I’d Tell You I Love You… the TT review

3 comments | Published by Nani |

A ‘New York Times Bestseller’! Oh oh! – if history is anything to go by then these massive-selling books never seem to hit the spot here in the book cupboard at TT Towers (yes Olly does keep me locked up with only torchlight and a stash of Oreos to see me through these reviews!). However, and for those of you following me for a while now you will know that I am rarely emphatic about a book, I REALLY enjoyed it! Spies, gadgets, romance, and twisted teenage relationships kept me glued to this book from beginning to end and I have to say that it may be our first guilty pleasure read of the year! Hit ‘see more’ the full TT verdict.

I’d Tell You I Love You… is the first book in the Gallagher Girls series, which focuses on the Gallagher Academy, a school for gifted girls who learn all the skills they will require to be spies.  Everyone in the local area believes that the school is just an ordinary prep school for bored, snooty rich girls who stand to inherit all of daddy’s money and not accomplish much else. How wrong they are! Behind the gates of the exclusive school, girls learn to speak multiple languages, hack into computers and track people without ever being seen. When Cammie, whose mum is the headmistress of the school, bumps into a local boy on a field training operation, it sparks off a whole host of problems and adventures. Can a girl with so many secrets ever have a relationship with a ‘normal’ boy? And can she keep their growing relationship from her mum and her teachers, some of the best spies in the world?

Exciting, adventurous, mysterious and multi-talented! Yes, that is how I always imagined that I would end up. Part of why I enjoyed this book so much is that I have always harboured a secret fantasy that I would become an international sexy spy, a la Angeline Jolie in Mr & Mrs Smith, instead of the suburban mother I actually am.  But enough about my unrealised wild dreams! This book is fast, funny and well-written. Ok so the fact that Ally Carter keeps repeating over and over the fact that these girls are spies and can speak 14 languages can make for an annoying tick throughout the novel but overall I thought that it was a great ‘no-brainer’ read. The characters are likeable, and I thought that the friendships between the main girls were realistically portrayed. I also loved that the ending was left open, and that there was no setting off into the sunset with the dreamy local boy (regular readers of my reviews will know I hate happy endings because I am a firm believer that there are never any). At times the plot and events were a little fantastical and OTT (Josh breaking through the wall with a digger in order to talk to Cammie was a million steps further than I think any male would ever go to talk out a situation) but you have to take it all with a little pinch of salt, after all it is fiction.

A great guilty pleasure read for those of you out there who also harbour secret dreams of becoming a spy, or even those who just want a light-hearted break from studying for their exams. Go out, grab a copy, step out of your reality bubble and enjoy!

teentoday.co.uk rating: 4/5

Author: Ally Carter
Publisher: Orchard Books
Release date: May 2010

- We’ve got 10 copies of the book and £200 Topshop vouchers up for grabs. Go.
- We have an interview with the book’s author coming soon.
- Even more soon, we’ll have the first chapter totally free.
- The Gallagher Girls website is here. And like everyone and their dad, they also have a Facebook page.
- Impatient sorts and unlucky types can buy the book now.