Book Review: All Fall Down by Ally Carter

A new series of global proportions -- from master of intrigue, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Ally Carter. 
This exciting new series from NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Ally Carter focuses on Grace, who can best be described as a daredevil, an Army brat, and a rebel. She is also the only granddaughter of perhaps the most powerful ambassador in the world, and Grace has spent every summer of her childhood running across the roofs of Embassy Row.
Now, at age sixteen, she's come back to stay--in order to solve the mystery of her mother's death. In the process, she uncovers an international conspiracy of unsettling proportions, and must choose her friends and watch her foes carefully if she and the world are to be saved.

Let me start by saying I love Ally Carter. Her series' got me through middle school and high school.
I didn't really like this book of hers, however. It's really disappointing to not like one of your favorite authors' work. I just didn't enjoy this one.
It felt to...kid-ish. I know its audience is younger than I am, but it felt like they were all 13 rather than 16+. It felt like I was reading a Nickelodeon/Disney Channel movie. (They're not bad but they are made for younger viewers and sometimes are really obvious about it.)

I was confused a majority of the book anyways. I don't know if it was how I read it or if it was the book. Either way I didn't fully understand what was happening. Having the protagonist be confused half the time didn't help in my case either. Then the story jumped around a lot. I lost sight of what the point of the story was, the characters didn't seem really real and used so that the main character wasn't seen as a loner. Or crazy. I'm still don't know who the real bad guy is. If there was one? I don't even know. 

Now that I'm older, I didn't find the brooding, mysterious, stays-in-the-shadows love interest very appealing. In fact it was kind of creepy. Not like a creeper but just that she likes him without him doing a lot. Have him have character or show some kindness towards the protagonist, not stay in the shadows and disappear all the time. When they eventually get together (and you know they will), it'll seem weird that they had so little time to "fall in love". But maybe that's just me.

I wanted to like this a lot. But I didn't. I'm sad. 

Read: March 2015

My Rating: 3 stars / 5 stars