Take The Key And Lock Her Up

The third and final installment of the Embassy Row trilogy starts with a bang. However, to those that have not read the second book in a long, long while, it starts off as confusing as one might think. I will let you know right away that I could not finish this book. Ally Carter can write intriguing story-lines (given that the characters are well written) but this series was mostly a miss for me. Much similar to her Heist Society series, the main character has almost no personality. The love interests, dashing young men, are also very bland. It makes sense that they would be together. The intrigue is missing, and everything is hinged upon one aspect of the novel. Grace and her need – nay, desire – to be utterly ‘normal' and tense.

With the (obligatory) romance out of the way, let's dig into the characters. I'll mainly focus on Grace, Alexei, and the rest of her friends.

Her friends: You have the super smart tech-savy girl, Megan. The beautiful yet homey Noah. Young, yet extremely ambitious Rosie. They support Grace through everything and are worried for her even when she herself is not. There is nothing more to be said. Side-kicks forever, as they are.

Alexei: He's just a handsome Russian who loves Grace very, very much. Why does he love her? We don't know. We just know he's handsome.

Grace: The portions of the book that I did finish focused entirely on her self-sacrificing to the point of annoyance and lack of trust in everyone else. She is right to distrust the adults around her. But also, she has to say something edgy and make it a good one-liner (as do all the characters in this book) because that's just how Ally Carter loves to write.

I'm all for strong female characters, strong women or teenage girls who can tip the scales of the world one way or another. But if they do not play well with others, have to be a lone-wolf kind of girl with no other redeeming qualities to their personality, then why am I even bothering to read this?

Definitely just a cliche, spy-filled adventure that is typically found in Young Adult sections now-a-days.

Verdict: You can find some other series that's better written. Or, read Carter's Gallagher Academy series. They're so much better than these.