Novel Review: Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3) by Ally Carter

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA Contemporary; Spies

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Release Date: 2009

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

When Cammie Morgan visits her roommate Macey in Boston, she thinks she's in for an exciting end to her summer. After all, she's there to watch Macey's father accept the nomination for vice president. But when you go to the world's best school (for spies), "exciting" and "deadly" are never far apart. Soon the girls find themselves trapped in a kidnappers' plot, with only their espionage skills to save them.

The Cover:

These American covers are so cheesy. I guess they're what you'd expect from a middle grade spy book, and it works for that. I suppose it caught my eye when I was younger, but it's not to my liking anymore.

Review:

It has been a long time since I first read the other two books in this series. At that point, I was at the desired age, in middle school. Now I’m much older, so I was a little afraid this would be too young for me now, that I’d have outgrown it. I’m happy to say that it was still really good.

Cammie visits her friend Macey over summer vacation, thinking it’s going to be an easy time together while following Macey’s dad through his political campaign. Instead, they are almost kidnapped. Cammie and Morgan, spies in training, handle it the best they can. But then Macey gets a high security detail, and they’re both shunned from getting any information on what happened. Throughout the school year, they are both on edge, waiting for something to happen, trying to figure out why it happened, and deal with their first real life mission.

The part that annoyed me the most, was that no one would tell Cammie anything. They’re training to be spies, they know how those things work and are getting ready to do it on their own in the real world. And yet the people who are training them refuse to tell them anything, even though they’re in the middle of it. That drove me insane.

But I did like Cammie and her friends. She’s a pretty average, smart teenage girl. She has a close group of friends, and she also has a boy that she likes but is conflicted about. And she’s trying to figure out why someone would try to kidnap her best friend, when she knows there’s something more to it.

It was exciting, and super easy to read, and I liked the twist that was thrown in at the end.

I’m not sure if I’ll read more in the series, but I do want to pick up Carter’s newer series now.