Jake Morrow is an undercover CIA operative currently posing as Peter Smith at a fancy boarding school in Colorado. He’s flying pretty low under the radar until one of the girls at the school posts his picture to Twitter with the caption “See the pretty boy run.” All of a sudden, #prettyboy is trending, not just at his school, not just in Colorado, but across the United States.

I love a good teenage spy novel. I also have a complicated relationship with them, because sometimes I think I place a bit too much importance on the suspension of disbelief. Now, of course, I know that books like this aren’t going to be realistic. I know that there aren’t kids highly trained in military combat hanging out at high schools across the country. I also know that foreign powers probably aren’t going to send out skilled assassins to take down a seventeen-year-old kid. But when a book is written realistically enough that I can shut down that part of my brain, I’ll probably love it.

Unfortunately, my entire brain was screaming at me that Jake/Peter was the worst spy who ever spied. I mean, the kid gets nauseated anytime he has to do something remotely spy-ish. Every little thing makes him lightheaded. I figured out who the “mystery hacker” was within the first 25 pages, but CIA kid took forever to put the pieces together. He’s also a sassy little teenager who has zero respect for the chain of command. (That’s me as an adult talking.)

I loved Katie and Bunker. I think that the general idea of the plot was good. I love the whole idea of #alexfromtarget being spun like this -- what if he was an undercover operative? How would he handle his face suddenly being everywhere? I just thought that the plot was a little messy and I couldn’t get over the fact that the main character would actually make a terrible spy.

Final rating: ★★☆☆☆

I received a free ARC of #Prettyboy Must Die from the publisher (via Netgalley) in exchange for my honest review.

When Peter Smith's classmate snaps a picture of him during a late night run at the track, Peter thinks he might be in trouble. When she posts that photo--along with the caption, "See the Pretty Boy Run,"--Peter knows he's in trouble. But when hostiles drop through the ceiling of his 6th period Chem Class, Peter's pretty sure his trouble just became a national emergency.

Because he's not really Peter Smith. He's Jake Morrow, former foster-kid turned CIA operative. After a massive screw-up on his first mission, he's on a pity assignment, a dozen hit lists and now, social media, apparently. As #Prettboy, of all freaking things.

His cover's blown, his school's under siege, and if he screws up now, #Prettyboy will become #Deadboy faster than you can say, 'fifteen minutes of fame.' Trapped in a high school with rabid killers and rabid fans, he'll need all his training and then some to save his job, his school and, oh yeah, his life. -Goodreads

Before anything, I would like say that this book was inspired by #alexfromtarget If you do not know anything about that story, you can take a look here to see whats its about.

I was excited for this read. Black teenager, who works for the CIA undercover. Sounds fantastic. However, I was disappointed in this book not initially but as the story progressed.  

It took place in a day.
I really enjoyed the fact that the story was not drawn out and the author was able to build a world and story that last literally less than 24 hours. For me, it showed skill and creativity. And overall, it added some intensity and that help drive the story. But the downside to this was I felt some things were missing. 

The story was far from narrow. 
The author complicated the story as much as she can without it being distasteful. I liked that about this book. What you think you do or what you can guess isn't exactly how it is going. There are some instances where what you see is what you get but not for everything. 

#prettyboy didn't cut it for me
Not only was there not enough description of Peter, the book pretty much only mentions the hashtag twice. Considering that it throws the anti-social Peter in the spotlight, I wanted there to be more about it. His class for the most part do not really react to his new found fame. They really don't care and his fan base is only on twitter and not even close to real life. Yes, I understand why the author did this because it really does tie the story together but considering it is part of the title and it changes Peter's day, I wanted more attention on it. 

#prettyboy Peter was a unlike-able character 

Didn't like him. He had no real personality. He doesn't know anything about fitting in, which is where considering that he is in the CIA and this isn't his first run. He is more bite than bark. He needs way more training.

Although the short time frame of the story provided intensity, it didn't last and at a certain point, I was just ready for the bad guy to be caught. However, the author was able to suck me in at the end and want a book two. 

Overall, 

2 Pickles

This was a fairly enjoyable book. I was a fan of Alex Rider when I was eleven or twelve, and it turns out I haven't entirely grown out of the 'teenage secret agents improbably save the day' phase (does anyone?). I've read a couple of books recently with similar themes and, while objectively I know that they're not very realistic, I still enjoy them, including this one.

Highlights, for me, included the character of Bunker and his friendship with 'Peter' (#PrettyBoy). Bunker grew up in, well, a bunker -- that's where he gets the nickname -- with his doomsday-prepper father, and as a result is a fun mix of naive and paranoia. There were some enticing peeks into his backstory, though honestly I would've been happy with more. But I also enjoyed their friendship, because it was that rare kind of male friendship where the characters aren't afraid to give each other proper hugs now and again, and where they both really care about each other, despite each having their own reasons for being weird about interpersonal relationships. So, that was nice.

I felt, however, that there was too much in the way of explaining the plot to each other in dialogue, which threw the pacing off a bit and didn't feel entirely natural. (I know I do it in my own writing, and I also know it's one of the things I'm most trying to stop doing, so perhaps I'm hyper-aware of it because of that.) I also managed to guess a couple of the biggest twists, which meant they didn't have the impact that they should have done. As usual, though, I can't tell if they were too obvious or if it was just my annoying habit of guessing plot points out of thin air, which happens way too often and inevitably ruins surprises. There were still some plot twists that caught me, though, so that sort of made up for it.

I enjoyed that the romantic plotline was partially pre-established before the timeline of the book -- 'Peter' had already been on a date with Katie, so it felt more realistic than if it had developed within the rapid timescale of the book itself. I wasn't super enthusiastic about it generally, because I'm just not big on romance, but it didn't annoy me too much or make me roll my eyes too often (except when Peter kept jumping to conclusions about whether or not Katie was involved in events. Seriously, dude, stop a minute and gather the actual info, will you?).

Katie was also an enjoyable character. Although Peter rescued her a couple of times, she also rescued HIM more than once, and was competent and badass with gadgets to spare, even if she made a couple of silly mistakes that seemed unrealistic for someone who was generally so good at things. She was supposedly English, and I didn't find too many reasons to doubt that, except for the use of the word 'gotten' -- seriously, protip for American authors, we don't say 'gotten' and it sounds super American when you put it in British characters' dialogue. I also liked that she insisted on differentiating between English and British, because she did have a point -- a 'British' accent could be Scottish or Welsh, and what Americans usually mean when they use the term is 'English'.

On the whole, then, this was an enjoyable book, but I felt too much of the plot was conveyed through dialogue between characters who, at times, just seemed to be explaining to each other things they probably already knew.

(This review is on Goodreads, but will hopefully go on my blog closer to the book's publication date.)

#Prettyboy Must Die is a spy novel with a comedic edge. It follows a seventeen-year-old black CIA agent and hacker, who arguably a genius, named Jake. He is working undercover at a prestigious high school called Carlisle Academy, for those who exceed academically. Jake is there to uncover a hacker, his lead suspects being any of the new students, notably the senior students. However, his identity could potentially be revealed when a picture of him goes viral on Twitter, calling him “Prettyboy”. A tagline of this book is that it’s ‘inspired by #AlexFromTarget, which is where that connection is.

One of the books strongest points is the characters. It’s understandable why Jake is in the CIA at seventeen, as he shows a lot of intelligence, mostly in tech and hacking, but also shows in chemistry. He is also able to speak eight languages. His closest friend is a boy named Bunker, who is a strange character and the comedic relief. His character is unique as he spent fifteen years in a bunker – hence the nickname – due to his father believing in the Year 2000 conspiracy theory. He is also suspicious of Jake after he saw him beat up multiple guys and drills him with questions. The other major character is Katie who is the love interest of sorts. I adored Katie. She was an intelligent character and also one who didn’t take people belittling her. She was so much fun to read about, especially since so much mystery surrounds her (but not in a manic pixie dream girl sort of way).

The plot was done really well and there were mystery elements to it, since it was a thriller. Although, it did feel kind of limited with the setting, as the entire book takes place at Carlisle Academy. The author did use the setting well but it did make the book drag at times as there’s only so much you can do in a high school setting. The start of the novel was also really slow, mostly because the author spent time introducing the characters, the main conflict, and threat. It took until 26% of the book for it to really start. But once it does pass the slow start, it gets difficult to put down as the plot gets more and more intense.

Overall, #Prettyboy Must Die was both a fun and gripping spy novel and was a great read.

Warning: Spoilers ahead

<blockquote><i>”’Do you know what I hate more than guys telling me not to worry?’ Katie asked.

‘Um, no?’ [sic]

‘Guys condescending to me. Now get out of my way before I make you regret doing that.’”</i></blockquote>

I am seriously so incredibly disappointed. Teen spy novels fill a niche in my reader heart -- but it’s hard to find good, original ones that are actually believable. A teen thriller based on the #AlexFromTarget story sounds amazing, yes, but the actual novel had one main issue: lot inconsistencies.

<b><u>Part One: Spoiler-free general overview</u></b>

<u>Characters</u>

I loved how much diversity there was in this novel!! Teen thrillers are an area where diversity most seems lacking and there was so much in here. It warmed my heart. Peter was kind of annoying, but the balance between teen boy and spy-hacker working for the CIA was met, and so I can’t say I found his character unsatisfactory. Katie was my favorite character -- duh, she’s the greatest -- and I enjoyed watching her and Peter’s relationship throughout the course of the book. I don’t want to spoil anything about either of their character development, but it’s awesome.

Bunker seemed a little like a strange choice for a main character writing-wise, but he contributed a lot towards the humor factor of the novel and I couldn’t help but love him. He was <i>#PrettyBoy Must Die</i>’s very own Kimmy Schmidt.

<u>Writing Style</u>

The writing was really easy to follow, which was nice. It was also really funny in an awkward sort of way, which I loved. I didn’t feel as though a lot of research was put into the novel about different spy stuff, but that’s a minor misstep that I’m willing to overlook. Even though all of the vocabulary was there, besides that it felt like all the information was based off of other YA spy novels, which was kind of meh.

<u>Plot</u>

The plot is where I had the most issues with this one. It started off great, but around 55% in I started to notice a wide range of discrepancies, from minor inconsistencies to great, gaping holes. Though I could have been able to brush off just one or two, the sheer number of discrepancies is impossible to ignore.

<b><u>Part Two: Spoiler-filled Analysis</u></b>

<spoiler>Mmkay. There were just so many plot holes and things that didn’t make sense to me. I can’t ignore it. I’m just going to list all the ones that I noticed and highlighted, though there’s a great possibility that there may be even more.

Chapter 19: <blockquote><i>”It’s the last thing I hear before the room is suddenly filled with smoke.”</i></blockquote> Okay…. Okay. So the room fills with smoke, Peter is like wtf, and Katie comes to the rescue. My question is: Why didn’t the fire alarm go off? If the room is filled with smoke wouldn’t that trigger the smoke detector? And even if it didn’t set off the fire alarm, the smoke is literally never mentioned again and Peter and everyone else can see and smell everything perfectly clearly and nobody is coughing, as if the smoke just magically dissipated, even though all the windows are shut and secured with bulletproof glass. What happened to the smoke?
Going back to the whole smoke detector thing -- since the school is on heavy lockdown, wouldn’t setting off the fire alarm probably trigger an automatic removal of the shutters over the doors? The school wouldn’t want all the students and teachers being trapped in the building in the case of a fire, would they? And if it did automatically remove the shutters from the doors, why didn’t Peter just set off the smoke alarm in the first place in order to get everyone out of the school? That seems much easier.
This whole thing with Detective Andrews. At first, they think she’s a fake cop, but then they realize that she is a real cop, just a dirty one. What I want to know, is why was Andrews so sloppy if she was an actual cop? The whole “fake cop” thing starts because she doesn’t follow protocol, first with telling the headmistress why the “bank robbers” were at Carlisle (she was too blunt! She must be fake because that’s not procedure!) and second when she goes into the library and doesn’t perform a full sweep (<i>”’She even polices like a fake. A real officer would have swept the place anyway.’”</i>). Why didn’t she follow procedure? There is literally no reason for her to break actual cop procedure, as people would maybe suspect that she’s not a real cop (and they did!) so why?? It doesn’t make sense.
It also leads me back to another point: there is a part where Peter says that the bad guys look like “bank robbers from a movie” and not real life ones, and obviously Detective Andrews would know what real bank robbers look like because she’s a cop, so why did they do it that way? Wouldn’t it have been much neater to actually be realistic past initial startling?
Chapter 29: <blockquote><i>”’There has been chatter for weeks now that Vadim Koval had been planning a hostile takeover of Marchuk’s arms trade while also proving to the terrorist world that he can provide even better service than the old man did.’”</i></blockquote> If there has been chatter for weeks then why hasn’t the CIA attempted to ascertain Koval’s location? It can’t be that hard to track him to Carlisle, can it? And, correct me if I’m wrong because I’m not a hundred percent sure, doesn’t Katie know who he is from the beginning? So doesn’t that mean that MI6 probably knows too? Why didn’t Koval taking up a job at a school where both Peter and Joel were set off any red flags? And on that same note, I thought that security at the school was supposed to be capital-A Amazing, so why didn’t the background check and thorough digging on both Koval and the groundskeeper come up with anything?
This is a big ol’ campus full of rich kids, and yet <i>everything</i> -- every classroom, the auditorium, and the front office -- are all inside the same huge building? Wouldn’t a super rich school have a sprawling campus with multiple buildings?
Okay, this may just be me, but the whole situation with Joel Easter and his dad did not make sense. The space of the actual action of the novel happens over the course of like 1-2 hours, yeah? But the book itself says that Mr. Easter would have to download the code in bits, which would take awhile, and then exit the compound, drive to the school, and reassemble it, which would also take a while. So how the hell did the terrorists threaten him with his son’s life?? “Oh btw, we are going to take your son hostage in like two hours so you better be here stat with the code so uh yeah” the timelines just don’t match up.
Honestly, the overall plot in GENERAL just did not make sense or connect with me. I mean, I get it, the Kovals had to make it look like the CIA killed Marchuk so they could more seamlessly take over the crime syndicate, blah blah blah, but honestly, the whole operation just felt sloppy. There has to be an easier, simpler way to make it look like the CIA killed Marchuk, and also kill Peter, plus get the launch codes, than taking an entire school hostage. There were just <i>so</i> many liabilities. Peter goes on jogs at night! Couldn’t they just kidnap him, hold him for ransom, then when the CIA comes a-knocking, kill Marchuk and make it look like the CIA? Same with Joel! We’ve established that Joel’s dad would do anything or his son so why take an entire school hostage with only six people when you could tighten the list of hostages to two? It just seems so sloppy. </spoiler>


To conclude, I would only recommend this book if you can completely ignore anything that has to do with the plot. Otherwise, it won’t be enjoyable. I’m really disappointed and wished this had been better. Ugh.

***I received an ARC of this book to provide an honest review***

Normally when I read YA I go for the intense stuff. I wasn't sure what kinda vibe PBMD would have, but I figured I'd give it a try. It turned out to be a lot more light-hearted and silly than I'd anticipated, but that isn't a bad thing.

<b>"All that gym time required of my CIA training hasn't hurt it either, but damn, these girls are jockin' me."</b>

Teenage CIA operative "Peter Smith" ends up in a Colorado boarding school chasing down a hacker. After a photo of him taken by a classmate goes viral Peter's cover is blown. Suddenly there's a LOT going on at his school - in the form of repelling mercenaries, kidnapping, spies, counter-spies and a handful of near-death experiences..for everyone. And a little romance.

<b>"I hold her like it will be the last time. She kisses me again like it's only a preview of more to come."</b>

<a href="http://www.alleskelle.com/"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1471716947r/20097901.jpg?v=1471716951482"width="400"></a>

Very cute read! Excellent timing and plot execution.

Content Rating

http://sagethoughtsonbooks.blogspot.com/2017/11/prettyboy-must-die.html

I enjoyed the plot of this book and loved the diversity in it. The characters were really fun and interesting. I absolutely adored Bunker. At the end I found myself confused a few times with all of the twists and turns and mention of characters that I wasn't sure who they were, but all in all a fun, quick read that older fans of Alex Rider and Jason Steed should love.
I felt like there was way too much bad language in it, so I am not sure if I will purchase this for my middle school library. I will have to say, though, that the bad language felt realistic and not gratuitous. There were some pretty tense situations happening throughout, and the bad language was mostly contained to those situations.
Thanks for the loan. I will post a review on Goodreads closer to the release of the book.

This is a really cute read.

Sure, you sometimes need to turn off your logic sensors. Every so often your brain pops in and reminds you of the fact that the African American Teenage Spy working for the CIA who speaks three languages and manages to somehow convince Ukrainian mobsters that he’s a Ukrainian Speaking Tunisian Food Deliver Boy is (whew!) slightly unbelievable.

But, give it a minute because soon you just won’t care. You’ll be too busy enjoying the story. It’s fun, suspenseful, and a little bit silly. And Prettyboy is pretty cool.

This is an over the top adventure – a pure fun adrenaline rush – and I’m very glad I got to read it!

*ARC Provided via Net Galley