First Published: April 2006
Publisher: Orchard Books
Series: Gallagher Girls #1
309 pages (paperback)
Cammie Morgan is a student at The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. To the outside world, this is a school for rich young heiresses, elite and snobby young girls. But the truth is, the Academy is a school for training secrets agents -- spies.
Cammie's mother is the headmistress and her family (as most other girls' families at this school) have a long history with working for the CIA, MI6, Interpol, etc. Cammie's entire life has revolved around training to become a spy. She's not an ordinary girl, she lives no ordinary life, and she knows that.
During an exam in the field where she and her classmates must tail one of their teachers, Cammie is shocked to have a civilian boy named Josh who notices her and tries to talk to her. She's not supposed to be noticed when she's on a mission, she's supposed to totally blend in! At first, she and her classmates are freaked out that this and begin utilizing their secret agent knowledge to dig up all sorts of information about him. Is he working for someone sinister and trying to use Cammie in some way, especially since she is the headmistress' daughter??
But no ... actually, it turns out he is a very ordinary person. He talked to Cammie because he thought she was cute and wanted to ask her out! Cammie is suddenly in a completely new world -- boys? Dating? She has no idea what she's supposed to do, but decides to try out this new relationship anyway. Everything seems to be going well until she realizes she can never ever tell Josh that she's a secret agent in training, and not only because it, well, wouldn't make her a very good secret agent but because Josh and the rest of his friends hate the girls who attend the Gallagher Academy.
I randomly read book three years ago, when I didn't realize it was a part of a series. I don't really remember what happened in that book, but I think I liked it. Anyway, I recently acquired the entire series in paperback format so I'm going to read them all in order this time. I'm determined to read the entire series because I have re-fallen in love with Ally Carter's Heist Society series and wanted to read her other YA book series. To that end, I am a tad disappointed in this first book for the Gallagher Girls because I simply do not think it is anywhere as good as her Heist Society series. However, I liked it enough that I will definitely keep reading it (especially since I jumped the gun and bought all 6 books already ...)
It's marketed more for young teenagers, and I thought the story was perfect for its age group (guess I'm a young teen at heart, hahaha). It was a very solid story that was fun to read, and funny to boot. Whizzed through it pretty quick! This was a very cute story. I think cute is the right word for it. It is fairly short, it has a very simple story and concludes well. The characters all have their own personalities. Overall, I liked the story. The thing is, I'm not particularly impressed or in awe or whatever over any part of the story. Nothing really stuck out. At the same time, I don't have anything serious to complain about it either.
Well, this isn't really a complaint per se, but the book can be rather unbelievable. Not that I ever thought a secret spy school for teenagers was in the realm of reality, but sometimes it was really hard to believe these were 15 and 16 year old genius IQ girls who could take down a full grown man but can't handle socializing with a teenage boy. I think I aged them up in my mind. Anyway, have to go into this with an open mind and almost think of this story as a cartoon.
My Rating: 3/5
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