Liberty: The Spy Who (Kind of) Liked Me by Andrea Portes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Received: Publisher
Publication Date: June 6th, 2017
Publisher: HarperTeen
Point of View: 1st Person & Feminine
Recommended Age: 13+
Pacing: Fast
Genres & Themes: Young Adult, Spies, Action, Humor, Russia

BLURB:

What is a hero? Paige Nolan knows.

Edward Raynes, the young man who exposed America’s unconstitutional spying techniques, is a hero, even if half the dum-dums in the country think he’s a traitor. Or her parents, journalists who were captured by terrorists while telling stories of the endangered and oppressed. They were heroes, too. Were. . . or are—no one has ever told Paige if they’re still alive, or dead.

Not heroes? Anyone in the government who abandoned her parents, letting them rot somewhere halfway across the world. And certainly not Paige herself, who despite her fluency in five languages and mastery of several obscure martial arts (thanks, Mom!) could do nothing to save them.

Couldn’t, that is, until she’s approached by Madden Carter, an undercover operative who gives her a mission—fly to Russia, find Raynes, and discover what other government secrets he’s stockpiled. In exchange, he’ll reopen the case on her missing parents. She’s given a code name and a cover as a foreign exchange student.

Who is a hero? Not Paige Nolan, but maybe, just maybe, Liberty is.

I missed reading books such as this one. Silly but fun. Simple but original. Super fast but super engaging also.

In fact, I think these are the types of books that are of the hardest to write. The writing must seem effortless, like we’re having a coffee with the main character. The story must be impossible to put down, that’s how entertaining it is.

And finally, the characters must be both real and fictive. They must enable us to imagine them existing in real life, while doing and saying things that were meant for our entertainment only.

I’ve said this earlier, but everything in this book seems so effortlessly done. I don’t mean that the author didn’t put enough time in it; that’s preposterous. I mean that it’s so easy to connect to; it’s so easy to read and simply tune the world out while doing so.

Spy novels are my thing. Always have been; always will be. (The same goes for spy movies.) Spies live in a world different from ours. They know more than we do. They can do more than we can. They risk their lives. They are badass. They have gadgets (sometimes). They are so very exciting.

Paige is the perfect spy, because she has what she calls a ‘‘dissociative disorder,’’ meaning that she doesn’t really care about what happens to her body. She can get shot, no big deal to her. Slapped across the face? Just another afternoon.

She’s witty, snarky and, overall, quite loveable. I do wish we were given more context here and there, because this is a voice-driven story, therefore the settings rarely matter. No much detail about what is going on. Enough for us to understand what’s happening, but what we know is what Paige cares to share. And she’s more of a doer than a talker.

I’ll just put it this way: this is the perfect book to read when you want to read something, but you don’t really feel like reading something.

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