Gallagher Girl

     I read this poll once that asked if you could go to any fictitious school, either from movies or books, which one would you go to? Of course the number one answer was Hogwarts. I mean, duh. And that would be my number one as well. My second choice would be the Gallagher Academy For Exceptional Young Women.
     Now let's put aside the fact that 1) I'm too old for school, and 2) both Hogwarts and the Gallagher Academy don't actually exist (sigh). I'm just going to ignore those two things because in my world, well they're just not true. AKA 1) I am an innocent and stretch-mark-free sixteen year old, and 2) those schools are out there somewhere training young witches, wizards and spies to be.

     Unfortunately if the above were true, I would have about as much chance getting into the Gallagher Academy as I would Hogwarts. Not only do I have no magical powers whatsoever (double sigh), but I am not, and have never been, an Exceptional Young Woman. I only know 1 3/4 languages (1/2 french, 1/4 spanish), I cannot invent knew truth serums or invisibility cloaking devices, and I am definitely no genius.

     For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, I recommend reading I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter- the first in the Gallagher Girls Series. From there you can move onto Cross My Heart And Hope To Spy, Don't Judge A Girl By Her Cover, and then Only The Good Spy Young, the latter of which I just finished.

     Whenever I recommend these books to people, they kind of chuckle in a "yeah right" kind of way. But seriously- they're really good. If you're looking for explicit love scenes, the f-bomb on every page, and graphic and gory violence... well you won't get any of that with these books (so go ahead and chuckle away). But that's one of the reasons why I love them. They are innocent, sweet, funny and entertaining and I find that very refreshing. It's nice to read teen books that actually don't have sex, violence, and potty mouths galore.
     The best thing about these book though is the girls are strong, smart, and talented instead of the whiny, angst-ridden, and sometimes idiotic girls that are often portrayed in teen books. These girls are genuises. They know over a dozen languages. They take classes like Covert Operations, Culture and Assimilation, and Protection and Enforcement. They know how to kill someone with a barbie doll or a piece of uncooked spaghetti. Translation: these girl kick major patootie.

     Who wouldn't want to read a book about that? And more importantly, who wouldn't want to go to a school like that? So if I can't make it into Hogwarts, I'm holding out hope that I'll get in to the Gallagher Academy. Because who doesn't want to go to spy school?