I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Spies are among us. They always are. We just never realize that they're there. Ally Carter's I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You constantly amazed me with awesome technology and a super cool story line.

The most prominent theme of this book was trying to get kids to understand that we should just be ourselves and love ourselves for who we are. The book encourages teenagers, especially girls, to discover who they are as a person and to figure out what they are going to make of themselves.

Ally Carter's writing style is pretty general with a few tweaks here and there. She delivered a lot of humor and kept the book intense enough to want to keep reading. I could constantly see myself in the setting of the story, strolling along with the characters.

Cammie Morgan is a student at Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, which happens to be the best girls spy school in the world. Cammie and her roommates, Bex, Liz, and Macy, set out on a top-secret mission: to get Cammie the boy she wants, but not let anybody find out. Cammie really likes Josh, a local, but can't tell him anything about her school, so she constantly lies to avoid revealing the truth. I loved all the characters and always waited for Cammie to crack a joke or for Macy to spout out a witty insult.

The school that the girls attend is nothing like my world. Every student is fluent in fourteen languages, can hack most any computer system, and is studying PhD level chemistry. Gallagher Academy is covered head-to-toe with outstanding security and the classrooms are filled with mind-blowing technology. The tools these teenage girls use make my cell phone and iPod Touch look like baby toys. As I read the book I could just picture the Gallagher world coming to life around me.

As Cammie and her roommates chase after Josh, they begin the much-anticipated subject of Covert Operations, and use what they learn in this class to sneak around the school so that Cammie can see Josh. Cammie's mother just so happens to be the head of the school, and she is constantly keeping up with Cammie's life. Fortunately, Cammie has always been known as the Chameleon because of her uncanny ability to go unnoticed when she doesn't want to be seen. As Cammie and Josh fall for each other, other big events are affecting the girls' lives and their decisions. Cammie is worried that she will soon have to choose between the two things she wants most: Josh and a life of spying.

This book has a very Mission Impossible-like tone to it. The girls are trying to achieve a goal the seems almost impossible to them. The book reminds me of my mind-set. I'm always dreaming of the impossible and thinking of crazy ideas that seem as though they would never work, and I always find myself wanting to achieve something that seems as though it would never happen.
I would strongly recommend this book to all girls. The book helps people realize who they are, what they want, and what they want to become. The story also proves that if we work for something that we really can have it.