Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Liberty: The Spy Who (Kind Of) Liked Me by Andrea Portes

Title: Liberty: The Spy Who (Kind Of) Liked Me
Author: Andrea Portes
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Source: HarperTeen via Edelweiss
Goodreads


Andrea Portes is back with a fast-paced, super-fun spy novel, told in her signature snarky, voice-driven style.

What is a hero? Paige Nolan knows.

Edward Raynes, the young man who exposed America’s unconstitutional spying techniques, is a hero, even if half the dum-dums in the country think he’s a traitor. Or her parents, journalists who were captured by terrorists while telling stories of the endangered and oppressed. They were heroes, too. Were. . . or are—no one has ever told Paige if they’re still alive, or dead.

Not heroes? Anyone in the government who abandoned her parents, letting them rot somewhere halfway across the world. And certainly not Paige herself, who despite her fluency in five languages and mastery of several obscure martial arts (thanks, Mom!) could do nothing to save them.

Couldn’t, that is, until she’s approached by Madden Carter, an undercover operative who gives her a mission—fly to Russia, find Raynes, and discover what other government secrets he’s stockpiled. In exchange, he’ll reopen the case on her missing parents. She’s given a code name and a cover as a foreign exchange student.

Who is a hero? Not Paige Nolan, but maybe, just maybe, Liberty is.
Review by Nara

I wasn't exactly sure what I was expecting from Liberty: The Spy Who (Kind of) Liked Me, but I thought it was going to be a somewhat serious Alex Rider style of spy novel, where the protagonist goes on secret missions and saves the world as we know it. And I suppose in a way, I did get a spy novel where the protagonist goes on a secret mission and saves the world. It's just told in a very different tone to what I expected: it was incredibly snarky and irreverent.

The book overall was quite fun, with all sorts of strangely unbelievable things occurring. I have to admit, I did have a bit of difficulty with suspension of disbelief, because some of the events were so ridiculous. They were ridiculous, but it was in a fun sort of way, so I kind of just accepted it as it kept occurring throughout the book. It's incredibly fast paced and difficult to put down.

I would probably be more likely to recommend this book to readers who are actually young adults/teens themselves. It felt possibly a little too immature for me to rate higher than a "liked" rating.

Liked it
Ratings
Overall: 6/10
Plot: 3/5
Romance: 3/5
Writing: 3.5/5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 4/5