Teen Tuesday

United We Spy (Gallagher Girls #6) by Ally Carter (Disney-Hyperion hardcover, 17 September 2013).

It's senior year for Gallagher girls Cammie, Macey, Bex, and Liz but they have other things on their minds.  Cammie hasn't completely recovered from being imprisoned by the Circle of Cavan, but she and her friends think they've figured out what the creepy terrorist organization is planning. 

Apart from Cammie's boyfriend Zach, and her mother (who happens to be the headmistress of  The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women), it's really difficult to know whom to trust.  Zach's mother is out for sure, but what about Preston Winters and his father, the US ambassador to Italy?  And why does Max Edwards, the  from Interpol keep popping up?

Close  to graduation, they're being courted by international espionage organizations like the CIA, Interpol, and MI6. (Yes, they do have career fairs at the Academy!)  But they can't even think about making decisions until they deal with the Circle.

The four girls are old enough, and experienced enough to assist with real investigations, and even to tackle them on their own, and their adventures are exciting and fast-paced.

Fans of this series must read this concluding installment, even though they'll be sorry to say goodbye to Cammie and her friends.




FTC Full Disclosure:  I purchased this book.

Teen Tuesday

Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School Book the First) by Gail Carriger (Little Brown hardcover, 5 February 2013).

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia Temminick is not a proper young lady.  She'd much rather climb trees or take things apart to see how they work.  So of course she's apprehensive when she learns that she will be sent to Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing School for Young Ladies of Quality.  She's not the least bit interested being "finished", and ending up like her older sister Petunia who can think only of her coming out party.

Isn't this an amazing cover?

But when she arrives at the school (which is actually in a dirigible!) and learns that she'll be learning much more than how to be a proper lady, she's thrilled.  Who wouldn't be interested in classes like Music & Intelligence Gathering and Household Management & Proper Poisonings for Every Occasion?  

This story is set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate series, though twenty-five years earlier. Suitable for even the youngest teens (there's no sex and little romance), it will still be enjoyed by older ones who appreciate strong, intelligent, capable female characters.  The tone is much lighter than that of the earlier series, and it's a quick and entertaining read.  

Three more books in the series are planned, but no indication yet of when the next one might appear.  Carriger has another Parasol Protectorate spin-off series planned, called the Parasol Protectorate Abroad, the first of which is due in the fall of 2013.


FTC Full Disclosure:  I purchased a copy of the book.