United We Spy – Ally Carter

Narrated by Renee Raudman

When I found out I would be able to review the latest Gallagher book, United We Spy, for AudioGals, I was thrilled!  Although this book is not technically a romance, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it did have some romance in it. As one GoodReads reviewer said, it has a “dash of romance”.

This is the sixth and final book in the Gallagher series. I have loved every single book in the series. I mean LO-OVED! The series is technically a YA title, but I am 35 and have enjoyed them all. Yes, they involve teenage girls, but these aren’t your ordinary everyday teenage girls. They attend the Gallagher Academy, which to the outside world looks like an elite boarding school, but in reality is a school for spies. The girls have grown up in the last five books and are now seniors and facing the biggest mission they have ever faced. I am not talking some little namby-pamby mission either, think more save-the-world type mission. The synopsis of the book promised to be a “heart-pounding conclusion” and it didn’t disappoint.

We once again find our heroine, Cammie “the Chameleon” Morgan, and her best friends – Liz, Bex, and Macey – and her boyfriend, Zach. They have been on the run from the Circle of Cavan and its leader, Katherine, who also happens to be Zach’s mom. Cammie had seen something years ago the Circle wanted that she wasn’t even aware was in her memory. She now has the list they were after, but the Circle does as well. They are on a mission to stop the leaders of this nefarious group of very powerful men and women before they do something very, very bad.

United We Spy has so many twists and turns, so many jaw-dropping moments that I truly couldn’t stop listening. Usually when I listen to a book, I am okay to put it down and come back to it, even a day or two later.  However I listened to this one non-stop. It’s sad that this represents the final book in one of my favorite series ever, but it had a great conclusion. Ally Carter is a phenomenal writer, and United We Spy was one of her best books ever.

Renee Raudman does an outstanding job narrating another Gallaher Girls book, as always. One of my biggest pet peeves with an audio series is a change of narrator, especially when written in first person. Thankfully that’s not a problem here. Renee Raudman IS Cammie Morgan to me. She is Rebecca Baxter (Bex). She is Elizabeth Sutton (Liz). She is Macey McHenry. She does such an awesome job differentiating between characters that it’s easy to tell who is speaking.

Her male characterizations are spot on as well and, if you have read one of my previous reviews, you know how very important that is to me. Ms. Raudman convincingly portrayed the young and old as well and utilized a number of accents including southern and British (male and female).

I am thankful I chose to listen to this series in audio format rather than read it – the narration brought life to characters that would have been lacking for me merely on the page.

Overall, I loved this book, every single minute of it.  The scenarios may have been a bit far-fetched, especially in my world, but that is what made it so perfect. It was action packed, but stayed true to the rest of the series. I hated to see the series end, but I feel like I was given the very best ending, wrapped in a nice, big bow.

Katherine

Narration:  A+

Book Content:  A+

Steam Factor:  You can play it out loud

Violence:  Minimal

Genre:  Young Adult

Publisher:  Brilliance Audio