Book Review: Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter

Not If I Save You First
Author: Ally Carter
Publication: Scholastic Press (March 27, 2018)

Description: Maddie thought she and Logan would be friends forever. But when your dad is a Secret Service agent and your best friend is the president's son, sometimes life has other plans.

Before she knows it, Maddie's dad is dragging her to a cabin in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness.

No phone.

No Internet.

And not a single word from Logan.

Maddie tells herself it's okay. After all, she's the most popular girl for twenty miles in any direction. (She’s also the only girl for twenty miles in any direction.) She has wood to cut and weapons to bedazzle. Her life is full.

Until Logan shows up six years later . . .

And Maddie wants to kill him.

But before that can happen, an assailant appears out of nowhere, knocking Maddie off a cliff and dragging Logan to some unknown fate. Maddie knows she could turn back- and get help. But the weather is turning and the terrain will only get more treacherous, the animals more deadly.

Maddie still really wants to kill Logan.

But she has to save him first.

My Thoughts: Logan and Maddie were best friends when they were kids. Logan was the President's son and Maddie the daughter of his good friend and Secret Service agent. One day when they were ten, they foiled the kidnapping of Logan's mother by Russians from right inside the White House. Maddie's daughter was shot and Logan was shot too.

The next thing Maddie knows is that her father has quit his job and moved them to the wilds of Alaska. For the last six years, Maddie has been writing letters to Logan (which he never answers) and learning to survive in the wilderness. She's self-reliant but also very lonely. Her father often leaves her for a day at a time while he flies supplies and people around the state.

Meanwhile, Logan is rebelling in his own way by sneaking out, attending parties he shouldn't attend, and ditching his panic button and his Secret Service agents. One last incident has made his parents decide to send him to Alaska to spend some time with Maddie and her father.

Maddie is angry at Logan because she feels that her best friend abandoned her. When her father is called to make a flight and the weather is taking a turn for the worse, the two of them have to find a way to get along. But then someone comes to kidnap Logan and, in the process, throws Maddie down a cliff, making Logan think she is dead. Maddie is hurt but knows she is the only one to go after Logan before he is lost forever. She really hopes that her father and Logan's Secret Service agents won't be far behind them.

This was a great, action-packed story of a wilderness journey where neither Logan or Maddie are prepared. The weather and the wildlife are not their only enemies though. Old secrets, and the reason Maddie's dad moved them to Alaska, play into the plot. I loved Maddie who is snarky and a girlie girl who has bedazzled her 2nd favorite ax. She is also well-prepared to survive and to rescue Logan. I liked the tension between them and the way they had to depend on each other to survive and triumph.

Favorite Quote:

All of her senses were on high alert, but she could smell no other fires, see nothing but trees. There was nothing at all man-made for as far as the eye can see.

It felt to Maddie like they were all alone in the universe.

But they weren't.

And that was the scary part.

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