Not If I Save You First

This book was completely enveloping and incredible. I was sucked in from the first scene and it left me breathless to the end. If you’re on the fence or trying to decide if this is for you take the plung. It’s worth it. I loved Maddie & Logan and can’t wait to reread this book!

Ally consistently delivers. Her heroines are relatable in how they face their struggles but they each have a unique way of overcoming the obstacles. Ally Carter's books are an amazing tool to help young women see the great resilience, determination and intelligence that resides within them. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a funny, sarcastic heroine who can not only save herself, but can also save the guy and quite possibly the world with nothing but her smarts and a bedazzled hatchet.

OKAY. IT WAS AMAZING.

The characters, the setting, the writing, the little plot twists, just... everything. It was a wild, wonderful, daring adventure. It's got everything you want in a book: the beauty and rugged nature of Alaska. Themes of friendship and betrayal. Russian spies! Also, I love that it's a standalone book. It's just all around delightful and wonderful.

GO READ.

I loved this book. Ally Carter never disappoints.
Its one of those books that you can’t put down until you’ve finished, and even then you want to reread to go through it all over again. I loved it. 10/10 totally recommend.

Another great Ally Carter book!
Maddie is another great heroine! She is a badass, who is entirely herself. She's girly, she's sarcastic, she's strong. Unlike other of Ally's main female characters, Maddie loves being girly, she bedazzled her hatchet! Yet this doesn't stop her from saving the day. The book was fast-paced, there was plenty of action and cute moments to keep you hooked in!

There’s always something really lovely about an Ally Carter book. While her novels are always action packed and full of suspense, they’re also always quite light, in a sense, and simply fun to read. Not if I Save You First in particular does not disappoint, and reading it was thoroughly enjoyable. I hope you check it out, I highly doubt it’s possible to be disappointed.

I really liked this book. I enjoyed learning actual facts about Alaska while reading it. I liked that I could see the connection to the title and cover in the book ( I read other reviews that were confused about it— made perfect sense to me.). Maddie really is the most lethal of all Ally’s characters.

I absolutely love Ally Carter's books, and this one is no exception. I read it in three sittings (it would've been one but I had class) and I loved going on this journey with Maddie and Logan. Buy it, you won't be disappointed!!!!

I thought I was reading a book about teenage revenge. It's pretty easy to see why I would come to that conclusion when you consider that right on the front of the book it says "How one girl saved the boy, got frostbite, and got even." I'm going to step into that for a moment & ask, when exactly did the girl (Maddie aka Mad Dog) get frostbite? Did I miss that part? Now lets take a peek at the back of the book. "Find the boy. Save the boy. Kiss Kill Make the boy pay for what he did to you." Again, I must ask, what did I miss? When did Maddie truly ever want to kill the boy (Logan)? I'm pretty sure never. Sure, she was very hurt and angry with him, but enough to kill? No, I didn't get that from this book at all. Nope, nadda, zip. I do not like being mislead about a book & I cannot imagine anyone else does either.

So what is this book about? Being the presidents son (Logan) and being the presidents body guards daughter (Maddie). The book introduces us to these two when they are still kids around 10 years old and in the White House being kids. They are the best of friends. The doodie hits the fan and Maddie finds herself living in Alaska with just her dad for company but sometimes not even that. Maddie learns quickly how to survive. She becomes tough as nails while Logan screws around as the presidents son, not happy with his life and feeling that his father, as the president wants him out of his life but loves him as his father. Yes, you read that correctly.

Eventually these two end up back together but the circumstances rapidly go downhill. This is also where the story gets a bit ridiculous and unbelievable. While I firmly applaud Maddie's bad ass survival skills, she is not that bad ass. Sorry, nope, no way. Also a young man of 16 or so who lived a pampered White House life is hardly going to be up to task in the Alaskan Wilderness during a major storm event. But hey? What do I know? Surely any young adult can morph into superman when needed. Okay, so I'm being a little extreme in my description, but really now, come on? The author really expects the reader to buy this miraculous crap?

Another disappointment is when there are adults around they are pretty incompetent. Maddie would have been killed right away. No way would she have continuously got away with tricking the adults by acting like a dumb teenage girl. Then we have Maddie's father who is all ultra secret service bad ass, but suddenly something... don't like spoilers so if you decide to read this, you'll know. And don't even get me started on the secret service or the bad guys. Totally believable - not!

Bottom line this book had real potential. I enjoyed the beginning of the book and found a lot of the survival aspect (what Maddie learned while living in the wilderness, not her super skills when the doo doo hits the fan) very realistic and enjoyable. However, this is not a book I would read again. That right there says it all. It's not worth a second read especially when one considers how many books there are in world begging to be read.

Ally Carter did it again. I honestly can’t express how much I love her books. They are always this amazingly fantastic mix of intrigue, action, and romance. And this book is no different.

The premise for this book is pretty straight forward. 6 years ago Logan’s mother was almost taken by a Russian criminal and his palls. Maddie’s father was shot protecting both Logan and his mother. Because that was his job as the head of the Secret Service. Fast forward 6 years and Logan is a trouble child sent to Alaska to rough it with his father’s old pal, Maddie’s dad. Logan and Maddie used to be besties, but then Logan never answered a single letter Maddie wrote him since she was taken to the middle of nowhere Alaska. And then less than 24 hours after getting to Alaska, Logan is taken by a Russian gunman.

But then Ally Carter does what she does best – puts me in a perpetual state of anxiety over these two characters and their odds of survival and also she makes me want them to just admit they like each other. The book is told in an alternating third person limited perspective from both Maddie and Logan. Which was such a good decision for this story. It increased the tension, the stakes, and my emotional investment in the story.

I loved these characters. Maddie is a survivor that really likes to look sparkly. Throughout the book Maddie uses her smallness and girl-ness to her advantage, she points it out and accentuate it to catch the men that are trying to kill her off guard. I’m always here for using misogyny to your advantage. Maddie is also really lonely and scared a lot of the time, but she tries to hide it so much. And when it comes through, it just breaks your heart. Also the girl is a genius and I love her for it. Logan is also alone and afraid even though he spends his time surrounded by people. And I really liked that perspective. After this event 6 years earlier, they both lost their only friends. And it effected them in similar but different ways. I loved that contrast. Logan is smart and strong, but he tries to downplay both of these things and use people’s preconceived notions about a boy who grew up in the White House to his advantage. He also cares a lot about the people he loves. His natural instinct isn’t to run towards danger like Maddie, but when the people he cares for are in danger there is nothing to stop him

Also the character / story arc for the kidnapper is absolutely amazing and I’m in awe of it to be completely honest.

This book is set in the Alaskan wilderness, and the setting was a character in its own right. Nature is harsh and indifferent, and you can’t be stupid, not even for a second. And the way the isolation of it was described was breath taking and mildly unsettling and it worked so well for the plot.

And of course the plot of this story is filled with twists and turns that were totally foreshadowed because Ally Carter doesn’t do anything by accident, but I still never see it coming. I honestly don’t know how. If you’ve read Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, the plot control is like that. The storytelling skill with Ally Carter’s books are masterful and gorgeous. The conflict is complex and well told, and the action and pacing of this book was really fast and perfect. It wasn’t too fast where things felt rushed, but it was fast enough that you are instantly pulled into the story and you do not want to put it down.

Ally Carter’s writing style is quick and cutting. It is humorous and while it isn’t quite a dark, dark humor, it is sort of a grey-sky kind of humor. And it just works so well for these characters and their story.

Anyways, I loved this book and it will be coming with me this summer when I go to Alaska because duh. Read this fantastic story.

Ten years old and your best friend is the President's son. Sounds unlikely until you know her father was head of security and the President's constant companion. Maddie (aka Mad Dog) and Logan (aka Rascal) have lead an unusual life exploring the White House together since they were young. This time they are together for a Russian dignitary's visit and dinner. Only when they are wandering they come across rude Russians bringing special food into the dinner. It isn't until the same three men are leaving that their worlds fall apart. The cart they were pushing in with the food seems heavier leaving, and the hem of the first lady's red dress is sticking out. Logan pushes his panic button and all hell breaks out with gunfire. Maddie's father is hurt, but the first lady is rescued.

Fast forward six years and the meat of the story is Maddie and her father living in isolation in the Alaskan wilderness. Maddie has become hardened by the conditions and constantly is left on her own while her dad flies off helping others in the wilderness as needed. Self sufficient as a teenager, Maddie can chop wood, throw her hatchet with accuracy, catch fish without a net or pole, and shoot a gun with deadly accuracy as if her life depends on it, because it does. When Logan shows up (as punishment for evading his security detail again) it takes less than 24 hours before he is kidnapped and Maddie pushed over a clif.

Ally Carter writes fiction for young adults, but many of us not so young adults are addicted as well. Her characters come alive and the dialogue is realistic. The situations the main characters find themselves in are usually thrilling, nail biting interactions with evil adults that seem hopeless. However each book has such unique circumstances that it is never formulaic. The outcome of the main characters is never obvious or taken for granted. In short it is a book that grabs your attention and keeps it to the last written word. Don't miss the newest exciting adventure in Ms Carter's long line of successes. It is captivating!

@kidlitexchange #partner ? Thanks to #kidlitexchange for the review copy of this book. All opinions are my own. Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter. ???? Maddie And Logan are best friends, but not just any best friends. Logan is the President's son and Maddie's Dad is the secret service agent in charge of the President. Until one day he isn't and then he moves Maddie to Alaska where there is no tv, no phone signal, and no internet and for 6 long years she writes Logan letters, never getting any response. One day, Logan shows up at the cabin in Alaska and suddenly he expects to be friends with her. She is so mad, so cold, and so frustrated with him she wants him dead. But suddenly he is taken and now she will have to save him before she can kill him. This YA read is full of action and keeps you engaged while you can almost feel the cold from the Alaskan winter coming right through the pages.

After a near-death experience prompts her Secret Service agent father to relocate their little family to a remote Alaskan cabin, Maddie MIGHT have been able to cope, if only she had somebody to talk to. But when all her letters to her best friend Logan go unanswered, Maddie has to face the fact that she's pretty much on her own . . . until six years later when Logan shows up in Alaska for his own safety, because apparently it's considered unacceptably risky behaviour when the President's son makes a habit of ditching his panic button and security detail.

Now Maddie has a lot to forgive and no particular motivation to do so . . . until a Russian kidnapper has the effrontery to knock her off a cliff and kidnap HER number one enemy right out from under her nose. Naturally she has to go after him, because as she puts it, protecting Logan's family is kinda her family business. That is definitely the only reason she has to save him, of course. Not because he's gotten all grown up and irritatingly handsome, oh no, not that. Never that.

This is a tightly-written story that clips along at an excellent pace. There are really no lags to speak of; just a few places to catch your breath, as it were, between one event and the next. The narrative voice is crisp and light, and the hazards of the wilderness are credibly entwined with the grimmer menace provided by mankind. A few twists are decently developed along the way, and the dual struggles of girl against man and girl against nature are nicely developed in tandem with each other. Maddie presents as a highly capable character it's easy to root for, and Logan's own betrayal of her is easy enough to understand once he has a chance to explain himself.

Another go-over by the copyeditor might have caught the two typographic mistakes I noticed ("shutter" for shudder and "peak" for peek) and there is at least one jarring narrative inconsistency when the close third-person narration has Maddie reflect on the kidnapper putting a knife to her throat at a point in the story when he has only put one to Logan's, but those are minor flaws in an overall solid story. The internal logic of each character is consistently developed, the major plot points hang neatly together and the story itself is a truly fun, often funny, highly enjoyable read.

Very much recommended!

My nephew (12 years old) really liked this book, as he said, "because it kept going and I wanted to know what happened next." He thought the characters were "realistic and interesting," and he wanted to "read more about them." He also asked if he could read something else from the author immediately after finishing this book, which is always a great sign (and opportunity!) for parents or caregivers.

I have adored Ally Carter books for years and this one is no exception! I love her writing style and it's never a boring book. I accidentally finished this one in a solid 2 hours. I'm in college and to be able to have the time to read this book reminded me of why I love reading in the first place. When I looked up from finishing that final page, I was expecting to be in my bedroom at home or in a car (that's where I usually get my reading for fun done), but I was in my college dorm. I love how nostalgic reading can be, and Ally is one of my most nostalgic authors. Thank you for another well loved book.

I thought I was reading a book about teenage revenge. It's pretty easy to see why I would come to that conclusion when you consider that right on the front of the book it says "How one girl saved the boy, got frostbite, and got even." I'm going to step into that for a moment & ask, when exactly did the girl (Maddie aka Mad Dog) get frostbite? Did I miss that part? Now lets take a peek at the back of the book. "Find the boy. Save the boy. Kiss Kill Make the boy pay for what he did to you." Again, I must ask, what did I miss? When did Maddie truly ever want to kill the boy (Logan)? I'm pretty sure never. Sure, she was very hurt and angry with him, but enough to kill? No, I didn't get that from this book at all. Nope, nadda, zip. I do not like being mislead about a book & I cannot imagine anyone else does either.

So what is this book about? Being the presidents son (Logan) and being the presidents body guards daughter (Maddie). The book introduces us to these two when they are still kids around 10 years old and in the White House being kids. They are the best of friends. The doodie hits the fan and Maddie finds herself living in Alaska with just her dad for company but sometimes not even that. Maddie learns quickly how to survive. She becomes tough as nails while Logan screws around as the presidents son, not happy with his life and feeling that his father, as the president wants him out of his life but loves him as his father. Yes, you read that correctly.

Eventually these two end up back together but the circumstances rapidly go downhill. This is also where the story gets a bit ridiculous and unbelievable. While I firmly applaud Maddie's bad ass survival skills, she is not that bad ass. Sorry, nope, no way. Also a young man of 16 or so who lived a pampered White House life is hardly going to be up to task in the Alaskan Wilderness during a major storm event. But hey? What do I know? Surely any young adult can morph into superman when needed. Okay, so I'm being a little extreme in my description, but really now, come on? The author really expects the reader to buy this miraculous crap?

Another disappointment is when there are adults around they are pretty incompetent. Maddie would have been killed right away. No way would she have continuously got away with tricking the adults by acting like a dumb teenage girl. Then we have Maddie's father who is all ultra secret service bad ass, but suddenly something... don't like spoilers so if you decide to read this, you'll know. And don't even get me started on the secret service or the bad guys. Totally believable - not!

Bottom line this book had real potential. I enjoyed the beginning of the book and found a lot of the survival aspect (what Maddie learned while living in the wilderness, not her super skills when the doo doo hits the fan) very realistic and enjoyable. However, this is not a book I would read again. That right there says it all. It's not worth a second read especially when one considers how many books there are in world begging to be read.