Thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for this review copy!

This is the story of how a sorority girl who was bullied at school found her calling working for the CIA. At a job fair at college, the author filled out a job application on a whim…and the rest is history. She started her job immediately after she graduated.

Shortly after starting work, Walder was promoted to The Vault, under kindly Director Tenet, who made her feel like a part of the team. She was respected by the other team members and everyone worked together well, thanks to Tenet. He was always doing thoughtful things, such as bringing Thanksgiving dinner to the Vault’s hardworking members.

A few months later, she was moved to Counterterrorism to work under Graham Andersson. This continued to bolster her confidence and erase the “loser” mindset she had, because she constantly received compliments and encouragement from her superiors. Some of the missions she worked on dealt with poison and other weapons of mass destruction. Despite being an introvert, she gave apresentation on a poisoning plot she and two other coworkers discovered. Due to their hard work, the people of interest were captured, and the poisoning plot was exposed and neutralized. The book continues with more stories like this, including some that highlight intelligence operatives that don’t work on Sunday, despite the terrorists that lurk nearby.

Walder remains positive, despite being minimalized by the men in other cultures. About 60% of the way through she meets some male counterparts after a bombing in Africa, and they are less than thrilled to be working with her. She remains professional and focused on the task at hand. This strength is one of her main characteristics – it shines through on almost every page. Her writing is full of her eagerness to fight the terrorists before they get a chance to perform their insidious tasks. She also writes about her feelings of personal failure regarding the March 11, 2004 bombing in Madrid. She wondered what scrap of information she had missed and felt personally responsible for all those dead and wounded. It was this final straw that cause her to fill out an application for the FBI and send it in. They accepted her immediately, and so Walder embarked on a new career. However, for the first time in her professional career she felt bullied during her training at Quantico. She kept moving forward and never let the constant criticism get her down – another display of her incredible mental strength.

Unfortunately, the FBI’s mentality was to pair her up with a more experienced partner and marginalize her, never making her the lead when they picked up criminals. She learned that she wasn’t the only female being discriminated against, but she kept going, hoping things would change. It didn’t, and she quit the FBI after working there only 15 months. Currently she is a history teacher at an all-girls school, her mission empowering and educating girls against the bullies and terrorists of the world. Walder puts as much determination into her teaching as she did in her career, and that is refreshing. She is a role model who still cares about eliminating hatred, embracing all walks of life, and giving girls their voice. I am glad that she chose to write her story to illuminate these causes! Her voice is clear and strong, the writing style will pull you in and make you laugh at times, while other times you will be incredulous, such as when you read about the mistreatment the FBI puts forth. It is also very interesting to be “behind the scenes” at the CIA, as much as they would allow. This unforgettable book would be great for any college age girl to read, for it may spark interest in a career such as Walder’s. Her experiences are powerful and empowering. ( )

A True story of a young woman entering the CIA assigned to tracking and interrogating terrorists. She eventually goes to the FBI and the contrast of how a woman is treated is eye opening. As a current teacher in a private school she continues to fight terrorists by teaching girls a Spycraft course to think beyond the norm. I found the book interesting and I would definitely be intrigued to take a class with her. She definitely is an inspiration. ( )

AMAZING memoir. Walder’s story is an inspiration for girls and women. A must read for people who care about the U.S., the world, and waging peace. ( )

Disclosure: This review is written to avoid giving out spoilers so if a couple of words have been replaced with underscores it's to avoid potential spoilers.

The book doesn't reveal any big juicy secrets as it was reviewed by the CIA before it came out (unlike Permanent Record by Edward Snowden), which also means that there are parts of the book that are censored. The author decided to keep the censored parts in (just with think black bars over them) which I think was a mistake. The censored parts took away parts of the book and made some parts hard to understand, and I wish the author had rewritten those parts (then of course got that reviewed by the CIA) so that the reader could understand those parts more.

In my copy of the eBook I found some of the censored parts had different words on top of them. I'm not sure if it just my copy or they did it to deter you from trying to read the censored parts. The words that were over top didn't make any sense which makes me believe it was done on purpose.

There are certain time frames that I wish the author would have written about but didn't, for example between the time she gets the job offer and her start time at the CIA (which isn't a spoiler because the description of the book mentions she worked for the CIA).

I do like the author mentions about what life was like at the CIA,

"And they’re not allowed to ask questions, not even a name, of their customers. This was a problem for Starbucks employees who wanted to put names on the cups. What they didn’t understand was that, for undercover operatives, even if you’re giving a false name, you feel vulnerable. Who knows how a fake name—let’s say you use your grandmother’s maiden name—could be traced back to you? Even a random number could be linked to your true identity. So there were no names, not even aliases. And conversation never revolved around work."

"I’d been exceedingly cautious, as I didn’t want anything on me that might reveal my real address or details about my life in Virginia. Not even a gym membership card, or a receipt for granola from Whole Foods. The less information anyone had about me, the safer I was."

"Most of our successes were kept secret. This was fine by me.", "I started making a mental list: all the poison plots and bombing plots the CIA had stopped. Operations that the public never had and never would hear about. It was enough for me to know about them. I didn’t feel the need to prove anything to ___."

As well as life when she wasn't working, "I’d eat in front of the TV, watching the most shallow, materialistic, consumer-obsessed reality show I could find. Turned out that once I was living the news—thinking, dreaming, working, and creating it—I just couldn’t bear to watch it on TV."

The author gives a great description of clearance levels within the CIA, "I’m not going to be here, Randy. I’ll be in ____. But I can’t tell you, or anyone else, that ___ even exists".

The book could have so many different names, like "No one works on Sunday's: My life at the CIA" but I can see why the author chose the title they did.

I really enjoyed that the last chapter does a recap of the entire book and her life up to that point as a way to close out the book. Overall, if you enjoy read books about spying, FBI, US national security from someone who firmly believes in their mission then read this book.

"My loyalty is to the CIA, the people of the United States, and the safety of the people of the United States. Each sentence in this book was written with that in mind." ( )

3.5 stars, but I'm not removing visible stars because the author lacks ...


Really fun and exciting. ( )