I really enjoyed Also Known As earlier in 2013, so when I saw the digital ARC for book 2 pop up on Netgalley I knew I needed to read it. Going Rogue did not disappoint! I will say, though, that if you haven’t read Also Known As, you should definitely read that one first. While Benway does take some time in Going Rogue to recap what happened previously, it’s not really enough to give you the whole feel for the first book.

Maggie is not your typical teenage girl, no matter how much she wants to be, because you just can’t have secret super spy parents and be one of the world’s best safecrackers and consider yourself normal. I appreciate her desire to have a normal life, though, and she gets it to some extent with her best friend, Roux, and her boyfriend, Jesse. It’s just that she also spends hours crammed into tiny crawlspaces in international criminals’ houses. Tiny detail.

What I like about this series is that it’s realistic in its characters, but the circumstances are fantastical. I mean, no… it’s probably not real life-like that these things happen to Maggie and her family and her friends, but their reactions to the situations feel real. That’s what I like in a book – normal people in abnormal circumstances. I like to see how real people react to stuff, and I think there’s a lot here in terms of Maggie’s family and their dedication to doing what’s right. And, side note, I’m also in love with the part of this that takes place in Paris because I want to go live there for a few years!

While the characters are high school aged, this is one I wouldn’t mind seeing in the hands of a middle schooler – fairly clean in the sex and language area. That’s refreshing.

Find both titles at your local bookstore, favorite online retailer, or here at Amazon’s Robin Benway author page.