Blonde Ops

by Charlotte Bennardo and Natalie Zaman

[Leah]

As soon as I spotted Blonde Ops on Netgalley, I thought sounded like a really great read. I like novels about teens who are extraordinary – spies or hackers or really, really brainy, because it’s a bit different; we don’t always want to be reading about regular girls who are boring, do we? Plus it’s set in Roma! Beautiful Roma! Which is just exciting, I will read anything that’s set in a country different from the norm (UK/USA) and Rome is definitely on my list of places I must visit at some point in the future. Quite high on the list, actually. It just sounds like such a wonderful place! So I couldn’t wait to dive in! It was a fast-paced and sometimes frantic read, but it is also a bit far-fetched. So to really enjoy it, you very much have to suspend your beliefs.

The reason I found the book a touch far-fetched is that I totally get that 16-year-olds can be ace hackers, but Bec knows more about hacking than I think is feasibly possible to know at 16. It just seemed she knew a bit too much, yet she wasn’t aware that she was quite a slack hacker, leaving her mark all over the place, meaning she got caught out a few times – the entire reason she ended up in Rome was because she got expelled from her school so you’d expect someone as adept as Bec apparently is would know how to cover her footprints, so to speak. That’s where it became unfeasible – I mean, Bec knows tons of stuff (the fingerprint via crime shows is totally believable, though, because even I know how to do that from watching CSI/Criminal Minds etc), but for a girl who knows how to get a car to beep its horn 50 times (HILARIOUS, FYI) you would think she would be better at not getting caught (hacker 101, surely?).

Blonde Ops is a fun, quick read, though! Bec is such a likeable heroine, I liked her go-get-em attitude and her inability to not question everything, because she sort of reminded me of me (without the CIA, pink hair, trip to Rome and hacking skills, obvs). I liked the magazine atmosphere she was thurst into (a world I NEVER want to go into, it sounds cut-throat and frankly awful). I was as desperate as Bec to learn what exactly had happened to Parker, the lady meant to be looking after Bec, and as it all unravelled, I did rather suspect one or two of the characters – I even guessed one dead straight, even sooner than Bec did, which was a bit of a let down! I like when books are able to trick me, and disappointingly I saw all these twists coming, though I very much liked the way Bec handled everything – instead of losing her head, she kept her composure when it all went wrong and had even wherewithal to solve it, which is very impressive, considering she’s only 16 and anyone else would have crumbled under pressure, me included!

I really enjoyed Blonde Ops, I was able to suspend my beliefs somewhat over the whole novel, and that’s definitely what’s needed to read the novel what with all the hacker talk, and the CIA, and the First Lady (sadly not Michelle Obama) but it’s a fun romp through Rome, with some pretty impressive characters! Despite Candace’s ice-Queen facade, I liked her as Bec’s ‘guardian’, although I would have liked nothing more thank to have got to know Parker better, as she was side-lined so early and so cruelly! I liked the fleeting potential romances between Bec and Dante and Bec and Taj, although I preferred Dante from the off, he just seemed so sweet, puttering around on his vespa and making his deliveries! There are a few twists and turns and the ending has the potential to have readers sitting on the edges of their seats, desperately wanting to gulp it all down in one go and alternatively close the book and wait because you just don’t know how it will end! A very cute novel, with the potential of it being a new series!