Guest Review: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy vs. Priscilla the Great

Hey, I’m Priscilla Maxine Sumner. You can call me Priss. I used to be a normal middle schooler whose biggest worry was making it through math class without falling asleep, until one day at a pool party I started accidentally setting things on fire with my fingers. Talk about embarrassing. Anyway, I’m basically a cool girl with a hot streak. Nice to meet ya!

Likes: Rasberry Creme lollipops from Willie’s Sweet Shop
Dislikes: Little brothers
Favorite Song: "Resignation Superman"
                        by Big Head Todd and the Monsters
Catch Phrase: Whoa...Wait...What?

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A Comparison and Contrast

Those of you who have been following my posts lately know that I’m on an impossible mission from my English teacher Ms. Talendy. She gave me a not so nice grade on my poetry project at the end of the semester. Apparently, Black Eyed Peas isn’t poetry. Who knew? Anyway, so in order to save my grade, I have to read ten books over Christmas break and then blog about them. Ten! I don’t think I’ve read ten books in the past ten years! Okay, that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but you get my point.

So this weekend, I read Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter. But instead of writing a straight up review of the book, I thought it would be cool to compare and contrast it to my book Priscilla the Great by Sybil Nelson.

For those of you who don’t know anything about either book, let me give you a quick overview. In Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, Cammie Morgan is in the tenth grade of a spy school for girls. Instead of learning things like Algebra and Home Economics they learn things like how to disarm a nuclear missile and how to kill a man with nothing more than dental floss and an underwire bra. (but if you ask me, underwire bras could kill most men anyway.) In Priscilla the Great, I’m a normal seventh grader until one day I discover I can shoot fire out of my fingers. Then my best friend and I go on a mission to figure out why and we have to defeat some pretty evil villains.

What in the world do these two books have in common?

1. Awesome Heroines

In Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy we have Cammie Morgan. She’s a little on the shy side (so not me) with her ability to blend in all the time. But she’s still pretty cool because she speaks so many languages and can totally kick butt almost as much as I can.

2. Hot Boys

Zach is the main guy in Cross My Heart and he’s a total hottie. I mean, buff, cute, smart, and basically the perfect teenage James Bond. There are some pretty hot guys in Priscilla the Great as well. And these guys are really perfect. I mean, they were genetically engineered to be that way!

3. Comedy

This is another thing both books have in common. They’re pretty hilarious. I think Priscilla the Great will even make you laugh out loud!

4. Action

Both books have some action, but I think this is where they differ the most. I mean, I’ve read two books in the Gallagher Girl series so far and I have to say, the action is always pretty tame and predictable. I mean both times everything just turned out to be some sort of test for a class. In Priscilla the Great, the stakes are much higher. It’s really life or death and it’s not pretty. People die, and I even get shot!

So basically, if you liked Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, you’ll love Priscilla the Great. Go pick up a copy today. And, oh yeah, do I get an A now Ms. Talendy?