X lives by three rules: Show no weakness. Trust no one. Don’t get caught. She lives by the rules they gave her.
The Academy—set in London, shrouded in secrecy—it trains spies, computer experts, and assassins. Their mission? Dispensing justice and altering the course of world politics. Or so they think. In a world where secrets are weapons and some kills are impossible to forget, everything X thought she knew about her life is about to change.
They taught her to fight. To blend into the shadows like a ghost, to operate on the fringes of society, to change her identity with ease. They taught her to kill.
She’ll need every skill they taught her, to stay alive.
The Academy—set in London, shrouded in secrecy—it trains spies, computer experts, and assassins. Their mission? Dispensing justice and altering the course of world politics. Or so they think. In a world where secrets are weapons and some kills are impossible to forget, everything X thought she knew about her life is about to change.
They taught her to fight. To blend into the shadows like a ghost, to operate on the fringes of society, to change her identity with ease. They taught her to kill.
She’ll need every skill they taught her, to stay alive.
When the author asked me to review this one, I jumped on it. I'd read another book by Cleeton (Playing with Trouble) and I absolutely adored it. I just knew that I needed to get my hands on this one as well and I couldn't start it quick enough.
I've read a couple of books about teen spies and this one was, by far, the best of the lot. I was hooked from the very first page ... the action and intrigue were both amazing and I couldn't get enough. I also enjoyed the characters but I'll get into that later. The only problem is that I was about halfway through the book and I started to realize something ... while I appreciated the action and mystery surrounding the main characters, that's all it was ... appreciation. I found that I wasn't really connecting with anything because it was reading ... flat. With all of the excitement going on in the book, I was expecting something more. I didn't feel any passion within the storyline. That was a bit surprising ... this story is about a girl, fighting to discover who she is and who she was. It should have read brimming with want and unfortunately, it just didn't read that way for me. I did finally get the emotional connection between the characters and the story but it only happened when things got a bit steamy between X and her counterpart. After that, it tapered off again and it was a downward spiral until the end of the book for me.
I liked the characters well enough, I found X to be really interesting and during the first half of the book, I was reading so excitedly because I couldn't wait to see what happened next. I wish that the connection I had with her in the beginning of the book hadn't vanished so quickly, or at all. After a character fails to interest me, my entire outlook on a book just plummets. Towards the end, I wasn't invested in her story. It didn't matter to me what may have happened in the past or what could happen in the future. It was sad losing that connection between us because the story died for me shortly after.
All in all, I was pretty shocked with my feelings towards this novel; this definitely didn't turn out like the other book I've read by this author. While this one didn't blow my skirt up, I haven't lost faith in the Chanel Cleeton I fell into author-love with previously and I know that I'll pick up another book by her in the future. It just probably won't be one about spies.
* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *
Available: January 19th, 2016
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