Ready by: Renée Raudman
Genre: YA Lit
I read Heist Society, Ms. Carter's other spy series and really liked it. (Review of second book in that series is coming.) As books, I had always dismissed the Gallagher Girls books because they looked a little too kid-ish for my tastes. But, as audiobooks, there's less of a time commitment, and these books are universally adored, so I picked up the first one.
I was back at the library the next day to check out the rest of the series.
The Gallagher Academy is a top-secret, all-girls spy school and Cammie, the main character, is its headmistress's gawky daughter. The series follows Cammie as she matches her education against real-world dangers, and real boys(!), with her best friends Liz and Becks.
The miracle of this series is that Cammie grows up a lot. I listened to these books consecutively in the span of about a month, so her growth was easy to chart. She goes from naive and silly to wise and capable. This series gets compared to Harry Potter, and this is likely why. The fifth book was far darker than the first.
The narrator, who reads all the books, has worked for the Simpsons and it took me weeks to figure out which voice. And her boy voice is seriously annoying. Also, Carter is repetitive -- like a romance writer. You'll read descriptions on how the girl spies can incapacitate a man 3-times their size with ____ (fill in a cosmetic bag staple). Or how they can speak 17 languages, but can't understand what boys are talking about. But I guess if you listen to 6 books, you're bound to pick up the rhythms.
These books were a hit, and deserving of all the praise they get.
Grade: Green light
And in case you're wondering, those titles are:
GG1: I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU, BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU
GG2: CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY
GG3: DON’T JUDGE A GIRL BY HER COVER
GG4: ONLY THE GOOD SPY YOUNG
GG5: OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF TIME
GG6: Coming Next Year
source: allycarter.com
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