Conspiracy Girl

by Sarah Alderson

[Leah]

Sarah Alderson is a much-respected young adult author, but she's an author I've never actually had the pleasure to read. Since I've just finished Conspiracy Girl I'm quite baffled by the fact I'd never really heard of her until last year, especially since I love the kind of novels she writes which are young adult thrillers. Thrillers are by far my favourite kind of book at the moment, especially ones that leave you with a sense of unease until you finish the last page and are sure no more bad guys (or girls) are going to come out of the woodwork.

Conspiracy Girl is one of those thrillers you can barely put down. The sense of unease I was talking about above manifests itself pretty early on in the novel and only once I had reached the Epilogue did it cease. I started the novel before I went to bed, and raced through a good portion of it, desperate for more; it was that enthralling. But it also made me sad, because poor Nic had been through so much, and to suffer once again after what had happened to her mum and step-sister just seemed cruel, and as soon as I knew she had been broken in to in her new place, my heart sank because I knew we were in trouble. (Or Nic was, at least.)

But while it may have been sad to see Nic suffer, it did bring Finn in to our lives, which is freaking awesome. I love, love, love novels about hackers, and Finn is one of the best in the biz and he's tasked with the job of not only looking after Nic, but finding out more about the people who broke in to her apartment and then breached the FBI's safe house. Another thing I love about thrillers is the whole going on the lam thing, which was a big part of Conspiracy Girl, Nic and Finn running from bad guys and trying to figure it all out before they became the next target and also battling a pretty intense attraction to each other.

My only issue with the novel is the fact that in thrillers, the dog always ends up hurt which makes me furious and teary-eyed. I would love to read a thriller where the dog is FINE for the WHOLE NOVEL. Poor Goz. I spent the novel hoping for a miracle. Apart from that Conspiracy Girl was a thriller, enthralling read. The dual perspective from Nic and Finn was awesome, and very, very well done. Sarah Alderson is a fantastic writer, and manages to get you in to her characters heads with ease, and the storyline was simply amazing. I still can't quite believe this is the first of her novels I have read, but it most certainly won't be the last - in fact, I'll be acquainting myself with her backlist as soon as I possibly can!Leah Loves http://leah-loves.com http://leah-loves.com/books-conspiracy-girl-sarah-alderson/