Title: Also Known As
Series: “Also Known As” #1
Author: Robin Benway
Publish date: February 26th 2013 by Bloomsbury Juvenile US
Source: Received from the publisher via NetGalley
Buy it from: Amazon
Goodreads 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.
Review:
You know when you “mood read?” Say you finished a really great book about spies (just, y’know, for example), and you pick up a book that you haven’t heard anything about because the only thing you do know about it is that is has that element that you want more of. In this case: spies.
So you start the book. And then comes that moment. That moment when you start a book and expect to like it– and wind up loving it instead.
Also Known As by Robin Benway was described as “perfect for fans of Ally Carter” and WORD UP. It was. It really really was. I’d like to add that it especially reminded me of the early Gallagher Girls books. The main character, Maggie is a fun, normal teenage girl– who just happens to have been a safe cracker from a very young age. Moving around on missions with her family is all she knows. Only now she’s expected to have her own mission and navigate the treacherous waters of a private school, make girl friendships, and get all flirty with the son of newspaper owner.
And it IS PERFECT.
Maggie’s character arc in Also Known As is fabulous. She goes from thinking: spyspyspyspyspyspyspy, to considering relationships with people besides her parents amidst said spy chicanery. And working towards unscrambling a mystery, mostly on her own. She’s conflicted about lying to people– both her parents and her new friends. Her friend Roux is both sad and funny, and the swoony moments between Maggie and Jesse are too cute for words.
By the way, I have to stop and point out that I loved seeing Maggie’s parents play so active a role in this story. It’s something not a lot of YA books have at play and it worked really well.
In addition to the interesting spy aspects, guys, Also Known As is so hilarious. Like… LAUGH OUT LOUD funny. I’m told that this is a THING which Robin Benway is very good at, these LOLs, so I will most definitely be looking up more of her work.
To sum up: I enjoyed Also Known As by Robin Benway to a tremendous degree, so much so that I read it in one sitting within a few hours– at which point I was very sad that it was over.
South Florida Alert! Robin Benway will be making a stop at Books & Books in Coral Gables on her tour for Also Known As on March 2nd at 7 PM!
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Me too! Drop me a link to your review in the comments.
Fan of spies?
Check out my other reviews this week!
Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carringer
Double Crossed by Ally Carter
