I'd Tell You That I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter

First in the series of three books thus far, I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter is great if you are into espionage. Cammie Morgan is a student at a very special school for girls and her mother is the head mistress (mom went there too). One thing, the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women isn’t some snooty prep school as it appears on the outside; it is actually a spy school. Cammie like all the others girls at the school is a genius, she is highly trained in hand-to-hand combat, is an excellent “pavement artist” in fact, they call her the “chameleon”, and she knows the languages and social skills of fourteen plus cultures. But when she is on a practice assignment in the local town she gets noticed, by an ordinary guy (who happens to be a hottie!). The boy, Josh, is her first “subject” in an offical report and her heart’s first flutter. She can handle just about any spy situation, but to handle a boy? Her life is less than ordinary, both parents were spies, dad never came back from a mission, and now her life is the academy, training for her future life. So how is she going to have a relationship with a normal guy who can never really know the truth? This is a great book and series for any girl or woman who dreams of being a part of a clandestine organization to protect the world from bad people. It is filled with secret passages, tech gadgetry, sub-ground levels that can only be accessed through retinal scans, and quirky ex-spy professors who test them to the brink of life. After all a spy’s life is just that. Because this was written in 2006, it is fresh and contemporary. It is a great vicarious experience! C. Murray