Review: Also Known As by Robin Benway

Title: Also Known As
Author: Robin Benway
Published: February 26, 2013
Publisher: Bloomsbury Juvenile
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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.

Hehe... I still giggle after reading the synopsis.  I was so eager to jump right into this one.  Just the thought of a spy daughter had me so excited.  Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I haven't read a book in a longgggg time that had anything to do with spies... especially one like this.  And it didn't disappoint.  Also Known As was so much fun!

I have to start by saying Benway's writing style is amazing!!  Seriously, this book was hilarious!!  I laughed out loud more than I ever have in a book before.  If nothing else, this book was comical.  But trust me... there's plenty more I can say good about it.  :)

Maggie is a spy, who's the daughter of two spies, who are constantly doing spy things.  She doesn't know anything different.  Her entire life has been like this.  To her utter excitement, she's assigned to a job where she will get to go to high school.  Yes, a REAL high school!  She will finally get to act like a child her own age!!  She will get to go to parties, and have friends, and meet boys... ooooh, the boys.  ;)  Poor Maggie is definitely awkward when it comes to "real life", which makes for such a silly and funny story.  I thoroughly enjoyed the entire adventure, from her first party to her entertaining romance, if we can call it that... it was work-related and ordered, after all...

I would totally recommend this book.  It was laugh-out-loud funny and I loved every minute of it!  The characters were so much fun and made the story what it was.  I will definitely be looking into Benway's other books.

I'm the author of "Audrey, Wait!" and "The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May & June." My new book "Also Known As" will be released on February 26, 2013. I live in Los Angeles with my extremely stubborn shih tzu, Hudson. I've gotten a lot better at cooking. I still love coffee. We should be friends.

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