I did like this book and there was a real element of nostalgia to it, but I wished there was more plot to it as well as more hardcore romance. In some ways, it felt more like adult fiction or women's fiction than true romance, which is the genre I vastly prefer.

That said, returning to Ally Carter's writing after my childhood/adolescence as a fan of the Gallagher Girls was EXCELLENT.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

CW: gun violence, violence, parental abandonment (past), murder in self-defense, childhood illness, vivid nightmares that cause the MMC to choke the FMC during a nightmare due to trauma from his past

I would recommend (SPOILERS)

-m/f contemporary romantic suspense
-amnesia
-a gruff, competent spy who is only soft for her
-fake marriage
-forced proximity
-grumpy/sunshine
-escapism at its finest

Gosh this book. This is escapism, an adventure movie, and just an epic romcom all in one book and i loved every minute of it. I want to be careful and not say too much. I went into this one with very little info and I highly recommend doing that.

This moved at the breakneck speed it needed to, the pacing was exceptional. The use of the dual POV, how every page I was wondering what was going on, the twists and the turns. How the MMC is an entirely and badass spy but is just soft for the FMC (the blurb doesn't give names so I won't) and just can't stay away. The chemistry between the two of them as they had such an attraction yet also are trying to not get killed. I was eating it up and just don't know what to do with myself now that it's over. This gave me the feelings and vibes of watching Speed and other adventure romance movies. Honestly I'm just waiting for the movie announcement and begging for that ending to mean this will be a series.

Honestly just DM me because you are going to need someone to scream about this book with and I am here for you. Just read it, enjoy it and then stare at the wall with me because this book is spectacular.

Steam: 2

LOVED this action rom-com that’s reverse Bourne Identity with a healthy dose of com!

This book delivered exactly what it promised: a fun caper across countries à la Jason Bourne/Mission Impossible, with loads of annoyed enemies to lovers and all the hilarious situations. I was going to read the first chapter before bed, and then suddenly it was 1 AM and I had inhaled the first 60%. It’s SO hard to put down. I absolutely loved all the references to tropes and some of the twists near the end, and the heroine is one of the most likable protagonists I’ve read in a long time.

Highly recommend for lovers of romcoms or twists on actions spy stories!

All the gratitude to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc! I’ll be ordering my own copy.

This was a surprisingly fast, fun read.
The characters won me over, chapter by chapter and some chapters had me laughing out loud.
This was so much fun!

This was a book that had me hooked from the first page and I couldn’t put it down. A woman wakes up and doesn’t know who she is and gets involved in a spy plot with a very handsome spy. The banter between the two was amazing and had me chucking the whole book. The tension and romance between the two was amazing. The never ending action kept my attention the whole time. I loved this story and really hope there is another one about the sister.

Thank you to NetGAlley and HarperCollins Publishers for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ally Carter's adult debut is everything an Ally Carter fan could want and everything a first-time Ally Carter reader needs.

Romance, Action, Aventure, and more. Carter's writing is so distinct in the best of ways. Each character's voice rings true and finding a fast-paced, adventurous, romantic, and comedy novel is unique in adult fiction. I am a huge Ally Carter fan and have read all of her books and THe Blonde Identity does not disappoint.

You will laugh, gasp, swoon, and panic with the characters during this novel. Fans of The Princess Bride, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and any spy novel will want to pick this up!

Having first encountered Ally Carter through her "Gallagher Girls" series and subsequent work in the YA sector of literature, I'm well-acquainted with how good she is at crafting excellently-engaging, edge-of-your-seat spy-action coupled with witty banter, cheeky humor, and root-for-them romance. That talent is as on display with this foray into fiction for adults as it is in her YA offerings, and I simply cannot wait to see what comes next - hopefully, it's more adventures with this crew, because they are as utterly delightful as the Gallagher Girls cast, the Embassy Row cast, and the Heist Society cast. This is a terrific addition to her bibliography, and anyone looking for a wild, globe-trotting ride full of spies, shadowy villains, and two main characters who are vibrant individually but sheer magic together, will find exactly what they're looking for in "The Blonde Identity."

Oh I absolutely adored this book!!! 😍 From the first page I was HOOKED.
I fell in love with Sawyer and Zoe!

This book had it all:
💗 sizzling chemistry
💗 adventure
💗 twists
💗 FAKE MARRIAGE
💗 Zoe. She was the kind of main character you could relate to, but also wanted to be when you grow up 🤣
💗 THE DECLARATION SCENE
💗 and so many other things but I can’t list them because they’d be spoilers. 😩

Basically you need this book in you life. That is all. you’ll thank me after you read it.

Ally Carter did it again! Like she and many other said this is basically an adult Gallagher girls ( which middle school me was completely obsessed with!! ). This book was fun, face-paced, and overall and easy and enjoyable read. The book starts off with a bang and the readers are really thrown into it all which I loved because honestly with some other books the info dumping gets a little to much for me and it’s nice to read something that automatically hooks you from the start! I don’t want to give away to much of the plot but like I mentioned before this is basically an adult Gallagher girls ( adult as In content and not spice ( she has closed door scenes and not open ) Both the fmc and MMC’ are both badasses in my opinion and their interactions with each other had me laughing at times to! I can’t wait for it to be released in the fall and Ally thank you for making my adult Gallagher dreams come true!

A special thank to Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for sending me e arc in exchange for an honest review!

This is the adult Gallagher Girls book of my dreams, and I loved every page! It had the same puns, humor, and rom-com vibes as the Gallagher Girls books but as an adult novel. If you are looking for a serious spy novel, this is not the book for you, but if you want a hilarious enjoyable rom-com race throughout Europe, this is perfection! I love that even though this is a sillier spy novel, the twists kept me on my toes, and I could never guess what would happen next! I have been obsessed with Ally Carter since the early 2000s, and I'm so glad she decided to start writing adult rom-coms. This book was a blast, and I cannot wait for the second book!

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I loved this book! It is perfectly paced, and the characters are easy to enjoy. The action just sucks you in from page one and will keep you engaged all the way to the end of the book. It is the perfect read if you want adventure and action, with a lovely romance thrown in. I can’t wait to recommend this book!

Thank you so much to Avon and Harper Voyage and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy.

ahhhhh this was seriously so GOOD. 😭 there was not ONE dull moment. i was literally hooked from start to finish. it felt like there was a live action movie playing in my head as i was reading. there were moments that made me crack up and moments that felt like a knife to the chest. but i absolutely our main characters (i don’t want to say names bc that is kinda part of the story) and their chemistry was insaneeee. 🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨🫂 and that ending?? ms carter am i sensing another book? bc that would eat. 🤭😩🤞🤞

This book was a wild ride! It follows a woman who wakes up in the middle of Paris with no memory of who she is. Oh did I mention that several people hunting her down? In an attempt to learn who she really is and escape, she tags along with the cute spy who is trying his hardest to keep her alive... and to not fall in love with her. Sparks and bullets fly as this duo try to survive in one of the most romantic cities in Europe!
~~~
I cannot put into words how much I loved this book! As a huge fan of Ally Carter, this adult spy novel is exactly what I needed. The book has everything as it is hilarious, suspenseful, shocking, and swoon-worthy.
At first, I thought that the the premise of spies in Paris may be a bit cliché, but it is done in such a fun way that I was hooked and read it as fast as I could. I enjoyed how fast-paced the plot was. I never felt that it dragged at any point. The mystery of who the main character is also surprisingly full of twists. You feel for her as she tries to navigate this world of espionage that everyone around her remembers but her. I will say that the plot is centered more on the characters relationship and connection than tense espionage plot points, but for this book, it really worked. I appreciated all the side characters and how they kept coming back into play in the most unexpected ways. The only thing that I wished had been different is more detail on how the evil character that is trying to kill them. I feel there was a missed opportunity to make this book a bit more serious and in-depth. Since it didn't, I wasn't as tense as I feel I could have been at certain points because I didn't know the real danger. This, of course, could be intentional to have the book be more light-hearted spy romance. Regardless of this critique, I really enjoyed the plot!
Speaking of characters, I couldn't get enough of them. They were funny, endearing, and relatable. I appreciated that the main character still had a strong personality that shined through despite the fact she didn't know who she was. Even if she wasn't aware of it, her mind knew what to do. Other books who have similar tropes make the amnesiac to be this boring zombie-like character without any personality, so I appreciated that this was not the case here. I also appreciated that the main characters had flaws and made mistakes. While the male protagonist was this smart super spy, he was human and made mistakes. I thought that the inclusion of this made the book more realistic and the characters more likable.
I think the strongest point of this book was the two main characters and their relationship as they had awesome chemistry. Their banter flowed really well in a way that had me chuckling. It never felt stilted or forced. As a fan of romcoms and spy novels, it's rare to see both genres come together in such an fun way.
Do I think that this book is a realistic version of spy life? No... Did I love absolutely every minute of it? Yes! I cannot recommend enough!

Waking up in the Parisian winter with a concussion, no shoes or coat, and a bad headache is not fun. And it's not even because of tourist stuff; this woman finds out that she has been mistaken for a spy, who happens to be her twin sister Alex. Her only hope is Alex's ex-partner Sawyer, who has a vested interest in keeping Alex's sister alive. It's not for any altruistic or sentimental reasons; Alex has vanished with a USB flash drive that can take down a mob boss, and her sister is the only lead that Sawyer has. At least, that's what Sawyer tells himself before he and the amnesiac woman pose as a married couple to hide from everyone who thinks that she is Alex.

This is a fun romance novel, with plenty of twists and turns. I've been following Ally Carter since high school and was honored to receive a review copy.

Let me just start this off by saying that this is a book I’ve been waiting my whole adult reading life for. I have been an Ally Carter fan since the early GG days when I was in middle school, so when she announced that she was writing an ADULT ROMANCE SPY 😍 book I about lost my ever loving mind in excitement, and then, when I got approved for an arc from Harper Collins, I wanted to cry. And all I have to say now that I’ve finished, is this book was everything I needed it to be and more. So, thank you Ally for this 🫶🏻

From the drop, Ally does what she does best and just pulls you into the story. Sawyer and Zoe are so funny and witty and watching them fall in love made me feel all warm and fuzzy and made me feel like I was reading about Cammie and Zach all over again (iykyk 🤪) The story was consistently moving without feeling like it was spiraling out of control or moving too slow. The mystery behind what was happening and sitting there trying to figure it out with Zoe was 😙 chefs kiss perfect. Every time more information was revealed was like a little red thread pulling the story together until the end when the cards were laid out and I was left sitting there like 😦 because I didn’t see it coming. The dynamic between Sawyer and Zoe will having rooting for the from the very beginning. In true Ally fashion, she’s brought me into this new world that I love and never want to leave and now I absolutely cannot wait for the next book 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 to come out!!

A reminder of all the reasons I love Ally Carter's YA series are on display in her new adult title. Fast-paced, action-packed, quick and quippy dialogue, and a grumpy/sunshine romance this hits all the right notes. Even though it takes place in winter in Paris, this is the perfect read for vacations, beaches, planes, trains and every thing in between.

3.5/5 rounding up

I was a fan of the Gallagher Girls series when I was younger, so I was excited to learn Ally Carter was writing another book. However, The Blonde Identity reads more as a young adult/new adult novel than a true adult mystery to me. The mystery stays pretty surface level and the reader doesn’t learn much about the threat and why they’re after the main character throughout most of the book. Additionally, the espionage didn’t have the level of detail I would expect from an adult spy novel. Overall, the characters were fun and story moves along quickly making it an enjoyable read.


Thank you to NetGAlley and Harper Voyager for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've been a fan of Ally Carter for years now, so I was excited to see was writing an adult thriller. The book starts out with a woman in the middle of the street unable to remember how she got there, who she was, or even why she was there. Right away the action starts with people yelling, attacking her while a guy is telling her to run. Their journey follows finding out who she is, who he is, and why people are chasing and trying to capture them. This is a fun espionage story with many twists and turns.

While I enjoyed this book, it did take me about 100 pages to get into it. The first 100 pages are so confusing given that the MC doesn't know anything. The character development is slow while the world around her is moving a fast speed. It took that long for the story to find its groove, and once it did, it was an entertaining spy story with many moving parts (in a good way) that had you guessing until the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If I gotta pitch this book I'd say The Spy Who Dumped Me meets The Citadel or The Night Agent and I'm aware that im using 2 spy movies/tv series but I can't think of anything else it reminds me of lol. I'd have loved this even more if it was a little more The Citadel/The Night Agent like , and the characters had more depth hence why I'm rating it "only" 4 ⭐️

Don't get me wrong - this was fast paced and entertaining, pure escapist joy, and not every book needs to be super deep and War and Peace like, I just personally get more invested in the characters and that's what matters most to me hence why I wish the MCs- Sawyer and Zoe - were more fleshed out and the book was longer.

The dual POV was perfect for this book especially considering it's only 300 pages and one of the MCs has no idea whats going on lol. It also helped with the tension and their chemistry. The story is filled with humour and banter and covert operations and fan fav tropes like - only one bed, will-they-wont-they, fake dating/(marriage? Lol), grump/sunshine.

The other thing preventing me from rating it 5 ⭐️ is the fact that this is adult and yet the romance is fade to black. That was very disappointing to me because the tension between the characters was building for more than 60% of the book, and it was great they had great chemistry and the tension was palpable so to have the culmination of that happen behind closed doors (literally!) was... pure torture, thank you very much.

The epilogue hints at a sequel that I couldn't find anywhere if it was confirmed yet or not, but if AC continues with this series I'll be picking the next one up!

Eternal gratitude to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC

She wakes up in the snow in Paris and doesn't know who she is. He finds her and realizes she is the twin sister of his partner and they are spies. This cinematic story is over the top and lots of fun.