Series: Spy Girl
Release Date: April 12th, 2016
An eighteen-year-old covert agent is pulled out of training before graduation by Black X, a espionage group so secret even the President of the United States doesn’t know it exists.
For her first mission, she must go undercover as the long-lost daughter of a recently deceased billionaire, infiltrate high society, and protect the Prince of Montrovia from assassination. But Prince Lorenzo is known as the Playboy Prince for a reason and his sensuality and charisma add a whole other level of complication to her mission.
She knows that her every move is being watched, but what she doesn’t know is that the Prince is just a chess piece in a bigger game that will have world-wide ramifications. And that Blackwood Academy, the place she has called home for the past six years has secrets of its own.
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
• Death
• Murder
• PTSD
• Heroine’s family was murdered right in front of her
• Underaged drinking
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
The Prince was quite a pleasant surprise. I read a review of this book where the reviewer commented the story was a combination of James Bond, Nancy Drew, and Spy Kids… they were so on point. I loved how Jillian Dodd didn’t compromise the story because the spy and main character is a girl… she’s playing a role that men most commonly fill in espionage books. In fact, on the team, she was the person given the task to eliminate the threat, not her “brother”.
Dodd also did an excellent job with the plot–it was a lot more intricate than I originally assumed which made it a blast to read! Also, the level of description and opulence of X’s cover identity (Huntley the long-lost daughter of a deceased billionaire recluse) just added to the fun. X was a spy but she didn’t have to slum it… she was hiding in plain sight (but in quite a glamorous way).
I also really like her relationship with her “brother,” Ari. They were a team… he didn’t sideline her at all. Although sometimes it took X a while to tell Ari something but that wasn’t common.
One of the more confusing aspects of The Prince was the love triangle… that wasn’t really a love triangle. X had a thing with the US Vice President’s son, Daniel, but then had to flirt with Lorenzo, the Crown Prince of Montrovia as a way to get close to him (he was the one she had to protect). It didn’t seem like she was interested in Lorenzo at all… and then suddenly she was but she didn’t stop flirting and hanging out with Daniel. And at one point I swear she mentioned being in love with Daniel, which doesn’t make any sense! Her back and forth narrative was both confusing and frustrating. I just wanted her to pick one because she was contradicting herself, not because I preferred one over the other.
X’s past is also a huge mystery and quite complicated, there’s definitely a cover-up going on and maybe a conspiracy or two. So, the main questions are: who is X really working for and are they actually the “good guys”? There are many scenes where Dodd plants small bits of information about both her parents’ deaths, who they actually were and their professions. Dodd also cleverly includes scenes of people who seem to be running the show (of both the “good” and “bad” guys), leaving the reader guessing as to what is really going on. Nothing is a meaningless fact in this book; everything is brought up for a reason.
I enjoyed how X “wore the pants” on their missions and how, more often than not, she was the one rescuing the men and/or using them to get information. But, Dodd was careful to add a human element to X’s character, because, let’s face it, she is a teenager who has never experienced the softer emotions associated with the opposite gender; she wasn’t just a killing machine. Her vulnerability (and what makes her not a robot) is her feelings for her friends, for her lost family and her love interests. However, being raised as a spy and assassin since the age of 12 does leave its mark, so when it comes to killing people, she doesn’t think much of it.
I’m definitely looking forward to the next book in the series, as it’s become increasingly obvious that there’s much more happening that the reader cannot yet see. I don’t really know what to expect, or if we’ll see Daniel or the Prince again but Spy Girl is definitely not finished.
