Sleuth or Dare: An AKA Novel by Robin Benway

Sleuth or Dare: An AKA Novel by Robin Benway
Buy Sleuth or Dare: An AKA Novel by Robin Benway at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens
Reviewer: Robert James
Summary: While it's a good read, slight shift in focus to more action than the first book didn't appeal to me as much. As a series this is still better than most, though!
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 320	Date: February 2014
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Books
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1471116766
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Warning. Spoilers below for Spy Society.

When safecracker Maggie Silver's parents are falsely accused of a crime, she's uprooted from her newly peaceful existence as a normal high-school girl and forced to flee, along with best friend Roux and boyfriend Jessie, to Paris. Can the three of them, aided by some new friends and honorary uncle Angelo, clear her family's name?

I was really looking forward to this one after reading Spy Society last year and enjoying it. This is a good second entry into the series but for my mind it doesn't quite hit the spot as well as that charming first novel did. Maggie and Roux's friendship is still wonderful - one of my favourites recently - and it's brilliant to see Roux, who's generally low on people who care about her, get a love interest here.

I'm still a fan of the series but my slight issue with this one is actually that the relationships between the characters which developed so superbly in book one take a back seat to lots of action this time around. It feels like a strange gripe to have - if anything, this is far closer to what I would have imagined the series to be like before reading the first book - but the characters and their relationships were such a strong focus of Spy Society that I was assuming this would be similar. I think Robin Benway is a bit better at writing excellent romance and friendship than she is at big action sequences, although these scenes still held my attention. There's notably less focus on the Maggie/Jesse relationship here, as well.

Of course, the flip side to me being a little disappointed at this change of focus is that any readers who'd decided the first book was too focused on the romance will almost certainly find this much more to their tastes. Overall, the series is still one I'd highly recommend. I'm not sure we have a book three confirmed but I'm assuming there'll be one - I'm definitely hoping so!

For more spy stories, the utterly brilliant Gallagher Girls series starting with I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls) by Ally Carter is brilliant.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Sleuth or Dare: An AKA Novel by Robin Benway at Amazon.com.

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