| Title: I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd have to Kill You |  |
 |
| Author: Ally Carter | ||
| Genre: Mysteries, thrillers | ||
| Publisher: Hyperion Book CH | ||
| Elements: Boarding school, espionage | ||
| Series: Book 1 in the Gallagher Girls series |
Aish. I enjoyed this book so much. the Gallagher Academy is like a school for Sydney Bristows in training. The little SBs are mostly all legacies: their parents are all in espionage world, and thus they have the background to be there. For the non-legacies, they'd either have to be geniuses or... genii.The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is a fairly typical all-girls school—that is, if every school teaches advanced martial arts in PE, chemistry always consists of the latest in chemical warfare, and everyone breaks CIA codes for extra credit in computer class. So in truth, while the Gallagher Academy might say it's a school for geniuses what they really mean is spies. But what happens when a Gallagher Girl falls for a boy who doesn't have a code name? Cammie Morgan may be fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man in seven different ways (three of which involve a piece of uncooked spaghetti), but the Gallagher Academy hasn't prepared her for 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, and track him through a mall without him ever being the wiser, but can she have a regular relationship with a regular boy who can never know the truth about her? Cammie may be an elite spy in training, but in her sophomore year, she's doing something riskier than ever—she's falling in love.
Yeah, their requirements are pretty steep. I'd so want to go there, except that while I enjoyed the fun and fluffiness the premise brings, I can't help but to think of the life or death situations the girls are going to be in when they are out of school.
There's not really an explanation for the legacies who don't want to be in the spy world (where do they go?) and those who don't make the cut (where do they go?), but for the purposes of the book, I'm fine with that.
LYKY (as this book is known) is basically the Covert Operations semester report of an operative called Cammie Morgan, who goes to a school of spies. It's a way for her to practice writing actual reports after dong actual fieldwork. The report is thorough, and from a reader's point of view, Cammie is an excellent narrator, able to recall every and all details that she comes across.
I enjoyed the narration, the characters, their interactions and especially the training scenes. The background information was spread throughout the book, with instances of infodumps that I'm of two minds about. First, they included information that I thought the higher ups would already know upon reading, such as the Gallagher Academy being a spy school, and so there was no need to elaborate. Second, I thought that it was a way of covering all bases and being as thorough as possible; in such a report, it's better to have facts and not assumptions.
Cammie's relationship with Josh was sweet to read about, even if Josh seemed one dimensional and there doesn't seem to be any way for the star crossed lovers to be together. And while their romance is the central plot, there's another blossoming romance happening in the background that I enjoyed much more: Cammie's mom and her CoveOps teacher, Joe Solomon. I thought it was particularly well done, and so heartbreaking with Cammie's dad MIA and presumed dead. Poor Cammie's mom.
Overall, it's a fluffy and fun book that doesn't go into the darker side of espionage too much. Entertaining read.
0 comment(s):