A review by readingwithrae
The Blonde Identity by Ally Carter

2.0

2 stars.

listen, i was a big gallagher girls fan as a teenager. i ate those books UP. so when i found out ally carter was writing an adult spy romance? i was HYPE. i was ready to revisit all my gallagher girl feelings and have a great time.

but this? this was not it. i feel like this fell into the “booktok trap” of being more concerned with fulfilling a list of tropes instead of telling a good story. there’s several points where the characters even point out the tropes, like when zoe says “there’s only one bed!” or asks if sawyer and alex had an “enemies to lovers” thing going on. imo it’s lazy! also, zoe was incredibly immature. it almost felt like zoe belonged in one of the gallagher girls books with the way she acted like a teenager for the entire book. the way she kept berating sawyer for “language?” i get it’s supposed to be *quirky* but it ended up just being obnoxious.

and the ending was so rushed! like you’re telling me that these two are willing to throw away everything they know just to be together, when they’ve known each other LESS THAN A WEEK. that’s not even an exaggeration; the book takes place over the course of six days. couldn’t be me, y’all.

still though, i can’t rate this 1 star because i was entertained for a good chunk of this, and like it or not that sequel bait at the end had me wanting more. if ally is going to write more adult romance, i just hope that she remembers she’s writing for adults, not teens, in the next one.