Liberty
The Spy Who (Kind of) Liked Me
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The bestselling author of Anatomy of Misfit and The Fall of Butterflies, Andrea Portes, is back with another irresistible snarky heroine in Liberty.
What is a hero? Paige Nolan knows. Edward Raynes, the young man who exposed America’s unconstitutional spying techniques, is a hero, even if half the dum-dums in the country think he’s a traitor. Or Paige's parents, journalists who were captured by terrorists while telling stories of the endangered and oppressed. They were heroes, too. Were. . . or are—no one has ever told Paige if they’re still alive, or dead.
Not heroes? Anyone in the government who abandoned her parents, letting them rot somewhere halfway across the world. And certainly not Paige herself, who despite her fluency in five languages and mastery of several obscure martial arts (thanks, Mom!) could do nothing to save them.
Couldn’t, that is, until she’s approached by Madden Carter, an undercover operative who gives her a mission—fly to Russia, find Raynes, and discover what other government secrets he’s stockpiled. In exchange, he’ll reopen the case on her missing parents. She’s given a code name and a cover as a foreign exchange student.
Who is a hero? Not Paige Nolan, but maybe, just maybe, Liberty is.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Paige Nolan's parents, lauded investigative journalists, have disappeared under mysterious circumstances in Damascus and are presumed dead. After Paige, a Bryn Mawr student, uses her significant martial arts abilities to take out a pair of belligerent "open carry" enthusiasts at an Applebee's, she attracts the attention of Madden, a handler from a top-secret government agency, who offers Paige a job and suggests that her parents may still be alive. Following some extensive physical training, Paige is off to Moscow to find Sean Raynes, a Snowdenesque hacker/whistleblower, who might be able to help find her parents. Portes (The Fall of Butterflies) gives her multilingual heroine a sharp-edged, love-it-or-hate-it voice that addresses the reader as a friend/coconspirator ("What we are looking at right now, you and I, is a very, and I mean very fancy restaurant in Moscow. This is, like, where Vladimir Putin has his lunch, when he's not bare-chested fishing, bare-chested invading neighboring countries"). Though this spy caper is a bit slow to ramp up, it's a blast once it does, and the ending suggests future missions for Paige. Ages 13 up.
