I love this SERIES. The first is okay.. not the best but okay. The others get better and she meets Zach. Who is also a spy but i wont say much more. This book isn’t for everyone but i love this series. ( )

SUMMARY: Cammie Morgan is a second-generation Gallagher Girl, and by her sophomore year she’s already fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man in seven different ways (one of which involves a piece of uncooked spaghetti). But the one thing the Gallagher Academy hasn’t prepared her for is what to do when she falls for a boy who thinks she’s an ordinary girl.

COMMENTS: Cammie’s parents were spies and now she is training to be one as well. However, she has some doubts when faced with the fate of her father who died during a mission. But spying is in her blood and she is very good at being unobserved. Maybe that is why she takes chances when she sneaks out of the heavily guarded school gates to experience a normal relationship with a boy from the nearby town. The only problem is Josh thinks she is a normal girl and not one of the Gallagher Girls that is detested by the townfolk. The book has a lot of action, strong female characters, and is told with lots of humor. A great start to a fascinating and intriguing series.

Update 2019 - browsing library shelves I came across this book that I really like - the cover stated "with declassified new chapter inside" which was the epilogue- which I'm not sure if I should have read it - I'm a romantic and this took all the wondering about what happened afterwords and all the romance came crashing down. With the instigation of the memory erase tea, Josh no longer remembers anything about the Gallagher Academy and his judgement about its occupants is hostile, not very Josh like. And this doesn't ring totally true because we do find out in book two that he does remember who Cammie is but how much more about their time together and why they parted is not shared with the reader. However, the declassified chapter did provide a foreshadowing of what will take place in the second installment.

This is an awesome series with strong female characters - there is puppy love and infatuation but no sex, there is no strong language, a little violence (after all it is an adventure spy novel) but no blood and guts. So even though it is categorized as a teen book, younger girls (even mature 5th graders) could and should read it.

Even though Cammie is the main character, my favorite character in this installment is Macey. ( )

Cammie Morgan is a student at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, a fairly typical all-girls school—that is, if every school taught advanced martial arts in PE and the latest in chemical warfare in science, and students received extra credit for breaking CIA codes in computer class. The Gallagher Academy might claim to be a school for geniuses, but it's really a school for spies. Even though Cammie is fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man in seven different ways, she has no idea what to do when she meets an ordinary boy who thinks she's an ordinary girl. Sure, she can tap his phone, hack into his computer, or track him through town with the skill of a real "pavement artist"—but can she maneuver a relationship with someone who can never know the truth about her?

Cammie Morgan may be an elite spy-in-training, but in her sophomore year, she's on her most dangerous mission—falling in love. ( )

Cammie, Bex and Liz are not your typical sophomores - they're operatives, yep, teenage spies. They go to the very exclusive Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Women, a school for geniuses training in espionage. Cammie just wants to be normal, though, and when she goes into town on a training mission and meets a boy her own age, she gets that chance. She just has to evade all of her teachers (all ex-spies themselves) and sneak out of the boarding school to meet him, but hey - what could go wrong?

I loved this book because it was just a lot of fun! The girls were likable, and Josh was adorable. His friend, not so much, but he was barely there so that was fine. The story moved along at a fast pace and again, was so much fun that it was a really quick read. I look forward to reading the rest of the series to see where it leads.

Highly recommended to YA readers who like a little fun with their spy stories.

5/5 stars.

I received a copy of this book free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion. ( )

I'm a sucker for a page-turning, chicky kind of novel. Read it in a couple of hours. Laughed out loud a couple of times, and cried at the end. That's my kind of book. ( )