Spy a book ...

I just finished reading a book about a group of teens going to a special school who get to go off and do spy stuff. It fell apart mid-way through, and I couldn’t possibly recommend it.

It made me nostalgic for another book where teens go off to a special school to learn how to be spies. It’s called I’d Tell you I love you, but then I’d have to Kill You by Ally Carter. In this book, Cammie, whose mom is the headmistress, attends the Gallagher Academy, which, to all appearances, is a prep school for girls. Only, these girls are prepping for a future career as spies. And things are going well, until Cammie breaks one of the cardinal rules of her school. She falls in love with a boy from the outside.

The sequel, Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, just came out this month. Disney has optioned the rights for the movie.

Ally Carter’s web site
http://www.allycarter.com/index_ya.html, contains lots more information, including her tips for teen writers.

*****

If you prefer less romance in your spy novels, I recommend the Alex Rider adventures by Anthony Horowitz. In the first book, Stormbreaker, Alex finds out that his boring bank manager uncle wasn’t so boring after all. In fact, his uncle was a spy, and now that his uncle is gone, the bad guys think Alex might know something.

There are currently six books in the series . . and if you start reading now, you may have just enough time to get caught up before the seventh, Snakehead, is released in November. More information is on Horowitz’s web site at http://www.alexrideradventures.com/. There was a Stormbreaker movie, but it came out to mixed reviews, and I haven’t seen it yet. There are plans to make movies from the rest of the books.

More fun spy-type books

Spy Goddes: Live and Let Shop by Michael Spradlin. Reform school for delinquents turns out to be secret spy academy. Book 2: From Hawaii with Love.

SilverFin by Charles Higson The first in the Young James Bond series, continuing with Blood Fever, Double or die and Hurricane Gold. A fifth book is planned for release soon.

originially posted by Amber on October 19