Review: Liberty - The Spy Who (Kind of) Liked Me by Andrea Portes

Liberty - The Spy Who (Kind of) Liked Me

Author: Andrea Portes

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release date: 6^th June 2017

Pages: 400

Source: Edelweiss ARC

Synopsis (Goodreads): What is a hero? Paige Nolan knows.

Edward Raynes, the young man who exposed America’s unconstitutional spying techniques, is a hero, even if half the dum-dums in the country think he’s a traitor. Or her parents, journalists who were captured by terrorists while telling stories of the endangered and oppressed. They were heroes, too. Were. . . or are—no one has ever told Paige if they’re still alive, or dead.

Not heroes? Anyone in the government who abandoned her parents, letting them rot somewhere halfway across the world. And certainly not Paige herself, who despite her fluency in five languages and mastery of several obscure martial arts (thanks, Mom!) could do nothing to save them.

Couldn’t, that is, until she’s approached by Madden Carter, an undercover operative who gives her a mission—fly to Russia, find Raynes, and discover what other government secrets he’s stockpiled. In exchange, he’ll reopen the case on her missing parents. She’s given a code name and a cover as a foreign exchange student.

Who is a hero? Not Paige Nolan, but maybe, just maybe, Liberty is.

Review: 3 ½ out of 5 stars

I absolutely adore these types of books, light-hearted, witty and a thoroughly entertaining read with a wonderful, likeable heroine.

Our MC, Paige Nolan is the daughter to high profile journalists who are missing presumed dead. When Paige is recruited by a spy to find someone she idolises she is hesitant but will do anything possible to find her parents.

Paige is the sort of character I really enjoy, opinionated, witty, sarcastic and kick butt fabulous; she certainly kept things entertaining.

Madden Carter is an undercover operative from an operational intelligence agency known as RAITH who makes a deal with Paige, she gets to fly to Moscow with a cover as a foreign exchange student; find a person of interest, Sean Raynes and in exchange he’ll reopen her parents case. I thought Madden was great! I didn’t know whether or not he could be trusted or not but I did like his character and I loved the banter that he shared with Paige.

The premise was wonderful, I enjoyed the spy and secret mission aspect but I admit I initially thought that this book would be a little silly and at times it definitely was, you do have to suspend belief on occasion but I was hooked right from the beginning and despite it being told in second person POV which is not my favourite it was written well.

I didn’t completely love the ending and I did feel at times the case of Paige’s missing parents case was forgotten but overall it was written very well and kept me thoroughly entertained. I hope this is made in to a series, I’d definitely like to read more.

Thank you to HarperTeen via Edelweiss for the opportunity to read and review Liberty - The Spy Who (Kind of) Liked Me.

About the author:  Andrea Portes is a bestselling American novelist. 

Her novels include HICK, BURY THIS, ANATOMY OF A MISFIT, and THE FALL OF BUTTERFLIES. Portes is also the author of the upcoming LIBERTY book series and the upcoming HENRY & EVA book series. She also published the SUPER RAD graphic novel series for Dark Matter Comics.

Portes was raised in rural Nebraska, outside of Lincoln. She attended Bryn Mawr College on full scholarship and later received her MFA from University of California, San Diego. After graduation, Portes moved to the neighborhood of Echo Park in Los Angeles.

In 2007, Portes published her debut novel HICK that was an instant bestseller. After the book's huge success, the movie adaptation of HICK went into production in 2011. The film, starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Alec Baldwin, Eddie Redmayne, Juliette Lewis, and Blake Lively premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011.

Portes's second novel, BURY THIS, was published in January 2014 by Counterpoint Press's imprint Soft Skull Press to critical acclaim.

In 2012, she wrote SUPER RAD, a sci-fi series for Dark Matter Press.

Portes' third novel, ANATOMY OF A MISFIT, was published in September 2014 by HarperCollins. In July 2014, the book was optioned in a pre-emptive deal by Paramount Pictures, with Allison Shearmur (THE HUNGER GAMES, CINDERELLA) producing.

In Winter 2015, Portes spy thriller series LIBERTY was bought in a three-book deal by HarperCollins. Twentieth Century Fox-Fox 2000 acquired the rights to LIBERTY and will be producing the series with Wyck Godfrey (TWILIGHT, THE FAULT IN OUR STARS).

Her fourth book, THE FALL OF BUTTERFLIES will be out in May 2016 published by HarperCollins.

Portes also chose HarperCollins to publish HENRY & EVA AND THE CASTLE ON THE CLIFF, the first in a middle reader series of HENRY & EVA books. The second release in the series will be HENRY & EVA AND THE FAMOUS PEOPLE GHOSTS.

Portes is currently working on THEY WERE LIKE WOLVES, a work of literary fiction.