Book by Ally Carter
The New York Times bestselling YA author of the beloved Gallagher Girls series bursts onto the adult scene with a fast-paced, hilarious road trip rom-com about a woman with amnesia who discovers she’s the identical twin sister of a rogue spy… and must team up with a rugged, grumpy operative to stay alive.
It’s the middle of the night in the middle of Paris and a woman just woke up with no memory.
She only knows three things for certain:
1. She has a splitting headache.
2. The hottest guy she has (probably) ever seen is standing over her, telling her to run.
And oh yeah…
3. People keep trying to kill her.
She doesn’t know who. Or why. But when she sees footage of herself fighting off a dozen men there’s only one explanation: obviously. . . she’s a spy!
Except, according to Mr. Hot Guy, she’s not. She’s a spy’s identical twin sister.
Too bad the only person who knows she’s not the woman they’re looking for is this very grouchy, very sexy, very secret agent who (reluctantly) agrees to help her disappear.
That’s easier said than done when a criminal organization wants you dead and every intelligence service in the world wants you caught. Luckily, no one is looking for a pair of lovesick newlyweds on their honeymoon. And soon they’re lying their way across Europe—dodging bullets and faking kisses as they race to unravel a deadly conspiracy and clear her sister’s name.
But with every secret they uncover, the truth shifts, until she no longer knows who to trust: the twin she can’t remember or the mysterious man she can’t let herself forget…
From the Ally Carter’s Website.
Read this book if you love:
- Action-Adventure spy stories
- Grumpy-Sushine rom-coms
- A lot of humour with your Bourne wanna-bes
My Review
This is a perfect vacation read, especially if you like spy mysteries with a lot of humour and a rom-com style, and reading about Paris in the winter was perfect for my holiday between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
What I loved:
First off, while Ally Carter is known for her humorous YA takes on spy and action books, like I’d Tell You I Love You, but then I’d Have to Kill You, this book is for the girls who read them who are now all grown up. Even if I read ITYILYBTIHTKY as an adult.
This book is fun, and silly, and hits all the right notes of chase, tenderness, will they make it, and who can they trust? It has lots of romance tropes, but none of those take away from the European chase of spy vs spy agency and mafia bosses.
I love Ally’s humour in her writing. Her characters are witty, and she’s clearly had fun writing them, and coming up with over-the-top adventures. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that she has taken her story seriously enough that it’s believable.
What I didn’t love:
Actually, I loved most of the book. There are a few tropes that are over done, what with the amnesia, and wondering who to trust, but there are a few occasional moments when I feel like the POV switches mid-scene and I have to reread the paragraph again.
However, it doesn’t detract from the overall fun read that this book is.
PS… People are starting to make summary books of authors, using AI to create the summary on their behalf and selling it. This is wrong on so many levels. If you have a tough time reading an author’s work, please get the audio book and put it on a faster speed. Don’t purchase someone’s poorly written summary.
My Analysis
POV:
3rd, past, Her, Him. (Dual POV)
Genre:
External: Action – Epic: Conspiracy
Global Values: Death / Life
Core Need: Survival
Core Emotion: Excitement
Internal: Love
Global Values: Hate to Love
Core Emotion: Romance
Controlling idea: Sometimes you have to trust your instincts, even when you don’t know what they are..
Violence: There is a lot of action and violence.
Gore: people die, but not graphically.
Romance/Sex: references to sex.
Series: standalone, for now.
Reality Clover: Reality
Reference:
Here’s the thing about waking up with no memory in the middle of the night, in the middle of the street, in the middle of Paris: at least you’re waking up in Paris. Or so the woman thought as she lay on the cold ground, staring up through a thick layer of falling snow at the Eiffel Tower’s twinkling lights.
She didn’t know about the bruise that was growing on her temple.
She didn’t see the drops of blood that trailed along the frosty white ground.
And she absolutely, positively didn’t remember why she was lying in the street like someone who had tried to make a snow angel and fell asleep midswoop.
I should finish my angel, she thought.
I should get up.
I should go home.
But she didn’t actually know where home was, she realized.
Ally Carter, The Blonde Identity
HC Fitzpatrick 