Book Review: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Author: Ally Carter

Publication: Disney Hyperion (June 9, 2009)

Description: After the excitement of the fall, all Cammie Morgan wants is peaceful semester at school. But that's easier said than done when you're a CIA legacy and go to the premier school in the world...for spies. Despite Cammie's best intentions, trouble crops up quickly. Cammie, Bex, and Liz learn that the Gallagher Academy is hosting guests from another spy school a school that is known to the world as the Ethan Frome Academy a secret spy school for boys. After her fiasco with Josh last fall, Cammie isn't sure she's ready for daily encounters with boy spies – especially after she meets Zach an incorrigible cutie who everyone thinks is just perfect. Cammie is right to be worried about their new guests. Soon after the boys' arrival, she's blamed for a series of security breaches that leave the school's top-secret status at risk. And the perfectly crushable Zach is her prime suspect. The Gallagher Girls will need to use all their skills to investigate the Frome Boys. Even though they're confident about their guy-spying (as if they haven't done it before!), the playing field is level this time, and the stakes for Cammie's heart—and her beloved school— are higher than ever.

My Thoughts: This second book in the Gallagher Girls series takes place the second semester of Cammie's sophomore year. She is still getting over breaking up with Josh. But things are changing at the Gallagher Academy for Extraordinary Young Woman. This semester boys are coming in an exchange from the boys' training school for spies. 

Cammie is thrown when one of boys—Zach—seems to be taking a personal interest in her. Or is he? Cammie doesn't speak boy and so there are lots of opportunities for misunderstandings between the two of them. After all, he is a spy too. 

It doesn't help that once the boys arrive, the school goes into Code Black. Apparently someone is trying to break in or out—and this time it isn't Cammie. Cammie and her friends are determined to find out what it going on, even if it means bugging the boys' rooms. 

This was another fun episode in an entertaining series about a group of young geniuses who are learning to be spies. 

Favorite Quote:

Zach was still cocky; he was still tough. But on the other hand, he'd offered me candy once when I was hungry, and I couldn't help thinking that maybe that made him sort of knightlike after all. That maybe it wasn't his fault his armor was kind of tarnished. 

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.