Blog Tour: The Athena Protocol by Shamim Sarif (Guest Post + Giveaway!)

Item: The Athena Protocol
Author: Kaity

Posted October 3, 2019 by Kaity in Book Tours, Giveaways, Guest Post / 3 Comments

Happy Thursday and welcome to my stop on the The Athena Protocol blog tour!! I’m so excited to be on this tour, and I’m even more excited for you to read about Shamim’s favorite scene from the book! Read on to find out more about the book, author, and tour, plus enter a print copy of The Athena Protocol!!!

The Athena Protocol by Shamim Sarif
Published on October 8, 2019 by HarperTeen
Genres: Thriller, YA, Queer
Pages: 304
Add to Goodreads

Jessie Archer is a member of the Athena Protocol, an elite organization of female spies who enact vigilante justice around the world.

Athena operatives are never supposed to shoot to kill—so when Jessie can’t stop herself from pulling the trigger, she gets kicked out of the organization, right before a huge mission to take down a human trafficker in Belgrade.

Jessie needs to right her wrong and prove herself, so she starts her own investigation into the trafficking. But going rogue means she has no one to watch her back as she delves into the horrors she uncovers. Meanwhile, her former teammates have been ordered to bring her down. Jessie must face danger from all sides if she’s to complete her mission—and survive.

**Do you have a favorite scene, quote, or moment from The Athena Protocol?**

I like Jessie’s humor and almost-flirtation with Amber, the head of technology at Athena. Amber is young and smart, but officious. She takes her job of guarding the weapons and tech seriously, and she and Jessie trade sarcasm, but they like each other a lot. In one scene early on, Jessie uses this trust between them to con her way back into Athena after being fired, and she steals her own IDs and equipment from Amber. Under the clever way Jessie pulls off the theft, it’s also a betrayal of friendship that will take time to recover from. It’s great when there’s more than one thing happening in a scene.

What would you do if you spent the day with Jessie? Where would you go to eat, hang out, relax, etc.?

Jessie’s an early riser. Once her brain gets going, she’s up and ready. We’d probably go for a run in one of London’s many green parks (I might sit out the last couple of laps!) because Jessie’s good about keeping in shape. Then breakfast at a café in Notting Hill, where she lives. We’d take in a movie if it was raining or walk through Portobello Market if it was fine. That might be enough socializing for a tech person like Jessie and a writer like me, so we’d have a quiet evening in – she’d code, I’d write, and we’d order a takeout dinner of Indian or Thai food. Jessie likes spice in everything, not just her work.

**Do you write to music? If so, what were you listening to while you wrote The Athena Protocol?**

I create a Spotify playlist when I write anything. These are songs are a bizarre mix, that might evoke a moment, an emotion, or a character or scene, and I’ll listen when I’m out for a walk or run early in the day, but not while actually writing. I need quiet for that process. The songs include ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ by Lorde, ‘I Saved the World Today’ by The Eurythmics, ‘The Boxer’ by Simon & Garfunkel, ‘L’anamour’ by Francoise Hardy and ‘Get Some’ by Lykke Li. Make of that what you will…

Born in the UK, Shamim is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and director. Her next book, The Athena Protocol, is an all-female YA contemporary action thriller that is published by Harper Teen in September 2019. Her debut novel, The World Unseen, won a Betty Trask award and the Pendleton May First Novel award. Shamim has adapted and directed the films of three of her novels including, most recently, Despite the Falling Snow. The book was published by Headline in the UK and St Martin’s Press in the US. The movie stars Rebecca Ferguson and Charles Dance in a story of love and betrayal in cold war Russia. Her films have won 47 awards internationally. Shamim’s third novel, I Can’t Think Straight, formed the basis of her cult hit film of the same name. Shamim’s book festival appearances include Hay-on-Wye, Cheltenham and Edinburgh.

An accomplished speaker, Shamim has spoken at TED events worldwide, at the INK Conference in India and DLD in Munich. Corporate speaking events have included Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Citibank and Disney. Shamim lives in London with her wife, Hanan, and their two sons.