Series Pick: City Spies: Golden Gate (book 2)

 

City Spies: Golden Gate (Book 2)

by James Ponti

Aladdin

Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

2021

432 pages (but these pages are so great, you'll want more the minute you read the last page!)

ISBN: 9781534414945

See this page for a fun seek and find!

Another blockbuster by James Ponti! The City Spies series is my favorite tween/teen reads in a long time. Perfection! Book two is BETTER than book one which is an uncommon feat for most authors, but not a pro like Ponti. He pulls out all the stops: a young team of teens brought together by an agent they call Mother train in a castle in Scotland. They learn all kinds of great things and use competition to hone their skills in cryptology, bomb building, lock picking, escaping a dangerous spot, hand to hand combat--you know, the normal things kids learn at boarding school. 

Aboard the Sylvia Earle, two of the City Spies are undercover posing as "normal" school kids on a trip to inspire girls to pursue the sciences. MI6 places Brooklyn and Sydney on board to insure the safety of two girls--one a daughter of a member of Parliament and the other a daughter of a Duke, #32 in line for the crown. When hijackers board their vessel, Sydney isn't where she should be--fast asleep on board. She's in the water on a solo scuba dive. Brooklyn wakes the two girls she's supposed to protect and hides them. Worried about Sydney, Brooklyn has her hands full.

When she's not fighting huge men, she's outsmarting the hijackers. She is able to send a message to the Coast Guard who are on their way. The girls save the day! Brooklyn argues with Sydney and is jealous of her. She regards Sydney as the "ultimate spy," and feels like a failure next to her. 

The two girls will have to quell their differences. Back at the castle, Mother divulges his secret: his own two children are in danger and someone inside MI6 is a double agent. Using the embedded metadata from a photograph, the team discovers Mother's children are in San Francisco. It's time to head there, locate and save the kids, and stop the rogue agent wherever they are. 

Full of twists and turns, crosses and double crosses, plus teen drama and tough friendships, City Spies: Golden Gate delivers! 

Readers will love, love, love this book! Waiting for book 3 will be a Herculean effort. 

Highly, highly recommended. This one will be in the running for many best lists and awards!