Review: Also Known As by Robin Benway

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.

This book was so much fun! A true laugh out loud read. I was so not expecting what this book actually delivered. I hadn't heard much about it and I think it deserves more hype and more notice in the blogging community and in the book world in general.

The main character, Maggie, was witty and sarcastic and strong all bundled into one. I wish I had a witty and quick response to everything like Maggie does. She's been cracking safe's and locks since she was a baby and could barely reach them. When we first meet her, her parents are sending her to school to be a 'normal' teen but there's a catch. She gets to go to school as part of an assignment. When she moves to New York for this new assignment she meets Roux. Oh dear Roux! She's such a handful. She's the type of girl who isn't afraid to speak up. Oh no, on the contrary, she speaks too much sometimes but you quickly warm up to her. She's a great friend when Maggie really needs one.

Maggie and her 'assignment', Jesse's relationship is sure to be one of my all time favorites. They compliment each other perfectly. Their conversations had me literally cracking up. There are few books that have that effect on me so when I find one I hold on to it tightly.

The only downside is that I wish the spying part of the book was more developed. There are a lot of more simple spying methods used and that's fine but I'm used to reading really intricate spy stuff from Ally Carter and I thought it was slightly lacking BUT the characters were so well developed that it just became a minor issue. The characters and their relationships were the main focus.

It was just a light, quick and ridiculously FUN book. The ending had me on the verge of biting my nails. In conclusion, I LOVED this book and recommend it to fans of Ally Carter or someone who is just looking for something fun and quick.

5/5 stars