I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls #1)
Ally Carter
Publish Date: April 25, 2006
Hyperion
Purchased Copy (borrow from Megan)
Reviewed by Rachael
Cammie Morgan is a student at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, a fairly typical all-girls school-that is, if every school taught advanced martial arts in PE and the latest in chemical warfare in science, and students received extra credit for breaking CIA codes in computer class. The Gallagher Academy might claim to be a school for geniuses but it’s really a school for spies. Even though Cammie is fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man in seven different ways, she has no idea what to do when she meets an ordinary boy who thinks she’s an ordinary girl. Sure, she can tap his phone, hack into his computer, or track him through town with the skill of a real “pavement artist”-but can she maneuver a relationship with someone who can never know the truth about her?
Cammie Morgan may be an elite spy-in-training, but in her sophomore year, she’s on her most dangerous mission-falling in love. – Goodreads
I had originally planned on reviewing a different book today on the blog, but that will have to wait because (even though I’m several years late to the party) I just loved this book too much to not stay a little something about it. I know I have found a keeper by the number of scraps of paper stuck throughout the book marking my favorite lines and there were a lot. (Plus, Michelle told me I could read whatever I wanted, so I’m going to go for it!)
Cammie Morgan is not your average girl, her friends and teachers are not average folks, and her school, well it’s more intriguing (to me at least) than Hogwarts*. She’s part of an elite group that is enrolled in a spy school for girls! Yup. Going all Alias-prep on you**. When she falls for a local townie, obviously she and her friends turn the experience into a covert operation. The book is written at times as Covert Operations Report, or “the paperwork”, in an attempt to provide Cammie practice in what her mom calls “the worst part of the spy life” and while I could have enjoyed a bit more of this (I’m an accountant, reports are my thing) I totally see why it was not super in-your-face. Regardless, this causes the girls to say/think things like: “He turned a corner (without using the Strembesky technique of detecting a tail, which was really sloppy of him)…” and “The Subject likes to state the obvious, which may signify a defect in observation skills and/or short-term memory?” and I absolutely love it. Clever, not forced, and not making the girls seem strange or too out of touch with reality. The girls are different and funny, there is no teenage love-triangle drama, and even Josh (the townie) has a few things to teach these girls. (And who doesn’t want to watch the girls analyze the contents of an average family trash bag and see what conclusion secret spies come up with?!) The book is entertaining as a stand-alone, but I for one can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy to continue the story of the Gallagher Girls!
*Confession 1: I am one of two Hooked on Books gals that does not have a special place in my heart for the Harry Potter series. Don’t let that stop you from reading this book!
**Confession 2:, I love JJ Abrams…a love which started with Alias.