I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter

The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is exactly that, but the skills they teach go well beyond manners.  Here girls learn to best grown men.  They learn high level science and math and speak fourteen languages fluently.  They are learning to be spies and this is the world that Cammie has grown up in, but she has to wonder what it would be like to be normal.  One thing that she has not learned here is how to deal with boys.

I was surprised by what a quick book this was.  It’s formatted to look a bit bulkier then it actually is.  I think that the premise is just so fun.  Why do the boys get to be the spies all the time?  I love all the details about all the things that Gallagher girls have secretly done.  I like that Carter made a point to try to make the circle of friends varied but I think what she did an even better job of was making Cammie… a Chameleon.  Not in the not notice her way that it is used in the book but that in she blends with the reader.  She is relatable and physically you instinctually make her like you.  She is still her own character but you fill in the gaps with yourself.  I also think that every girl has a point in her life when she is Cammie meeting her Josh and desperately needing lessons in boys and thinking that everyone else must magically understand them.

There are of course fun gadgets, secret passageways and some deadly skills but this story line was interesting because it was more about the contrast between the two sides of her life then actual spy type work.  There were spy moments but this was a definitely more human story.  The point is made that being a spy has its risks, not just for you but also those you are about.   There is also ground work laid that peaks your curiosity for the following novels.