Going Rogue

Going Rogue by Robin Benway

This is the second book in the series. I reviewed the first book, Also Known As HERE.

If you want the first book to remain unspoiled, read no further.

...this might be a very well done follow up to the first book. It continued to be well balanced, have hilarious moments peppered in very serious situations, and seems to capture teenage life for the most part.

Confused?

An amazon summary to clarify, "Being permanently based in a local New York City high school as an undercover operative has its moments, good and bad, for 16-year-old safecracker Maggie Silver. Pros: More quality time with her former mark-turned-boyfriend Jesse Oliver and insanely cool best friend, Roux. Getting to spend quality time with her semi-retired and international spy honorary uncle, Angelo. Cons: High school and the accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple locker combinations. But when Maggie's parents are falsely accused of stealing priceless gold coins, Maggie uses her safecracking skills to try and clear their names. Too bad it only serves to put her and everyone she loves in danger. Maggie and her "new team" flee to Paris where they must come up with a plan to defeat their former allies." AMAZON LINK OF ESPIONAGE JUSTICE

The amazon summary did a pretty awesome job....even if it did go too far into the story's plot.

...anyways.

So Maggie is still in New York, she's madly in love with Jesse, still rocking it with Roux (which, being the terrible person that I am, whenever I read Roux my mental voice screams ROCKS at me), and lying low.

Maggie's parents are kind of a mystery during this time as it's been about a year since everything went down in Also Known As, and Maggie catches us up on her life of high school drudgery, she mentions nothing of her parents. Are they still working with the Collective and doing missions remotely for them? Something I would like to know....

ANYWAYS.

The Collective has accused Maggie's parents of thieving 10 gold coins from a mission before they even had Maggie and now the scramble is on for Maggie and Angelo to clear their names!

However, Maggie has to work solo.

The humor is on par with the last book, and there were many elements to this book that just made me smile.

HOWEVER. WE'RE GOING TO SPOILER LAND BECAUSE I HAVE AN ISSUE.

Roux (ROCKS!) is Maggie's best friend, has a back story that just makes the heart hurt a bit; when she arrives in Paris and meets a young gentleman, she's like BAM, IN LOVE.

I can't stress how much I hate when that happens. After an hour, you can't just love someone. I'm sorry, but love will always be more of a noun than verb to me in that it's the pinnacle of struggle in humanity. I know I'm getting quite philosophical, but I found it very hard to believe that someone as defensive and kind of ruthless as Roux (ROCKS!) could fall in love that easily. I know there was a line or two of understanding words from Maggie to try to smooth it over, but SERIOUSLY. NO. BAD ROUX (ROCKS!). BE A STELLAR CHARACTER WHO CAN HAVE CONFIDENCE IN HERSELF RATHER THAN DESPERATION FOR LOVE. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.

ALL THE ITALICS FOR EMPHASIS.

...fin rant.

All in all, I adored the book so much that it makes me want to use italics everywhere.

But I do worry that this is in the vein of the 'guilty pleasure' books I read, so it might not be everyone's espionage story.

Whatever the case is [PUN SO INTENDED].

Happy reading!