Cover Love: United We Spy by Ally Carter

Apparently, I totally missed out on this but... there is a cover for the final Gallagher Girls book (and a title) UNITED WE SPY.

I actually saw the UK cover first, and then went to look the US one.

I think I like the UK one more, actually.

Anyway, summary, such as it is now:
Cammie Morgan has lost her father and her memory, but in the heart-pounding conclusion to the best-selling Gallagher Girls series, she finds her greatest mission yet. Cammie and her friends finally know why the terrorist organization called the Circle of Cavan has been hunting her. Now the spy girls and Zach must track down the Circle’s elite members to stop them before they implement a master plan that will change Cammie—and her country—forever

Quickies: Much Ado About Juliet and Double Crossed

Hello guys! Today I bring you two quick reviews. 

The first is Minnie & Daisy Best Friends Forever #1: Much Ado About Juliet by Calliope Glass.

This is a short story about Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck in their schoolgirl days. In this installment, Minnie wants to get the lead in the school's production of Romeo and Juliet, just so she can get near the guy playing Romeo: Paul Poser. 

Daisy thinks Paul is exactly that, a poser, so she's doesn't care about the play all that much but agrees to go support Minnie... but she ends up getting the part instead. 

From what was happening, I guess Minnie and Daisy were supposed to be high school girls (or at least middle schoolers) but this book is definitely just for kids. It was cute and I even liked the story but yeah, definitely for little kids. 

Second book is Double Crossed by Ally Carter. 

And well, it really isn't a book but a novella that brings together the worlds of Ally Carter's series: Heist Society and the Gallagher Girls. The two worlds collide when Macy McHenry meets Hale at a society party. One thing leads to the next and soon Kat, Hale and Macey are working together on a little project.

It was a fun novella and I think the fans of both series would like it. Personally, I don't care that much for the Heist characters, particularly Kat, so I would have liked for the story to lean more on the Gallagher Girls side, but it was a good story - this quibble is entirely personal - and it sort of made me wish it was longer. 

One thing the story did prove is that having both sets of characters working together would be really awesome and entertaining, and that both series aren't that far removed from each other.

Plus, it was nice to see Macey take a more central role. 

Thanks to NetGalley and the Disney Group for the galleys of both these stories :)

Book Review: Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter

UK Cover (Which I got!)

Warning: This review contains spoilers about previous books of the Gallagher Girls series. 

At First Sight: Waking up at an alpine convent was not how Cammie Morgan thought her summer would end, and the fact that she can't remember exactly what she did in between leaving the Gallagher Academy at the beginning of summer and waking up in the convent in the early fall, isn't helping at all.

A spy with amnesia makes everyone nervous, and Cammie's family and friends aren't the exception. Particularly because even being back at the academy, surrounded by everyone she loves isn't helping her feel any better, any more like her pre-Summer self. 

Cammie knows that what she was looking for was important, and that she was really close to finding it and that she really, really needs to know what "it" was. 

But most of all, she needs to know she'll be herself again, someday.

Second Glance: Out of Sight, Out of Time is the fifth book in the Gallagher Girl series and I got to say that this series is still has my full attention. 

This book is a little different from the others though, mostly because there aren't as many 'fun' moments in it, it goes to darker places than the previous books. But I like that, as Cammie and her friends grow up, they start to realize that spying isn't a game they are playing, that there are real consequences to their choices - good or bad - and that sometimes saying you're sorry isn't enough. 

US Cover (not a fave)

Also, this book is MOSTLY all about Cammie, I really felt like Liz and Macey fell a lot to the background, as did Zach, but not as much as the other two. The one who didn't was Bex, but that was mostly because she was being a bitch though roughly the first half of the book - and I really didn't like her in this book, she's quick to believe the worse of the people she loves and that irks me. 

Anyway, plenty of characters that I love are back - like Abby and even Agent Townsend (who grew on me a lot). 

Bottom Line: While Out of Sight, Out of Time is far from being my favorite book in the series, I think it was needed to move things forward and I'm really looking forward to reading book six. 

Love,

Cover Love #25 - Out of Sight, Out of Time

Summary:

The last thing Cammie Morgan remembers is leaving the Gallagher Academy to protect her friends and family. But when Cammie wakes up in an alpine convent and discovers months have passed, her memory is a black hole. The only traces left of Cammie’s summer vacation are the bruises on her body and dirt under her nails. All she wants is to go home.

But even the Gallagher Academy now holds more questions than answers as Cammie and her friends face their most difficult challenge yet. With only their training and a few clues to guide them, the girls go in search of answers on the other side of the world. But the Circle is hot on their trail and will stop at nothing to prevent Cammie from remembering what she did last summer.

So, a couple of days ago, Ally Carter released the cover of Out of Sight, Out of Time, the fifth book of the Gallagher Girls series. I'm a huge fan of the adventures of Cammie & Co. and I'm really looking forward to this story.

I'm not sure I like the cover, I think it might be my least favorite so far, but at least it's keeping with the theme of the other covers.

What say you?

Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter

Warning, possible spoilage of previous books in the series.

If the end of summer is anything to go by, Cammie Morgan's life just turned upside down and it will be a long time before things are normal... if normal is possible ever again.

One of the people she trusted the most has been labeled as a double agent, working precisely with the organization that tried to abduct her just a few months ago. Part of her is in denial, part of her is scared and the rest just wants answers.

Why does the Circle of Cavan wants her? Could that person really betray her? What does it had to do with her father? And where does Zach Goode fits in all of it?

In Only The Good Spy Young, some of these questions are answered, and some answers just launch even more questions but, let me tell you, is a very fast paced ride. Even though we are in book four of the Gallagher Girls and have been with Cammie and her friends before, there is just so much we don't know yet, so much Cammie doesn't know yet and I sort of love being there with her to find out... and to question.

I adored this book from beginning to end, it kept me guessing, it kept me wondering and I was surprised at the level of emotion it evoked in me. This series has progressed and come so far from the beginning, I like seeing the growth in Cam, Bex, Liz and Macey as girls and as spies.

Also loved hearing something about Cam's dad, he has been a huge mystery so far, and he still is but... well, I'll say no more.

Favorite quote: "They (the Operatives) have also learned that a person will really get sick of pasta... eventually."
3/4

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy is the second book in the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter, so some spoilers might come up about Book One.

After a winter break spent trying to get over her first boyfriend, Josh, and being debriefed by the CIA, Spy-in-Training, Cammie Morgan is back in school and ready for some normal. Well, as much as life at the Gallagher Academy is ever normal when you don't know what language you're going to be speaking at dinner. 

But then, something comes to shake things up at the Academy, and that something is... Boys! Not even regular ones but Spy Boys. Among them Zach Goode, who always seems like he knows something Cam doesn't.  

As the semester progresses, Cam realizes that there is a lot to boys she doesn't know, and that Blackthorne Spy Boys might be the hardest to figure out. With many questions swirling about, Cam and her friends Liz, Macy and Bex navigate through a semester full of secrets as they begin to realize what the rest of their lives might be about. 

I'm so glad I gave this book a second chance - I think I was having a bad week when I first tried, but I decided to come back to it after I loved Book 3: Don't Judge a Girl By Her Cover - because I had so much fun with it. I love how Cam and her friends are still girls even though they wouldn't fit any definition of normal thanks to all the skills they have, they still have crushes and wonder about boys and make mistakes but you can also feel how they learn from them. 

And, having read all three books now, I can see Cam's growth. Also, I'm more intrigued than ever about Mr. Solomon and want to know what's up with Blackthorne Institute and Cam's Dad. 

But, good for me, the 4th book of the series, Only the Good Spy Young, will be out this June.

Grade:

I'd Tell You I Love You but then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter

Cammie Morgan is not like other girls her age, and it's not because she's the daughter of the principal of the elite boarding school she attends to... but because said school, the Gallagher Academy, is actually a school for spies!

As a new year starts, Cammie is excited about seeing her best friends again - Liz and Bex - and start her new classes but soon two very unexpected things happen at the Academy. One is the arrival of Macy McHenry, a senator's daughter who has been kicked out of tons of boarding schools and has landed inadvertently at the spy school. And, then there is the arrival of Joe Salomon, a former spy who has come to the Academy to teach Covert Operations.

While on a Covert Operations assignment, Cammie meets Josh, a local boy who has no idea about what really goes on at the Gallagher Academy and who thinks she's just a regular girl, a delusion she really wants to keep him under.

I'd Tell You I love You but then I'd Have to Kill You (what a long title!) is the first book in the Gallagher Girls series, and I found it to be fun but I also sort of expected more spy stuff to happen, however it was a good start to the series. Cammie and her friends are definitely the kind of girls I would love hanging with and, all in all, the book is fun. And I'm so very intrigued about Cammie and her family - what happened to her dad? what's up with Mr. Salomon? what will happen next? - and will be reading the second book soon.

Grade:
2/3

Book Gossip (#21)

Book Gossip #21 - To end the year in a good note!

(partially because the last book I read this year was so depressing)

Okay I know probably lots of people have seen this already but I was quite out of the loop while in Texas with my cousins - mostly because I was hanging out with my cousins, battling the flu and shopping till I dropped -to do my usual rounds checking favorite blogs and stuff.

But I was just checking Amazon just now and found out that Ally Carter revealed the cover of the Gallagher Girls Book Four (to be released June 15th, 2009).


Isn't it lovely?

In other news, all you Hathaway fans out there! Amazon has Married by Morning's release date to be May 25th, 2010. Go mark your calendars, I already did!

Now! I wish all of you a happy new year!!

Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter

After a rather eventful sophomore year at the Gallagher Academy, Cammie Morgan is enjoying the last few days of summer break by visiting her roommate and friend Macey in Boston, where Macey dad is campaigning to become vice-president of the country.

But, of course, things are never easy for Gallagher Girls, and when Macey and Cammie find themselves in the middle of a kidnapping attempt things change and soon Cammie realizes there is no turning back, and junior year hasn't even started yet!

With the Gallagher sisterhood at risk and one of her best friends in the middle of it all, Cammie's back to school and to her old tricks. Plus, certain guy might or might not be back in her life.

Okay, so I read the first two books of the Gallagher series and they were nice enough but I wasn't really impressed, the books were fun and everything but I sort of expected more... well, I sure got more in Don't Judge a Girl by her Cover, and I can't wait to hear more about Cammie, Macey, Bex and Liz. I might even go back and read Book 2, 'cause I think I just might have been on a bad mood when I read it and that's why I didn't like it so much.

Of course, I'll let you guys know when I do that!

Grade:

1/3

Book Gossip (#3)

Book Gossip #3

News, first, the confirmed ones:

The third book in the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter will be out June 9, 2009 and this is the cover:I think it is very cute and in theme with the other ones. More info at Ally Carter's site

And, then, the rumor part of the blog:
I don't have it confirmed yet but the rumor is that the final two books in the Pretty Little Liars Series will be called Twisted (7) and Heartless(8). The latest one is Wicked (5) with Killer (6) coming on June 30, 2009. I'll confirm it or deny it as official info comes up.
Here is Killer's cover by the way: