Don't Judge A Girl By Her Cover (YA)

Don't Judge A Girl By Her Cover. Ally Carter. 2009. Hyperion. 272 pages.

"We're moving." The man beside me spoke into the microphone in his sleeve, and I knew the words weren't for me.

Cammie Morgan is a Gallagher girl. She attends the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. If you've read I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You or Cross My Heart and Hope To Spy, then you know just what that means: Cammie and the other girls are training to be spies. (Of course, it's all hush, hush. No outsider is supposed to know the true purpose of the school.)

This third novel opens with Cammie visiting her friend (and roommate), Macey, over summer vacation. Macey is the daughter of a senator who has just accepted the nomination for vice president. But that political convention doesn't go quite as planned. For Macey, Cammie, and Preston (the son of a presidential candidate) are stranded on the rooftop of the hotel. And Macey's and Cammie's skills are about to be put to the test--as a helicopter of hostile 'bad guys' are approaching. And the fight is not an easy one. Was this was a kidnapping attempt? Just who was their target? The girls survive--they are Gallagher girls after all--but this is disturbing to say the least. (Preston also survives, by the way.)

But soon it is time for school to start. Cammie is starting her junior year. And she's so happy to be back with her friends (Bex and Liz and Macey); happy to be back learning. But the semester isn't off to the best start. Because the mystery isn't quite over. They are used to training, to being tested. But can they handle it when the danger, the threat, is real? Can Ally and her friends help solve the mystery? Can they keep Macey safe?

I like Don't Judge A Girl By Her Cover. I like the style, the narration. Cammie is a great heroine, with a great narrative voice. I like the blend of action and humor. I like how Ally can't help being interested in guys. How she just can't forget Zach. She's not sure she can trust him. She's not sure if he likes her likes her. But still...she can't help getting all fluttery when she bumps into him on one of her missions.

Time it took me to tell the whole story: twenty-two minutes and forty-seven seconds. Time it would have taken me to tell the story had I not been constantly interrupted: two minutes and forty-six seconds. Number of times Liz said, "No way!": thirty-three. Number of times Bex gave me her "You could have brought me with you" look: nine. (111)

Don't Judge A Girl By Her Cover is different from the first two books. As the danger and threats become real. Spying--fighting--isn't so much a game, a test, as it is a matter of life and death.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews