The New York Times bestselling YA author of the beloved Gallagher Girls series bursts onto the adult scene with a fast-paced, hilarious road trip rom-com about a woman with amnesia who discovers she’s the identical twin sister of a rogue spy… and must team up with a rugged, grumpy operative to stay alive.
THE BLONDE IDENTITY by ALLY CARTER
Series: Unknown
Publication date: August 8, 2023
Published by: Avon
Genre: rom-com, romantic suspense
SYNOPSIS
It’s the middle of the night in the middle of Paris and a woman just woke up with no memory.
She only knows three things for certain:
1. She has a splitting headache.
2. The hottest guy she has (probably) ever seen is standing over her, telling her to run.
And oh yeah…
3. People keep trying to kill her.
She doesn’t know who. Or why. But when she sees footage of herself fighting off a dozen men there’s only one explanation: obviously. . . she’s a spy!
Except, according to Mr. Hot Guy, she’s not. She’s a spy’s identical twin sister.
Too bad the only person who knows she’s not the woman they’re looking for is this very grouchy, very sexy, very secret agent who (reluctantly) agrees to help her disappear. Which is easier said than done when a criminal organization wants you dead and every intelligence service in the world wants you caught.
Luckily, no one is looking for a pair of lovesick newlyweds on their honeymoon. And soon they’re lying their way across Europe—dodging bullets and faking kisses as they race to unravel a deadly conspiracy and clear her sister’s name.
But with every secret they uncover, the truth shifts, until she no longer knows who to trust: the twin she can’t remember or the mysterious man she can’t let herself forget…
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Praise for The Blonde Identity:
“Ally Carter wrote a unique, delightful, hilarious, unputdownable romance! I didn’t know I needed an adventure romcom about grumpy/sunshine spies with amazing chemistry and a dash of amnesia, but it was exactly what was missing in my life. I’m wonderstruck by The Blonde Identity! (Also, this book needs to be a movie!)”
— Ali Hazelwood, New York Times Bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis
"Spies! Amnesia! And banter that’ll make you chant “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” No one writes an action rom-com quite like Ally Carter." — Rachel Hawkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs
“A delightful, delicious joy ride of a romp!" — Susan Elizabeth Phillips, #1 New York Times bestselling author of When Stars Collide
"The Blonde Identity was everything I wanted in rom-com and more! Full of brilliant banter, clever humor, and so many swoon worthy scenes, this was a perfect book. I hope Ally Carter writes more stories in this world, because every second of this unexpected adventure made me smile. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun reading a book.” — Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Curse for True Love
“Completely captivating—funny, fresh and deliciously swoon-worthy, The Blonde Identity had me smiling over every action packed page. I loved it.” — Annabel Monaghan, author of Nora Goes Off Script and Same Time Next Summer
"The Blonde Identity is hands-down the cutest, most fast-paced wild ride of a rom-com I’ve ever read. Utterly impossible to put down!" — Lynn Painter, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Wager
"The Blonde Identity is explosively funny and jam-packed with chemistry! I couldn’t have loved this hilarious romcom more. The story is full of humor, action, romance, and emotions that tug on your heartstrings. Ally is a romcom genius!" — Sarah Adams, author of The Cheat Sheet
“I absolutely adored The Blonde Identity! I loved the humor, Zoe and Sawyer were perfection, and the chemistry… I couldn’t put it down.” — Lorraine Heath, New York Times bestselling author
"I am a Gallagher Girls fan, and The Blonde Identity satisfied ALL of my GG cravings! Carter has that magic formula of the perfect amount of brilliance, fun, and sizzling banter down pat!" — Jesse Q Sutanto, bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties and Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ally Carter writes books about sneaky people and movies about Christmas. She is the New York Times Best-selling author of the Gallagher Girls, Heist Society, and Embassy Row series for teens as well as WINTERBORNE HOME FOR VENGEANCE AND VALOR for younger readers. Her books have been published all over the world, in over twenty languages.
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REVIEW
The Blonde Identity by Ally CarterMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
When I read the synopsis for the book, my interest was piqued immediately for several reasons. Sometimes I get stuck in a rut reading the same authors and genres over and over, and I need something new and refreshing. I have read romantic suspense in the past and enjoyed it, but it is not a genre I read very often. I usually do not read the grumpy-sunshine trope either, which Sawyer and Zoe represented perfectly. Another draw was that this seemed to be like a rom-com suspense which I have not experimented in reading before. Ally Carter is new-to-me, but she has an established fanbase for her popular Gallagher Girls YA books. All of these factors appealed to me and I hoped would satisfy my appetite for something outside my typical box.
The book starts out with the heroine waking up on the ground on a snowy night in Paris. She has no idea how she got there, but before she can even start to try to comprehend what's going on, a strange man shows up and starts yelling at her to run. Obviously, anyone would be scared out of their mind, but Zoe decides to worry about her apparent amnesia at a more convenient time. Getting shot at kind of puts things into perspective. It isn't until much later that she comes to the conclusion that she's in a very precarious situation, and the only person who seems to remotely be an ally is Jake Sawyer. A man who doesn't seem to like her very much, and may not be altogether trustworthy.
Alex was looking at herself. But she wasalso looking at a stranger. And the tinysmidge of hope that she’d been carryingfor the past two hours faded away,because her memory didn’tcome back with her reflection.
Alex is Zoe's twin sister-the root of all of her current problems. She and Sawyer are both operatives, and she has gone "rogue", disappearing with a flash drive full of information that criminals and every alphabet agency in existence want to get their hands on. For a short time, Zoe believes she actually is Alex, but thankfully Sawyer puts it together that there has been a case of mistaken identity. Turns out, a mistaken identity and a forgotten identity is a very bad combination.
I honestly don't think I've read a book before where the protagonist has amnesia during the entire book, right from page one. For me, it created my biggest issue with the book: it created a barrier in getting to know and understand the character I was reading about. If the character doesn't know anything about her history or who she is as a person, how will the reader know? How do I, as the reader, connect to that person and understand them? Well, it was hard. I do give the author credit, because she added things to Zoe's dialogue that slipped out unconsciously that hinted at her profession. I guessed that pretty early. She seemed to be naive and didn't like swearing, and that was the extent of her personality.
The good thing about being an amnesiacis that when your life flashes beforeyour eyes it doesn’t take very long.
Although Zoe was completely unprepared for the danger she was thrown into, she managed to hold her own. She probably gave Sawyer an ulcer and a few grey hairs, but at least she didn't let an impossible situation defeat her. The two of them are complete opposites-a severe, blunt, curmudgeon and a flighty, wide-eyed innocent. He would bark orders and she'd correct his language and tease him to lighten the mood. Their differences played off of each other, and very quickly she started to melt his hardened heart.
Once Zoe and Sawyer got onto the boat, they had some down time where they could have some more personal interactions. I couldn't exactly say they got to know one another as one was an amnesiac and the other was filled with secrets and uncommunicative, but they did start to grow an attachment towards one another. Sawyer starts to yearn for a normal life where he isn't trading his self-respect and safety for the government. He's seen the trade-off that his father made, and he doesn't ever expect to have a happy and fulfilling life with a family of his own. The solitary existence he lives is a lonely one filled with regrets and trauma. There is no one he can lean on to help heal his battered heart. For the first time he begins to imagine what that might feel like the more time he spends with Zoe.
I just . . . I just want you to know that in this business . . .in this life . . . people like Alex—and me—we don’t get a happy ending.”She looked at him with more pity and compassionthan he’d seen in decades.“Then what do you get?”Not you, he thought. I’ll never get you.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. I did have a bit of difficulty getting into the story because of my lack of connection to Zoe, but she grew on me in the second half. The plot was powered by the action scenes rather than any romantic emotional development, so the feelings that came about between the protagonists did feel abrupt rather than organic. Having said that, I did think they were cute together and just based on the few scenes with Zoe's sister Alex, I would probably read her upcoming book as well. If you like the grumpy-sunshine trope, and rom-coms, this could be the right fit for you. Even though it wasn't a five star enthusiastic read, I'm glad I decided to try this author's new series out.
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