Persona

This is an enjoyable book -- but it's not really speculative fiction

I'd read Valentine's SF novella "Dream Houses" and quite enjoyed it, so I was really looking forward to this book.

This is a near-future political suspense novel. But it's not SF; the most speculative part of it is that the political landscape is somewhat different from our world: a UN-type body runs world politics through heavily-groomed diplomatic "Faces" (who are themselves run by highly-trained political handlers).

The main character survives a near-miss assassination, and spends the rest of the book trying to figure out who wants her dead, and how she can salvage her career to build the kind of power base that will enable her to improve her home country's situation.

It's interesting and enjoyable, as long as you're not expecting SF or Fantasy.