Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter (Gallagher Girls #5)

SPOILERS for the series so far.
Cammie wakes up in the Swiss Alps with no memory of the summer but badly injured and with short black hair. Brought back to the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, she has to face her mother and her friends who are angry at her for leaving them behind. But Cammie just wants to remember the summer and if she managed to find the information on the Circle of Cavan that her father left behind. But some things are not worth remembering and something is wrong with Cammie. And now it seems that Circle has no use for her any longer.


Now we are cooking with gas as they say (Do they say that?). Anyway, here is the penultimate book to the Gallagher Girls series and it just moves the story right along. It was easy to feel Cammie's frustrations with her memory loss and her bewilderment at some of the things she now knows. And the music that she hears constantly. Why does no one think to mention that? But I guess that is explained at the end of the book sort of. I love how her friends love her and want to protect her but are also angry that she left them and left them behind.

I'm looking forward to the conclusion of this series. It has had its up and downs but I think it is going to end on a strong note. Cammie is very different from the girl the series started with and she has been through a lot for someone so young. That kind of character growth is wonderful to see in a series that started out about a boy crazy spy-in-training.

Gallagher Girls series
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You
Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy
Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover
Only the Good Spy Young

Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter (Gallagher Girls #4)

Cammie is the target by the mysterious Circle of Cavan, an terriost organization of spies. After her former teacher, Joe Solomon, risks his life to give her a coded message, she goes a mission to find out why the Circle wants her and what her father and Mr. Solomon have to do with the organization. With the help of her super spy friends and her sort of love interest, Zach, Cammie sets out to find the truth. But the truth is harder to find than she thinks.

It's been a while since I got into this series. The third book didn't do it for me but I enjoyed this one. I think the time off (and the fact that it wasn't following up a fantastic book) helped. Cammie and her friends really step up their game in this book which is good because the ending is drawing closer (it's a 6 book series) and all the players are being set up for the finale. We learn a little more about the Circle and who is in it and that makes for some surprising moments. We don't learn why they want Cammie and not too much more about Cammie's father though it is implied that he is still alive. But the story moves forward at fun pace and I'm anxious to read the next one to see what happens next.

Gallagher Girls series
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You
Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy
Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

Skeleton Key by Anthony Horowitz (Alex Rider #3)

After being sent to Wimbledon to check into a suspicious turn of events, Alex is put out on loan to the U.S. CIA for his protection and to provide cover for two CIA agents. Sent to Cuba to act as the son, Alex soon finds himself embroiled in the plans of a Russian general.

I am enjoying this series. Alex is a good kid and a terrific spy albeit a reluctant one. But he is so good at it that MI6 keeps using him and this time the CIA asks to "borrow" Alex to help get their agents onto an island with a lot of security. There is some contrivence with the Wimbledon tournament to get Alex into the position where he has to leave the country for a while but the main plot involves the Russian general.

I'm noticing that the villians tend to have a second in command that is hard for Alex to beat but eventually he outsmarts them and wins. In this book it is Conrad, an assassin whose been stitched together after being caught in a bomb detonation. I can't say there were any surprises with the ending but there was one surprise with the CIA agents so that made it more interesting. Also interesting is the addition of Alex's new friend, Sabina. She is a great character and I hope she shows up more in the series.

Alex Rider
Stormbreaker
Point Blank

Point Blank by Anthony Horowitz (Alex Rider #2) (audio)

Reluctant teen spy Alex Rider has put himself in a jam. Now endebted to MI6 for rescusing he is once again sent on a mission made for a boy his age.  He is sent to a school for the rich and powerful's troubled sons to find out if there is something sinister going on at the school.

OK. I think the key here is just utter suspension of belief that any of this is in any way rational. I can deal with the teenage spy thing.  Sure sure, this is a thing that can happen. I can deal with the school for troubled wealthy youth. I can deal with the things Alex manages to do before he evens get to the school or the fact that he already seems highly trained and well rounded, something that is attributed to his upbringing by his uncle. But the whole reveal at Point Blanc, the school, is pretty crazy. The whole thing is so James Bond. I honestly at this point don't know if this is criticism or praise. It's a great series and I'll definitely continue on with it but C'MON (SPOILERS highlight) 16 cloned boys who've had plastic surgery and are going to take over the world through their parents and all perpetuated by a crazy mad scientist. I just don't even know. But it's an exciting and action packed series so I'm willing to let these things go for the sake of having something fun to listen to on my way to work.

Simon Prebble is the narrator. I really don't like narrator changes but Simon Prebble is a good narrator and he won me over. It helps that this is only the second in the series and so I haven't associated the previous narrator only with Alex's voice. I wonder if he continues but I can't find the third book on audio so I'll have to read it.

Sequel to Stormbreaker

Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz (audio)

Alex Rider has just lost his uncle. They claim he died in a car accident and was not wearing his seat belt. But Ian Rider was facetious about seat belts and Alex can't let this detail go. Soon he discovers his uncle was actually spy working for MI6. Now he is tasked to complete his uncle's last assignment: infiltrate the headquarters of Herod Sayle and see if there is something behind the gift of a new supercomputer to every school in Britain.

I am assuming that the words teenage Bond have been used in abundant when describing Alex Rider. Because that is basically what this feels like sans the sex (thank goodness). Even the villains have a Bondesque quality to them and the whole supercomputer plot is definitely out of a Bond type movie. But it was still a fun book. Alex is talent, resourceful and with very little true personality: pretty much an ideal spy. The gadgets are cute and very appropriate and I love the inclusion of the library. Having read a book before, I knew how this was going to end but that's okay. I enjoyed it enough to want to continue on with the series. I think it is one my son will like when he is older.

Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

At a political rally Cammie Morgan's friend/fellow Gallagher Girl, Macey, is a target of a kidnapping. Shaken by the experience of fighting off the kidnappers, they return to the Gallagher School for Exceptional Young Women to continue with their spy training. But something more is going on and Cammie and her roommates are determined to protect Macey and figure out who is behind it all.

I read this one right after The Hunger Games and sometimes a great book will almost ruin the one that follows. That being said let me just say that I do love these books. There are so fun and I love the idea of an elite spy training school for girls. I just wish it wasn't shoved down my throat every page. By this point in the series, I GET that Cammie is suppose to be an awesome "pavement artist" even though we have no real evidence of the truth of this since in every book she is always messing up. I GET that they have all of this training and take these cool classes. I GET that Liz is a super genius and everyone else is super smart too. I GET it alright. The concept has been set up already so by the third book I don't want to hear so much about it. Although I did appreciate that she didn't spend a lot of time rehashing the old plots.

On the positive side, it was good to see Cammie and Macey using their fighting skills for an actual reason and to see them in action. It was nice that she touched on how scary a kidnapping attempt would be and the lingering effects. Zach is not my favorite character and mostly he just annoys me. I understand he is a super spy too and it is all "need to know" but I hope there is an actual purpose to his character. The bigger mystery of Cammie's father is not really mentioned and I wonder if there is a connection between the ending and that.

I will definitely continue reading this series. I just hope it doesn't become a Princess Diaries or a Georgia Nicholson and go on too long. It really is a very cute series and very fun. It's just by the third book the characters have been set up and some of it is so ... unnecessary.

Gilda Joyce: The Dead Drop

Psychic detective Gilda Joyce is back and is headed to D.C. to intern at the Spy Museum. Gilda is looking forward to perfecting her spy skills and hanging out in her own (sorta) apartment. What she gets is a camp group of wanna be spies and an eerie mystery involving a former Soviet spy, Lincoln's ghost, and a dead drop.

Gilda whirled around, and stared into a stranger's masklike face-a woman's face with skin the color of frozen snow. Her smooth forehead was marked with a bright red stain in the shape of a five-pointed start. p. 139

Have you ever read a ghost story before bed and it creeped you out when you turned off the lights? There are parts that did that to me. Seriously, the ghost was creepy, but it's the kind of creepy that kids will like. Even though Gilda is 15, this is definitely a children's book since this doesn't really lend itself to YA and has a younger feel to it. Gilda is an awesome girl, very smart and self-assured and funny. She is good at solving mysteries and is very tenacious, a modern day Nancy Drew if you will. This is a good mystery and the ending is actually surprising. I hope there are more books in this series.