Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls #2) by Ally Carter

Paperback, 264 pages

Published 2010 by Orchard Books (first published October 2nd 2007)

ISBN

1408309521 (ISBN13: 9781408309520)

edition language

English

original title

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2)

series

Gallagher Girls #2

characters

Cammie Morgan, Liz Sutton, Macey McHenry, Rebecca "Bex" Baxter, Zachary Goode

setting

Roseville, Virginia (United States)

Cammie Morgan may have a genius IQ and attend the best school in the country, but as she starts the spring semester of her sophomore year there are a lot of things she doesn't know. Like will her ex-boyfriend even remember she exists? And how much trouble did she really get in last semester? And, most of all, exactly why is her mother acting so strangely?

All Cammie wants is a nice, normal semester, but she's about to learn her greatest lesson yet—that when you go to a school for spies, nothing is ever as it seems.

 My Review


Now this was much better than the first one because it seemed to have a lot more room for anticiaption and mystery within its lines that just meant that you were hooked to the book, rather than getting bored with it. In many ways the book does actually make you think of a more modern styled harry potter, but instead of wizards and witches, we have spies, both female and male. This book seemed to have a lot more depth and edge to it in many ways because there was a lot more in the way of page turners. You never really seemed to know what was actually occuring, where it was occuring and what was going to happen next because the characters seemed to have this new sense of mystery to them. For example, throughout the whole book you were made to believe that Zach was a bad boy, the guy who was up to no good what so ever, and yet at the end your left feeling and thinking that actually there is a lot more to him than that, that there is something much stronger and more personal about who he is and what he is.

I loved the four main female characters that are developed here within the book, but I would love to know more about her mum because I get the feeling that there is more than meets the eyes with her, that she is hiding her own story that she perhaps does not want to share with others and instead wants to hide them and keep them to herself. For example, in both book one and two, there have been hints about her mum hiding her things, like being at the dance with mr solomon, the picture of her dad in the desk draw. Its obvious and clear that the books are building upto something, except your not allowed to know what it is that they are building upto and that the only way to clearly find out is to read on and discover it for yourself. so yes you can see why there is an addictive nature there, because there is a story within a story, something that keeps that life and passion going in some senses.

So although I was a little disappointed by the first book, I was picked back up by the second book and I know that I will be happy to read on because I want to now figure out what is occuring. what I really like about this book is the fact that it makes you feel like you are a spy yourself, because your always trying to figure out what is happening next, always tracing the girls footsteps and you get that sense of being followed as well. its a book that just comes to life as your reading it and that always makes a great read! 

My rating  

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls #1) by Ally Carter

Paperback, 309 pages

Published April 25th 2006 by Orchard Books

ISBN

1408309513 (ISBN13: 9781408309513)

edition language

English

original title

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

series

Gallagher Girls #1

characters

Cammie Morgan, Liz Sutton, Macey McHenry, Josh Abram, Rebecca "Bex" Baxter

setting

Roseville, Virginia (United States)

literary awards

Georgia Peach Honor Book Award (2007), Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2010)

 The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women--a seemingly typical all-girls' school--is actually a school for spies. Capable of killing a man, sophomore Cammie Morgan soon discovers that her most dangerous mission turns out to be falling in love.

My Review

What I loved about this book was the fact that it wiped away all those sexual labels about what a spy is and what they look like. I love the fact that I was able to finally read a book about a female spy, that was different and unique in its own sort of way, meaning that you never really knew what was going to happen, or occur or just be there within the pages of the book. Yes, the book wazs no where near perfect, there was still a lot of annoying factors about it, like the fact that all the girls seem to be perfect looking, and the fact that once again there is a cliche love story with a twist at the end that you know will fix itself eventuially because there is more books in this series. But none the less, the adventure here within the pages is very well done and does certainly captivate the audience into this obscene and different sort of world.

What I think was missing from the book though was the drama that you would expect to find within a spy school. it just seemed to be missing that element of surprise of power, of adrnealine. it just didnt seem to hold everything that you would expect to find within a book that is based on spies! I just felt that the love story was the main focus here and because of that, you almost felt like you were reading the same book over and over,except it has a different title and the characters have different names. Yes in this way it is a bit of a disappointment, because I picked it up in the hopes of finding something a little different, but I will continue to read on anyway to see if I can see the story pick up and become a lot more powerful in the way it should be, ebcause I believe if there is a series then surely it has to get better somewhere right?

Yes, there is potential here and yes the book is full of imagery and well defined characters, but there is still so much more room for imporvement I think because at the moment its a bit sameish and has nothing other than the spy character to make it stand out from the rest of the young adult romance styled books. I would though recommend it as a read.  

My rating