It’s fun, it’s easy to read, and it’s full of suspense. This was definitely intriguing enough that I would read more. The whole let’s-find-the-killer part was definitely the best, but the political shenanigans she gets into by hanging out with other embassy kids were pretty interesting too. I liked that this was really the one crack in her otherwise smooth and finished facade. I had a lot of sympathy for her and it was so very real. But having also seen her mom murdered, she suffers from panic attacks and feeling like she’s crazy. Grace is a fairly typical Carter character: snarky but can be sweet, adventurous and smart. I’m pretty sure Ally Carter has made a career of writing the same style of books: teenage girls with their finger on the pulse of something either illegal or in espionage (which is sometimes the same thing). If she doesn’t stop the killer, then it’s just possible she may be next. Everyone wants Grace to be normal–or at least pretend–but Grace knows that this isn’t something that can just be brushed aside.

Not her powerful grandfather, not her Russian neighbor and childhood friend Alexei. She knows her mother was murdered and she’s going to make the man pay. Growing up on Embassy Row, Grace has grown up knowing how tenuous country alliances are–and how much people can get away with.

(Partly because I HAVE MY OWN LIBRARY NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW AWESOME THAT IS and partly because books are keeping me sane through all this.) Ally Carter is a favorite of mine and I wanted to see what Embassy Row was all about. I’m in the middle of moving into my first (!!) home and literally all I can think about is books. I’m pretty sure she probably has, but I keep talking anyway. I don’t ask whether or not she has ever heard the story. First Lines: “When I was twelve, I broke my leg jumping off the wall between Canada and Germany,” I say, but the woman across from me doesn’t even blink.

Embassy row book 1