GUEST REVIEW: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter

We're really happy to have Jean from Magic Bean Review here as a guest. Visit Magic Bean Review to read more of her great posts!

Guest review by Jean:

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You is the first book I have read by Ally Carter, and so far, she has really impressed me! The book is mainly set in an American private school, Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. All of the people who live in the town of Roseville (the town the Academy is in) automatically believe the girls who go there are posh snobs who don't really know anything and are just there because they CAN. But, oh how wrong are they. What they don't know is that the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is actually a school to train upcoming SPIES! The Gallagher Girls (as they are known) are known in history (well, secretly - it's a secret that one Gallagher Girl invented duct tape) as they have been around for 100 years - learning at school a variety of things such as martial arts, advanced encryption, 14 different languages and, in Sophomore year, they start Covert Operations (field work, etc.).

Sounds hard? Well Cammie, her good friends Bex and Liz and their new roommate Macey have to learn spy stuff every day in school. Whilst being pretty secluded inside their ivy-covered walls.

On their first Covert Operations Mission, Cammie, who is called The Chameleon at school (which is actually a compliment if you go to spy school - perhaps not so much at a normal high school), is spotted by a normal boy, Josh, who goes to Roseville High School. However, Cammie isn't experienced with boys, and what with her being a spy in training, how is she going to be able to balance her relationship with him whilst doing well at spy school?

As the blurb says: 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 normal relationship with a boy who can never know the truth about her?

I thought this book was very well written! I really liked the fact that it was based around teenage (they are 15 or 16 year olds, I think) spies, as books and films about spies usually entertain me a lot if they are well done! And the fact that they are teenagers means I can easily relate to them and it makes it more realistic (if you can be realistic in a book about spies). The relationship between Josh and Cammie is pretty realistic too, as most YA books have relationships which aren't true to real life, except whilst reading this I felt it was a pretty normal relationship you could have (apart from the fact that she is a spy, but yeah xD) if you are a teenager.

Overall, I think this book was really interesting and it also had some action in it too. It was well-written and it kept me wanting to find out what happened next. The characters were easy to relate to and I could easily imagine the places the character(s) was/were in with the descriptions.

I really want to find out what happens to Cammie and her friends in the next two novels, Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, and Don't Judge a Girl by her Cover, the next books in the series.

Guest Review by Jean

Go to Magic Bean Review to read more!

Comments

[Sophie]

I really enjoyed this too; it was so cute! Though spying is a lot harder than I originally thought!

Great review, Jean!

[Ria]

Oooooh!
Is this a trilogy? Or are there more after the first, second, and third?

The cover is something I'd go for any day!
Thanks for this (:

[Luisa]

According to the author's website ( http://www.allycarter.com/ ) there are four books in the Gallagher Girls series.

Thanks for your comments, Ria and Sophie! (And more thanks to Jean, too!)

[victoria]

I love these books but i can't seem to find the third o ne anywhere and it doesn't have the same type of cover as the first two do?!?

[Sophie]

What would the characters look like????