5/5 ⭐️ for this fast paced thriller by Jay Martel! I was hooked from page 1 and couldn't flip fast enough. If you or someone are into interactive thrillers you'll want to put this book at the top of your TBR! I will for certain read more books by thia author.

Codebreaker by Jay Martel is a young adult thriller about 17 year old Mia Hayes, who receives a cryptic message from her missing father , a former CIA code expert, after her mother is killed in a government raid. As she deciphers clues hidden across Washington, D.C., Mia uncovers a conspiracy while evading federal agents and teaming up with a rebellious hacker. The story blends suspense, grief, and puzzle solving in a fast-paced, interactive adventure. Thank you netgalley and the publisher for letting me receive this book early.

Buckle up and get ready for exhilarating action, interactive puzzles and codes, and a race across DC to stop a deadly attack. I started this novel on a road trip and nearly finished it in one sitting. Unfortunately, it was my turn to drive before I reached the end.

Fans of The Da Vinci Code and National Treasure will enjoy this novel with its codes and history surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The author's note at the beginning informs readers that when they come across a star symbol they can either try to solve the puzzle on their own or read on to discover main character Mia's solution. Her codebreaker father introduced her to codes and puzzles at a young age. She's quite an expert and is rarely stumped. In fact, her knowledge of them is one of the only things keeping her alive while being chased by government agents.

Luckily, she's not alone. When Logan returns Mia's wallet after she drops it on the street, the attraction is mutual (he's a total charmer), and they arrange a date for that evening. It turns into a killer (pun totally intended) of a first date that neither are likely to forget. They may be young, but with her clever codebreaking skills and his hacking abilities, they make a far more formidable team than expected and outwit and outplay government agents more than once.

This is a high stakes whirlwind of a novel I could easily imagine on Netflix, and I'm hoping it's picked up. Highly recommended for fans of treasure hunts, government conspiracies, and twisty plots. An outstanding debut novel.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I thought this one was interesting. It had tons of twists and turns I never saw coming. I liked that the author made it so the reader could pause and solve the puzzles too. It just felt like so much of this book was puzzles compared to plot.

I enjoyed reading this very entertaining novel. I liked learning so much about codes, the many kinds and how they have been used in the past. There is also fun information about the locations Mia and Logan visit, such as Ford's Theatre. I liked all the puzzles but would not call the style of this book interactive. Readers are given a chance to solve each message but it makes no change to the progression of the plot.

The plot is a good one where only two young people can do the work to save the nation from terrorists. Hunting the codes and deciphering them bring a new aspect to a familiar plot. I hope this imaginative writing duo produce more adventures because I'll be watching for them.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

Codebreaker by Jay Martel is a fast-paced YA thriller that blends puzzles, history, and high-stakes adventure into an engaging ride. Mia Hayes thinks her summer will be filled with coffee shop shifts and college apps, but her world is upended when federal agents storm her home, leaving her mother dead and her father a fugitive. What follows is a whirlwind chase through Washington, D.C., packed with secrets, lies, and encoded messages that push Mia into a dangerous game she never asked to play.

What I loved most is the interactive element—Martel invites the reader to try their hand at cracking the codes right alongside Mia. It gives the story an immersive quality that makes it stand out from other YA thrillers. The settings, from iconic landmarks to hidden corners of D.C., add a cinematic feel, and the constant action kept me turning pages quickly.

Mia is a relatable heroine, torn between grief, anger, and the courage to face the truth, while Logan, the hacker with a rebellious streak, adds charm and a spark of romance without overshadowing the plot. Their dynamic felt natural and balanced the tension with a touch of lightness.
At times, the pacing felt a little breathless, with so many twists that it risked overwhelming the emotional weight of Mia’s story. I also wished for a deeper dive into her father’s motives, which sometimes felt rushed compared to the action sequences.

Still, Codebreaker is a thrilling, smart, and inventive YA mystery that will appeal to fans of puzzles, conspiracies, and high-octane adventure. It’s both fun and thought-provoking, and the codebreaking twist makes it especially memorable.

MIA and her family wow. What surprises Mia had in store about herself and her family, the revelations will rock her world. As will, the revelations about the enemies of America right inside of America and our governments.
Her father told her, " Trust no one", before he ran off on her ! Great advice but also hard to do especially at first. She meets Logan,a young man about her age who there is an almost instant connection. But can she really trust him ? That's a question I also asked myself throughout the story more than once. Does he have a secret agenda ?
The codes were great, intriguing even. I was glad because at first I worried that I wouldn't like the story because I really don't like those kind of puzzles. Loved how it was shown and explained. One clue led to another clue and so one. Mia remembered how her father often, said, Everything is something ! That is one of the things that helped her push through. And it was even more dangerous that her father had warned it would be. I liked learning more of the histories and myths about America. And how Surrett and Powell are just the face of that evil within and behind a society in the Government.
Brilliant writing and Brilliant fleshing out the people in the story especially Mia and her see-sawing emotions as she runs for her life.
I liked the ending sentence: "It was time for her discover who she could be."

Code Breaker by Jay Martel is a YA adventure story. The puzzles and codes are fun and the author allows the reader to chose to solve the puzzles or read the solution. It is entertaining, with just the right amount of suspense to keep it interesting for adults and teens alike. It's well paced, well structured and engaging. It's a twisty treasure hunt with a little American history mixed in.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's press for my review copy of this book.

This book made me think (in a good way). I loved all the clues Mia's dad left her. This book reminded me a lot of National Treasure and if you loved that movie you'll love this one!

This is a fabulous action/adventure story. Mia loses her parents in the beginning and the CIA is after her to try to retrieve what her father has left her. She has no idea why they want it so badly or what it actually is. But, with the help of Logan, and the clues her father left her, Mia is determined to find the answers. The question is, can she solve the clues in time? Who can she trust?

Seventeen-year-old Mia’s globetrotting family has always been close. Her father,is a history professor and cryptography specialist, has moved them around the world through his various jobs in academia. Her mother’s work as a freelance journalist focusing on “political unrest and social injustice” has also been well suited to travel. When her dad accepts a position at Georgetown University, the Hayes family returns to the States. Mia has peaceful plans for the summer―find a part-time job at a coffee shop and work on her college applications. Those plans are shattered one night when government agents arrive unannounced at her home seeking something they believe her father has taken. When the dust settles, her mother is dead and her father is gone, a fugitive on the run.. What will Mia do? She refuses to take a phone call on her birthday from her traitor father, but she is being monitored, and it sets off a series of events that lead to her father’s death, and her realizing the puzzle box contains all the answers to why her life has been upended. She bumps into a boy named Logan during a protest, and he ends up with her as she races for answers. Logan’s presence is strangely convenient.

One of the many things that I enjoyed reading the nove was when Logan found a code difficult to break but Mia was quite fast in doing so. I also enjoyed Mia trying to ignore the feelings she felt for Logan. The author has Logan’s presence serve the story well. It gives Mia someone to bounce ideas off and to explain how she knows things, which helps the reader to follow along. The book has a neat interactive feature where it signals when there are enough clues that you could pause and solve the puzzle yourself, or you can ignore it and find out the answer as Mia solves it. This format is appealing to me. The story is suspenseful and full of action from start to finish. It has intriguing ties to Lincoln’s assassination, and the civil unrest and protests that are integral to the solution ( it seems relevant to today’s political climat.). The only thing that didn’t seem well developed was the characters themselves. There are some attempts through flashbacks to give Mia and Logan some depth to their characters., It is a quick-paced plot with fun mysteries to solve against a believable action.

🫆 Codebreaker (thank you @wednesdaybooks )
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Another YA thriller that I loved! This writing duo has written one heck of a plot that is fast-paced and fun for both teen and adult readers. I loved how they wove codes into the story and how the plot was structured.

Thank you, St. Martin's Press | Wednesday Books, for sending me this ARC. I was surprised by how much I loved this! This story had so much depth, and I enjoyed watching it unfold. The code-breaking added layers and really engaged me as a reader. I especially loved the MMC and FMC, their background stories, and how their present day stories developed. There's a splash of sadness, but it just adds to the plot. I devoured this story, and honestly, even though it wrapped up perfectly, I crave more. This book would be amazing as a series, though I'm unsure how the *code cracking* would continue. I'd love to see more from these characters. Overall, a fun and addicting read. Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys an interactive, puzzle-solving read.

Pub Date Jul 22 2025

As always, all thoughts are my own. 🖤✨

[arc review]
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Codebreaker releases July 22, 2025

<i>“History’s like that […] There’s always another story. A hidden one. A fuller, truer one just under the surface. One that rarely gets told.”</I>

On Mia’s seventeenth birthday, just three weeks after an ambush that caused her mother’s death and lead her father to flee, she learns for the first time that her father’s job as a professor was really a cover for his role in the CIA.

Now that Mia is being hunted down by the CIA for something that her father stole, she is determined to carry on their annual father-daughter birthday scavenger hunt across D.C. in the hopes of finding this item that is of great importance to the government.

With an extremely fast pace, engaging plotline, and interactive codes to solve alongside the main characters, this was exactly what I needed to get out of a reading slump.

This debut is perfect for readers who love <I>The Da Vinci Code<I> and </I>The Inheritance Games</I>, but are looking for something with more political themes.

Started strong with secret codes, historical ciphers, and just the right amount of intrigue… and then went way too over-the-top for my taste, way too fast. I think I came in expecting something quieter and more puzzle-driven, and instead it’s cranked to full-throttle action from the jump. Totally a “me not you” situation — I can see this working for readers who want nonstop high drama, but I’m tapping out. DNF for me

Codebreaker is fast paced, captivating, and helped pull me out of a reading slump! I was hooked from the first page – we meet Mia, a young woman exploring her options for college as she gets ready for her final year of high school. She has a special bond with her parents, especially her Dad, who creates elaborate codes and scavenger hunts for her birthday. She comes home one night to find her parents acting strange and is surprised when they give her an early birthday gift. Later that evening her whole world is turned upside down and the rest of the book follows her adventure as she uncracks the code her Dad left her while being chased by federal agents. The pacing of this book was well done and I enjoyed that the author created interaction points for the reader, allowing us to try and crack the codes before they were revealed by Mia. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for an ARC of Codebreaker in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts that follow are my own.

"This is what you get for playing spy."

Codebreaker by Jay Martel follows a teenage girl named Mia after her life is turned upside down three weeks before her birthday. Her mom is killed before her eyes and her father runs, leaving Mia to the mercy of the world. Three weeks later, Mia is spending her seventeenth birthday at a protest in Washington DC where she meets a charming hacker named Logan. While she is enjoying her time with Logan, a voicemail from her father upends everything Mia thought about her parents and what might have truly happened that night three weeks ago. It is up to Mia and Logan to decode her father's message, unearth secrets about her family, and stop a deadly attack. Mia may just hold the clues to saving the world in the palm of her hand.

This book was so much fun from beginning to end. Jay Martel masterfully combines exciting elements of National Treasure with a fun spy adventure and invites readers to choose how they want to experience the story. The reader can help Mia decode the codes or simply just read along and find out the answers as the characters do. I solved a couple of the codes but as the story went on, I was so into it, I just let Mia do the work and I was along for the ride. The relationship between Mia and Logan was exciting and the banter was so funny. The only thing that I think the story could've benefited from was time/date stamps. I had no clue until the very end of the story that all of the events happened within the course of a day.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book if you enjoy National Treasure as well as the puzzles and intrigue of the Inheritance Games series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes! 5/5 stars!

Thank you to Wednesday Books for the free book. These opinions are my own.

This is a fascinating interactive format. It tells the story of Mia, a high schooler whose life completely changes when her mother is shot and her father goes on the run. Her only means of finding answers is to follow the clues her father left her in a scavenger hunt of codebreaking. And the book incorporates the clues to the codebreaking with pauses to encourage the reader to try their own hand at solving the puzzles.

I really appreciated the history of codebreaking and encryption and how deftly it was incorporated into the plot. I would have loved further explanation in the form of an author's note about the research done for this book, as it seems to have been extensive.

I found the puzzles pretty easy, and I also guessed most of the plot twists. But it's hard for me to end up recommending a younger YA age. This book includes some rather graphic and difficult to read scenes. So it does feel that it veers to the older end of the YA age range.

I appreciated how it addressed some of the big current issues around income inequality and ethical questions about how societal change should happen. And I really appreciated how points of view were used throughout the story, largely staying on Mia but with occasional insights into other important characters.

Rounded up to 4 stars

4 1/2

Mia Hayes arrives home in the evening expecting normality that quickly shatters when her home is invaded, her mother is fatally wounded, and then her father flees. In the subsequent weeks, Mia tries to rebuild her life but that becomes impossible when it becomes apparent that her father was not who she thought he was and may have been involved in some illegal, perhaps treasonous, activities. Her feelings change though after he leaves her a voicemail that sends her on an adventure using all of the codebreaking skills he’s taught her over the years. In a classic meet-cute, Mia befriends hacker Logan, who promises to help her whether she wants it or not in Jay Martel’s interactive YA spy thriller, Codebreaker.

First let’s tackle that word that might have caught your attention: interactive. How is a paper copy novel interactive? you might ask. At certain points during Mia’s adventure, you’re introduced to different types of actual codes (provided with their interesting history as well I might add) and given a key to solve the code as Mia is doing. Through flashbacks, we see Mia’s father introduce her to each code, frequently in far flung places, providing colorful settings to an already engrossing and detailed story.

I was thoroughly caught up in Mia’s adventure, rooting for her to prevail, and I was equally caught up in the history of codes, their origins and how they were used. Mia and Logan made a cute and fitting couple for a YA novel in which romance is taking a backseat to almost non-stop action.

One stumbling block that I couldn’t get over quickly was Mia’s reaction to losing both of her parents. When her breakdown did occur, it felt too little too late for me mostly because I was obsessing over her lack of reaction. I did puzzle over why I was fixed on that (maybe because I lost both of my parents, one when I was a kid and the other before middle age, and I was not extremely stoic?). A brief glance at other reviews told me that I was alone in my reaction. Perhaps Mia’s late reaction is normal for a 17-year-old? 🤷‍♀️ Anyway, well before reaching the middle of Codebreaker, I let it go and just let the book take me on its adventure.

I’d recommend Codebreaker for fans of Ally Carter’s teen spy novels although Codebreaker doesn’t have Carter’s humorous bent. Codebreaker is intelligent and an excellent YA adventure novel.

Many thanks to Wednesday Books for sending Codebreaker my way.

Mia’s happy life with her journalist mother and her professor father – who specializes in code and cipher systems – comes to a sudden end when men in suits invade their home, accusing her father of having stolen something valuable. The encounter ends with Mia’s mother dead from a gunshot, and her father fleeing the scene. Three weeks later, Mia is trying to honor her mother’s memory by attending a protest, where she meets charming, funny Logan. Her hopes for a fun and relaxing first date with him are dashed when the same people who accused her father come after Mia, insisting that she knows where her father is and where he hid the item he stole. Mia soon realizes that her father did, in fact, leave her clues to find the item, using the steps of a birthday scavenger hunt he had planned for her. With Logan in tow, Mia tries to solve the codes and puzzles of the scavenger hunt to get answers, and to keep one step ahead of the dangerous individuals who are now after her. Teen puzzle solvers will enjoy cracking codes alongside Mia, and Codebreaker will also appeal to readers who like their mysteries laced with adrenaline.