Hall of Books

A secret service

FIRST PLACE

Name: PB_MoonJ

Review: A Secret Service was a very enjoyable read. It defied a lot of tropes and cliches, and it had a very interesting, well-developed main character, strong character relationships and dynamics, and amazing dialogue. 

Seriously, the dialogue was as smooth as a fresh jar of Skippy. The banter between Carter and her father, as well as her and Donovan, was so fun to read. As the protagonist, I liked Carter's sass and perspective. She's confident, independent, and strong, but she still had vulnerabilities. I like how her insecurities are explored and how she grows to come to terms with her mom's abandonment and father's job. Carter's interactions with her friends and family were well-developed and fleshed out, and I thought her relationships with her father and Maggie were especially sweet. I liked how the romance between SPOILER START Carter and Donovan SPOILER END had a slow, natural build-up based on trust and respect. 

The story reads like a movie; I could easily visualize the way the scenes were laid out in each chapter, which made the reading experience better. The description of the settings and emotions were very vivid and reflected a great mastery of storytelling. That being said, sometimes it got overly florid and repetitive. Carter's emotions are frequently likened to "storms" and "hurricanes," and sometimes the weather and time of day is overly described, mainly in later chapters. It's okay to just say something as simple as, "as the sun set" to balance out the detailed descriptions.

What I wasn't a huge fan of with this book was how it was marketed to readers. The tags say that this is an action, adventure, mystery, teen fiction, and drama book. While I feel like it definitely hits the mark as a teen fiction and drama, I don't think it qualifies as a mystery, action, and adventure book. 

A mystery genre should be very suspenseful and full of twists and turns that draw in the reader, building up to a climax where most of the secrets are revealed to give the reader a sense of closure. However, I didn't feel like the content of the book contained many of those moments. While there were subtle hints about what would happen in the final chapters of the book, I feel like there was a missed opportunity to immerse Carter and her friends in the political conspiracy that transpired at the end. 

In addition to this, the action genre is characterized by being more physically descriptive, fast-paced, and full of thrilling fight scenes that engage the reader throughout the book. However, it wasn't until the final ten chapters that things started to pick up with SPOILER START the group of soldiers trying to kidnap Link SPOILER END. Since there weren't any other moments like this, I can't say that this would qualify as an action book. I think the same can be said of the adventure tag. Now, in my opinion, an adventure leans on the more physical side of things, with characters traveling to some place in order to achieve their goals or obtain something. This book, though, doesn't really depict that. Since Carter is undergoing a more emotional journey, I feel like the drama genre captures more of that rather than an adventure.

The next thing I had trouble with was the plot. The plot wasn't very clear to me as I read each chapter, and I felt like some of the conflicts were introduced way too quickly. For example, there was no build-up to both SPOILER START Steve's, Carter's father, injury or the plan to kidnap Link SPOILER END. I understand that these events can happen suddenly, but it kind of felt a bit random when these things were introduced, especially with the climax.

While Carter is written as a bold character, I felt like she came off as very insensitive and way too nosy at some parts. In chapter 36, I believe, I did not like how she declared that she was going to physically fight Donovan to get him to open up because he was being moody and wouldn't tell her why. Listen, if your friend is having a bad day, why would you threaten to punch them to get them to talk about it? A true friend would offer their support and try not to ask about the thing that's upsetting their friend, not use violence to force them to talk. 

The thing that most bugs me about this though is Carter had a bad day and talked to Donovan and Link about it before this chapter. Donovan and Link lent their ears and helped lift Carter's spirits. They didn't force her to open up about her problems, so I don't understand why Carter felt the need to bully it out of Donovan instead of offering the same kind of support she was given when she had a rough day. 

Aside from this moment, Carter said some pretty nasty things to Maggie when she was trying to comfort her about SPOILER START her father signing on with the Secret Service for two more years SPOILER END. Later, Maggie apologizes for what she said, but Carter never did. I don't think Maggie needed to apologize because she was looking out for Carter and her father. If anything, I felt that Carter needed to apologize for what she said to Maggie because she made Maggie cry. I know that people lash out when they're angry and may say some things that they regret later, but usually they apologize for their words once they calm down.

Another thing I noticed was that Carter kind of overshadowed the rest of the characters. I had a hard time understanding Link and Donovan's characters because I felt like they didn't receive much character development. They didn't have as big of arcs as Carter did despite having interesting personalities. More minor characters such as Mason and Lucas seemed to serve as more of a plot convenience when Carter needed to say something snide, which was a bit disappointing since minor characters can really enrich the story. 

Since this book is now published, some of the things I pointed out in my critique have probably been smoothed over, so I do not have anything else to say other than that this book was entertaining and very fun to read, and I would definitely recommend it!