Because you already knew the main characters, it made getting into this book much easier and another great storyline in this book that kept you intrigued right until the very end!

Excellent sequel, parenting/spying has never seemed so achievable or exhausting!

4.5 stars.

"People trying to kill me, bosses betraying me; who needed all that sh*t when I had teething and tantrums and potty-training to deal with?"

Our 'spy mum' returns, with her parenting worries intact and making us all feel a little reassured about ourselves, as Alexis now has to cope with the joys of a walking, talking preschooler whilst keeping the world safe in her secret occupation.

There's a traitor to weed out and a high-ranking female world leader to protect. And a parent-teacher conference to brave, after a biting incident...

As a mother (not a spy though, honest!), Lex felt refreshingly lifelike: as a mum trying to fit everything in, to do the best she could by her child, keep a slightly wobbly marriage going, even feel a slight crush on a fellow parent.

And the connections made to her job are always wonderfully drawn, hilarious and original. A battle/siege scene in which Lex has only toys and toddler paraphernalia to hand is hands down the most entertaining scene in a book I've read all year.

A favourite quote of mine was Lex thinking about a new female agent she was working with, how she "started the mission naively hopeful that working alongside another female assassin meant we would become besties and spend downtime bonding over frappuccinos and how tough it was fitting a gun in our waistband when having a fat day."

She's wittily, wryly funny, but reassuringly human, even as we see Superhuman Lex.

Some great set-pieces here, battles and guns and bad guys and all the stuff you'd expect from a secret agent story/film, but then we get the nursery scenes, school trips, the home life worries and Lex stepping between the two worlds, sometimes more shambolically than she'd like.

One thing that niggled me as a Mum - Lex's daughter is 2, but has the vocabulary and mental awareness of a much older preschooler, she talks like a 4-year-old. As mum to a 2.5 year old, Gigi seemed ridiculously advanced (but as mum to two boys, I could just be mistaken).

The trials of parenting and keeping a marriage going, I felt the author had her finger on. "There were days when it was hard to remember that he wasn't just a co-parent, a housemate. That we were more than that. There was us, too, in there." Mackay hits her marks.

And Mackay is surely a parent herself, one who is unlikely to forget the trials of this unpaid, thankless career. It's what made me try the first and instantly decide on the second:
"A day that had started with the adrenalin-high of armed combat... had ended with me fishing a poo out of the bath."

So while we get a spy thriller, it's much smarter than that. The combination of the two worlds is effortlessly juggled (for the author, at least!). This should have a multitude of markets, and is one I'll be recommending to parents of both genders. There are some excellent observations and moments when I stopped and paused, points that hit a mark even if you aren't a trained killer.

Works best if read after 'Killing It', and I'm hoping I see another Alexis Tyler story out before too long. She's one of my new heroines.

With thanks to Netgalley for the sample reading copy.

This is the second book written by Asia Mackay with Alexis Tyler, Lex for short, the first book in the series is Killing It, I had to buy that and read it before I could get to this one, as I really don’t like reading books out of order. I wasn’t disappointed in either book.

Lex is not just a mother, she is also an assassin, she is trying to juggle two totally different jobs, which is not always easy to do. Her husband doesn’t even know what Lex’s job is, which can complicate things even more, he thinks she works for the Government Communication and Data Specialisation Branch sitting behind a computer for most of the day, how would he react if he knew she killed for a living? Lex worries he would leave her if he found out. Because in reality she is a very highly trained agent, able to handle deadly weapons, defend herself in unarmed combat, engage in high speed car chases, and carry out dangerous and difficult missions. Step aside Mr Bond there is a new agent on the block.

This time Lex’s mission is to stop the assassination of China’s Minister of Commerce, as well as saving Platform Eight which may be easier said than done. MI6 has a mole someone is selling information, Agents are being killed and Lex and her team have to unmask the traitor, who is passing the information on to an unknown underworld dark website that is recruiting mercenaries. These people are clever. Can Lex and her team outwit them.

Being a first time mum is a difficult job especially when you have a very strong willed two year old daughter, who likes to bite, this makes Lex worry that her daughter has inherited some of her violent side, but this is something all mum’s worry about their children’s bad habits, some bite, some will push and kick, it’s all a learning curve that Lex is just finding out. But Lex is a strong character and is good at both jobs.

There are a couple of red herrings thrown in to keep you guessing who is behind the plot, who the mole is, although I did work it out, but it didn’t really matter because this is such a fun read.

The only downside Is if you have read the first book you already know some of the things that are repeated in this book, which I can appreciate is for people who haven’t read the first, this can be a little annoying. So this can be read as a stand-alone novel.

I don’t want to go into too much of the plot as it will just spoil the story. You have to wonder which job Lex finds to be the easiest, that of assassin, killing people to protect the country without even batting an eyelash. Or trying to be the perfect mother, whilst worrying you are stereotyping your daughter by giving her a doll to play with, and telling her how pretty she is, as if looks are the most important thing.

I love Lex and the who,Ed way this book is written, it is fun, there is suspense and tension. Not to be taken too seriously and sometimes that’s the type of book you want to read, something that will have you biting your nails, whilst sitting on the edge of your seat one minute, and laughing out loud the next.

I look forward to book 3 in the series to see what other antics Lex will get up to.

This series is a firm favourite with me and this instalment in the series did not disappoint except at the very beginning of the book where it felt as if I was reading a script for an action movie. A gentler introduction to this book would have worked better, especially because the main character has so much to give with her quirky sense of humour and soul searching in relation to being a working spymum and wife.

Lex just gets better and better. I have a total girl crush on this girl wonder for how normal she is yet how awesome she is!

Asia Mackay normalises motherhood in a way that many novels don't , yet throws in this absolute Kick-ass assassin mixed in with her!

A must read but do go for the series!

A cracking read that grows on you

At first, I was not sure where this book was going, and the writing style took awhile to get used to, but once I grasped the storyline I was hooked. Alexis Tyler is part of a top secret organisation called Platform Eight, based in an unused part of the London underground. Her husband, family and friends have no idea what her day job involves, as far as they are concerned she works for the Government Communication and Data Specialisation Branch, doing a dull desk job.

The reality is that she is a highly trained special operations agent, able to handle deadly weapons with ease, defend herself with unarmed combat, engage in high speed chases, tail secret agents and carry out dangerous and difficult missions, all this while juggling being a wife and mother to a two year old. The author has a wicked sense of humour, and I laughed out loud at some of the scrapes Lex gets herself into, and the lies she has to come up with on the spur of the moment to prevent her cover being blown are hilarious.

The top secret mission she and her team are tasked with involves unmasking an online platform on the dark web that recruits mercenaries. The jobs advertised are certainly not your run of the mill type of posting, rather deadly operations involving assassinations and general mayhem.

With this as the backdrop, Lex has to maintain her cover, juggle the demands of her family and prevent a high ranking Chinese official from being killed on British soil. The pace hots up, and the action is nonstop — a great read.

Gillian

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

Lex Tyler is back for another cracking adventure. Lex is the mother of a toddler, and a very effective assassin working for Platform Eight, a shadowy government agency. This time, Lex and her team do battle with a recruitment agency for bad spies. There is a leak at the heart of the secret state that has to be found. As in the prequel, Killing It, the best moments are when her working life collides with Lex trying to have it all as a mother. Four stars.

Smart, funny, witty – mixing the spy thriller genre with family drama shouldn’t work and yet the author pulls the feat off with aplomb. It’s nothing like Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones series but it reminds me of it in the sense that tension and humour are used to draw the reader along in a similar way. Utter brilliance. Thoroughly recommend.

Another refreshing read from Asia, I REALLY loved seeing how an assassin balances motherhood, being a wife and every day struggles. It was WONDERFUL, full of feels and on the edge of your seat moments. Looking forward to more from this series.

This is the second book by this author that I have read. The first, Killing It, was the prequel to this book, but you can easily read this as a standalone book; but why would you? I enjoyed this book even more than the first one, but by reading Killing It you get twice the enjoyment.

We meet Lex again in this book, it's two years later on and her daughter Gigi is now a toddler. Lex is still an undercover operative for Platform Eight whilst juggling Motherhood, picking up her husbands dry cleaning and ensuring her daughter behaves herself at nursery.

Lex really does step up the action in this book, but true to form there are still those who under estimate her, and I loved it when she held her own. There's also Mrs Moulage, she was the first ever female agent and another strong female character who I loved. Lex is using her real life knowledge in her role - such as giving suspects names from Peppa Pig, after all who is going to think it's odd. So many laugh out loud moments in this book too, whilst at the same time being a very credible thriller.

If you think James Bond/Jason Bourne etc is a little unrealistic, then you need to read these books. I can see whilst this is fiction it could actually be so true. Especially the use of social media and those public announcements we hear.

Also in this book Gigi has a voice now and she knows how to use it! - I hope she becomes a little mini me in the future.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars and await book three........... My thanks to Netgalley and Bonnier Books UK for the ARC to review.