I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls, 1)

It is so sad when horrible titles and silly covers happen to good books. After reading Heist Society, by Ally Carter, (another stupid title) I knew to look past the packaging with her Gallagher Girls series and give it a shot. But I am not going to lie, I never would have picked up a book called I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You... not without previous knowledge of the author's story telling prowess! Cammie Morgan is a Gallagher Academy legacy, and her mother is the headmistress, but she is another kind of legacy, too. Both Cammie's parents were spies. In fact, the Gallagher Academy is a school for teen girl spies-in-training. The town where Gallagher Academy resides, however, thinks the Academy is for over-privileged rich girls. The girls' first mission is to keep the deep cover of the school and remember their legends (back stories) with the rest of the town. On a routine Covert Ops assignment (tail an untailable faculty member), Cammie is noticed by a local boy. This wouldn't be so unnerving if Cammie wasn't considered the best "pavement artist" at the Academy. She is able to go completely unnoticed and blend into the background in any situation... so how did Josh see her? With a hilarious troupe of misfit young female spies, Cammie and her genius friends begin Covert Ops on Josh to make sure he isn't a Honey Pot (a person using attraction to derail a spy). But Cammie's star-crossed interest in Josh could lead to more trouble than they bargained for! The first installment of the Gallagher Girls Series is really fun! It isn't the deepest story, or have some important lesson to be learned, but instead is just some good, wholesome, PG-13 rated fun! I can understand the critics of the series who are worried about the "action" of the story, but it is important to remember these girls are 15-16 years old. There isn't any real spy trouble at the academy (although I predict it might appear later in the series) because these are young girls in training. But the fun, silly happenings are still enough to keep a reader engaged and laughing. The reading level is fairly low, the content is very, very mild, and the story is lots of fun. This is the perfect book for early middle school. I would recommend this for a wide range of students (although I don't think it would appeal to boys), including high skilled 4th graders all the way to 9th grade. It might even be suitable for a low-skilled 10-12th grader, but only if they are a little more immature than their peers. I can imagine this series might be too young for most older students. But if you find the right girl to read this series, you are going to have a happy reader!

These books are classics. Clean, with a touch of rogue teenage spies in training. I gave four stars for one reason, just a lot of lying plus it deals with heavy topics that might be too weighty for kids dealing with a lot of emotional weight. Plus I would not give this to younger kids who might see if they can reenact these books. The moral compass of a spy in training doesn’t equate with training in good morals like integrity, honesty and the hurt that follows betrayal. Just a reminder that these books need to be read aloud and discussed because 99.9 percent of preteens aren’t in spy training.

I'm so glad I happened upon The Gallagher Girls series. Ally Carter carter does an amazing job weaving together a story that is fun, mysterious, and full of action. I really enjoyed the characters and the storyline. Great book for teens and adults alike! My favorite book in the series is Book 5. I hope the author writes more young adult novels like these soon.

This story is the first book for the Gallagher Girls Series, by Ally Carter. She is an exceptional writer and the imagination of her characters - knows no limits. This book is the introduction to the Gallagher Academy and the Girls (Well the 4 we focus most on are Cammie, Bex, Liz and Macey.) Cammie is the daughter of the schools headmaster, Rachel Morgan. It is her point of view we read. The girls are living the school year as you read and Cammie is writing her Covert Ops class report. That is what book one is the description of, her report. The book is full of humor, fun, emotions, and more. We see how the girls are dealing with one another, new teachers, spy tools and lingo, outside influences, boys, and sneaking out of school. This book is classified as a YA story - but you are never too old to read a YA book! I loved the characters and the whole idea of this spy school. I wish it were real and that I could send my own daughters to it. The teachers help the girls adjust to high volumes of coursework, peer pressure, friendships, gossip and even death.

Cammie is a sophomore in high school; she is in a special, secretive girls school training to be a spy. She meets a boy named Josh that she begins sneaking out to meet up with for dates. She and her roommates dive into all of Josh's personal buiness (email, trash, etc.) to find out more information about him. Cammie struggles to find a balance between being a spy and following in her parents' footsteps and doing her own thing. She doesn't know what life is like outside of being a spy. She gets a taste of it in the world she makes up and describes to Josh. She cannot tell him about her true identity, so she makes up a fake family, says she is homeschooled, and has a cat named Suzie. The book was a great idea. I enjoyed reading abou tthe author's world of what an all girls spy-training school would be like. Sometimes, the protagonist, Cammie, came off as a little too know-it-all, too girly, too immature. I had a hard time remembering that Camy was supposed to be 15 or 16 years old. I remember myself at that age, and I wasn't quite so ignorant about some things. I got tired of hearing Cammie's thoughts about everything as she reasoned through situations. I just wish that the author had aged her a bit more and made her seem less like a junior high student that had her first crush.

Cameron (Cammie) Ann Morgan is just your average girl.... with a well hidden secret. Her school: The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is really a school for female spies in the making. Hiding in secret from the rest of town, Cammie (code name: Chameleon, for her ability to blend in) and her classmates are trained to be hard core spies knowing every launguage to man, how to defend yourself, and the art of disguise. Cammie's school teaches them to be well trained when thrust into dangerous situations, but not as dangerous as the one Cammie's getting herself into. On a field assignment with her friends, the uber genius Liz and the exoticly dangerous Bex, Cammie the Chameleon gets seen by town boy, Josh. Soon, Cammie and her friends (along with the boy genius and new girl, Macey Mchenry) go where no Gallagher Girl has ever gone before. Knowing they can never be together, Cammie and her friends set out to learn more about Josh and hook him up with Cammie. Soon Cammie gets lost in her lies to Josh and she starts becoming two completly different people. But when Josh breaks into her school to "rescue" her during a CovOps assignment, Cammie knows that things have finally gone too far. Well written and exciting this book is great for preteens and teens everywhere.

It has been four years and a thousand books since I’ve read it, but I loved delving back into the world of Gallagher Girls; in fact, now I feel like I appreciate the nuances of the book more. Back when I had read it, I considered it as a light-hearted fun novel about teenage spies and the trouble they get into, but now I see how varied the theme of the book was. Sure, it starts out as fun – Cammie and her friends, Bex and Liz, are now sophomores at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Women, a school for geniuses training in espionage, and now they get to do Covert Ops. There is a new girl in school – Macey McHenry, whom they do not know yet but is soon going to be their best friend. And on their first mission out in town, Cammie gets her first taste of normal life in Josh, a cute regular guy who notices her, despite her being very good at going unnoticed. What begins as a side project to find if he is shady soon develops into a struggle in Cammie’s heart. While the tone of the novel is mostly jovial and the fact that the protagonist is a little boy-crazy on getting her first boyfriend, the book goes further into why Cammie is attracted to Josh. He presents a normality she has never experienced being a part of Gallagher Academy; she decisively gets to choose between her life and this picket-fence picture. All her life, she has been known as the daughter of a missing (possibly dead) agent, and here out in the real world, nobody knows that. She gets lost in her legend for a bit, but soon hard decisions have to be made, and she commits to her life as a covert operative. Most importantly, even with the seriousness of the life as a spy and the danger it comes with, Carter infuses joy and simplicity by bringing it in a group of genius girls who have way too many skills, and a lot of love for each other. It is cute, certainly, but also slightly grim. Overall, the book is brilliant and the extra epilogue was a treat.

Cammie Morgan, daughter of two highly trained spies (one dead, one alive), is a chameleon. Capable of being anywhere or no where, she is unseen. In the spy world, being invisible is a talent to be marveled at, but in girl world it's not as great a talent. In fact, as the invisible girl, Cammie is hoping she's not missing the "girl" part of her genetic code. Instead, it's been replaced by "spy girl". Now she's forced to be a normal girl when she unwittingly begins a relationship with Josh, a guys she met on a Covert Operations mission in Rosewood town. She's faced with two different worlds, forced to pick one as she sneaks around. Along with new boys and worlds, Cammie is also forced to befriend Macey McHenrey, new girl on the block in Gallagher Academy's group of soul sister spies. She's also a little hard to handle. Cammie and her manage to become friends, allies, over a common goal set: getting the guy and the grades. Overall a brilliant book, Ally Carter definitely deserves praise for this book, nothing too superfluous, it was just the right amount of description, the perfect scope of a sixteen year old's perspective, and a few plot twists along the way to keep you guessing.

Good read for young adults

Its an amazing book and all because of its flow the writing is really nice .if someone is interested in reading and wants to start this whole process of being a reader then this is one of those beginner friendly books .The book is too cute its like a really sweet world that this book presents in front of u

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You is a full-throttle spy story come love story. It's a sweet and totally sassy read. My students have been telling me that I need to read this book for ages. Finally I took their advice and I am so pleased I did. This is book is great! I really enjoyed reading it. Cammie is a sophomore at the Gallagher Academy. A school for female spies which hides behind the facade of a private elitist school for geniuses. Cammie's beautiful mum is the Headmistress of the school and is an exceptional spy herself (although no longer in the field). The new term has begun and this year sees the sophomores begin their Covert Operations training. It tests their spy skills to the limit but for Cammie it presents a more emotional challenge. Her father died on a mission and the details may be classified but there is no doubt that becoming an undercover agent and entering enemy territory is the most dangerous type of spying there is. Cammie must face all the risks and decide if she really wants to follow in her father's footsteps. As if Cammie's life isn't interesting enough, when she's out on a mission, she's spotted by a teenage town boy. No one ever sees Cammie. She's known as the Chameleon. Even her own friends find it hard to spot her. So why does this boy see through her spy skills. Is he dangerous? Is he boyfriend material? Is he both? Cammie is about to investigate with the help of her best friends. I really don't have much more to say other than I couldn't put the book down. I loved all the spy speak, the technology and the training. It was funny but it was also full of action. The characterisation was great. I really felt Cammie's emotions. I never would have expected on picking up this book to have tears in my eyes at the end. But that's what happened. My pupils have the best taste in books. I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You is great contemporary fiction for teens. The girls are the heroes which is exactly what I want to see in modern children's fiction. This is the Spice Girls in a book: Friends forever and all the more powerful for it. I'm quite the fan. Recommended for Fans of: Spy Girl by Carol Hedges Hacking Harvard by Robin Wasserman

Great story about a ‘spy’ boarding school. Clean … budding romance with a ‘townie’ woven into this teen’s rather formative first year of high school. This book was mentioned in an adult spy/mercenary romance series where their own teens were reading the series and doing their own ops as a subplot. Great to see how these teens were getting their ideas!!

I enjoyed this story a lot! It was cute, fun and I liked the characters. Looking forward to reading more about Cammie, Liz, Bex, Macey and the other Gallagher Girls. :)