Book Review: I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have To Kill You

Title: I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have To Kill You
Author: Ally Carter
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Hyperion
Publication Date: 1st April 2006
Goodreads Summary: Cammie Morgan is a student at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, a fairly typical all-girls school-that is, if every school taught advanced martial arts in PE and the latest in chemical warfare in science, and students received extra credit for breaking CIA codes in computer class.

The Gallagher Academy might claim to be a school for geniuses but it’s really a school for spies. Even though Cammie is fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man in seven different ways, she has no idea what to do when she meets an ordinary boy who thinks she’s an ordinary girl.

Sure, she can tap his phone, hack into his computer, or track him through town with the skill of a real “pavement artist”-but can she manoeuvre a relationship with someone who can never know the truth about her?

Cammie Morgan may be an elite spy-in-training, but in her sophomore year, she’s on her most dangerous mission-falling in love.

Book Review: I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have To Kill You

I think I’ve been subconsciously hyping this book up in my head for years so when I finally got round to reading it, I was a little disappointed. It took me quite a while to get into I’d Tell You I Love You and I read it awfully slowly, but in the end it was worth it. 

Cammie isn’t your typical 15-year-old girl. She’s grown up in an all-girls boarding school, that her mother just so happens to be the headmistress of, and she doesn’t really get much time to experience life outside of the school grounds unless she’s visiting her Dad’s family on their ranch.

That’s not the only thing slightly odd about her upbringing, Gallagher Academy isn’t just any boarding school, it’s a school for spies (though, of course, nobody will admit it).

All the girls who attend Gallagher Academy have extraordinary IQs, can speak multiple languages and probably know a hundred or so different methods to kill a man but none of them know how to talk to boys. In fact, most of them probably haven’t ever interacted with boys.

One day whilst on an outing as part of her Cove Ops class, she bumps into a boy, Josh, who really shouldn’t have seen her at all given that she was undercover, and suddenly Cammie’s life is way more interesting than it ever was before.

Cammie starts using her spy skills to sneak out to see this boy doing normal everyday things like going to the cinema, that are just so alien to Cammie and her school mates. This is a whole new learning experience for Cammie and her friends who really don’t know anything about how to be normal, but they’ve got to make sure she doesn’t get caught…

As Cammie has been brought up as a spy in training she’s incredibly intelligent but doesn’t have a clue about boys which just goes to show that no matter how old you are or how clever you are, girls are never going to figure out how the mind of the opposite sex works. Weirdly enough, I think that Cammie and I are fairly similar and I think that’s why I loved this book.

In case you’re now thinking that I, too, am a spy a training, don’t be silly. I do; however, go to an all-girls school, full of incredibly intelligent students who know lots about everything, apart from boys. This book is written from Cammie’s perspective so you see everything first hand and it’s rather funny reading all the thoughts that go through Cammie’s brain.

I didn’t find Cammie’s relationship with Josh all that interesting because I don’t think we got enough details about his character. I enjoyed this book because of Cammie herself, not because of the storyline. If you’re looking for a really good teen romance, then this wouldn’t be my first choice, but the love aspect of this novel certainly brings hilarity to this story.

I’d say this book was more of a coming-of-age (or coming-of-normal) book rather than a teen romance but maybe we’ll see more of Cammie and Josh’s relationship in the subsequent books.

I’m not sure that all that happened in this book in terms of plot and to be honest I don’t think the storyline was that strong, but with Cammie’s character, it was enough to carry me through to the end so it wasn’t all that bad.

All in all, I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have To Kill You was a really good book, but it wasn’t as great as I imagined it would be. It’ll probably appeal to people in their mid-teens as the main character is 15 years old and seems to be having a typical 15-year-old crisis.

This book made me laugh out loud at some points and I guarantee you’ll fall in love with Cammie’s character. I actually found a lot of the advice given in this book or reading about the situations Cammie found herself in to be really helpful.

It’s full of relatable incidences that most people will enjoy reading about. Although the first book was good, I am wondering what the heck Ally Carter could’ve possibly filled another four books with. I guess I’ll have to read them to find out, but I hope this series doesn’t fizzle out like so many other YA series I’ve read!

Anyone read the rest of the series? Worth reading or not?

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If you liked this post, check out these:
Gallagher Girls Series Order
Cross My Heart and Hope To Spy
Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover
Only the Good Spy Young
Out of Sight Out of Time
United We Spy 
Uncommon Criminals
Perfect Scoundrels
Heist Society