The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women lives up to its name. Not only does this exclusive boarding school teach advanced language skills and correct deportment; its students also master the arts of tapping phones, hacking into computers, and spying in public places. At school, second-generation Gallagher Girl Cammie Morgan has impeccable credentials: She is fluent in 14 languages and able to kill an assailant in seven different ways. But recently life has dealt Cammie a card that she never anticipated: She has fallen in love with an ordinary boy who knows nothing about her exotic double life. A truly covert romance.I heard that this book had been optioned for a movie and I read some good reviews for it so despite the fact that it's been out for five years in the US (only one here in the UK...) and I haven't felt the urge to read it, I thought I'd get it.
I hoped, from the whole spy boarding school thing, it would be fun and I was getting massive St Trinian vibes from it. Maybe I had a little too high expectations, or maybe I just didn't see what everyone else had, but I can't say I loved this book, it was okay.
So the story line was original, spies, romance and boarding school. It had some pretty witty moments, and was quite girly. The romance was quite nice, I loved the way that Cammie and Josh's relationship developed. The pacing was also great, I liked the speed of the
relationship development.
My fave part of the book was Mr Solomon. He's like a mixture between a sexy Severus Snape and a serious Remus Lupin (excuse the Harry Potter references). He was kick-ass, fun and a little bit of sex appeal.
But the flaws for this book outweigh the good bits, in my opinion anyway.
I found it almost impossible the relate to any of the characters or the story in anyway, I can't explain why but the story and the characters all seemed flat. There weren't really any developments of the story, for me it all seemed as though the whole story was Josh and Cammie and while I liked the pacing of the relationship and it was sweet and all, it didn't really have enough wow factor for me to feel fully absorbed.
I couldn't relate to Josh or Cammie or any of the background characters, which ruined it for me, while they had personality, they didn't have depth. Josh for example, all he was to me was a nice boy and Cammie was just a nice girl... where was the depth?
I didn't get absorbed at any points, but I did enjoy it enough to finish it despite putting it down a few times.
All in all, this book was an okay read but I wouldn't read it again.
Overall rating: C
Stand alone/series: First in a series
Paperback Release: (UK) May 6th 2010 (US) May 1st 2010
Publisher: (UK) Orchard Books
Pages: 288
Book obtained via: Swap
Thanks for the honest review! I've been debating whether or not to pick this one up but guess I'll not rush out for it!
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'll wait for the movie... =P
It isn't a terrible read, I was a bit meh about it, but maybe that was just because I had a load more to read that i knew would be better. its one that will be entertaining enough if you run out of anything to read :)
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