Whenever I get approved for a book in NetGalley, little butterflies put on their reading glasses in my stomach and fly around happily. When I received the email about ALSO KNOWN AS, they were not only flying around, they were drawing banners saying “Reading is cool”.
Summary: Being a 16-year-old safecracker and active-duty daughter of international spies has its moments, good and bad. Pros: Seeing the world one crime-solving adventure at a time. Having parents with super cool jobs. Cons: Never staying in one place long enough to have friends or a boyfriend. But for Maggie Silver, the biggest perk of all has been avoiding high school and the accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple locker combinations.
Then Maggie and her parents are sent to New York for her first solo assignment, and all of that changes. She’ll need to attend a private school, avoid the temptation to hack the school’s security system, and befriend one aggravatingly cute Jesse Oliver to gain the essential information she needs to crack the case . . . all while trying not to blow her cover.
Expected publication: February 26th 2013 by Bloomsbury Juvenile US
Last year, after several bloggers raved about AUDREY, WAIT! by Robin Benway…I decided to see what all the enthusiasm was about and wow, two words: THE. VOICE. Robin Benway managed in Audrey, Wait! to show how a voice can carry a book. Don´t get me wrong, I loved the story of AUDREY, WAIT! too but like with Courtney Summers, I fell in love with the characters due to their voice.
ALSO KNOWN AS doesn´t disappoint. The voice of the main character, Maggie, is spot on. Again. The entire cast of characters leaps from the pages. I loved her best friend from school Roux. Roux has so many different facets and she´s the type of friend you want to have by your side. Jesse Oliver is definitely aggravatingly cute and the story moves at a fast pace.
The entire spy angle is more Spy Kids than Hanna and it is not always present as Maggie discovers who she is in that book while making friends, exploring New York City.
ALSO KNOWN AS is the type of book that you want to pick up when you want something different but still familiar, when you want a light clever read, and words that make you laugh.
What are you reading right now?
Elodie Nowodazkij 