Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter

Ally Carter is one of those authors that I know I'm going to like her books, so I pre-order without reading the cover copy and don't think about it again.  So, it was an unexpected surprise when Out of Sight, Out of Time showed up at my door on Tuesday.
Book:  Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter

Summary:  As a senior at a secret school for spies, Cammie Morgan should be preparing for her first real mission after school.  But she's already been on plenty of real missions, especially the one last summer that she can't remember.  Her mother warns her that she may not want to remember, but Cammie has to piece her summer together if she wants answers to her father's disappearance and why a secret society started chasing her.


Characters: I've loved Cammie and her friends since book one, but this book seemed to go deeper into all of them.  Cammie left and each character had a unique but deep reaction to it.  Seeing them deal with Cammie's absence and her return is the most intimate we've been with these characers so far.  I loved it. 

We see the bad guys through Cammie's eyes, so they do come across as purely evil, but it fits the tone of the books and Carter still has fun with it.  The big bad guy in this series... is Cammie's boyfriend's mom.  And there are always shocking betrayals and double agents.  I do get the feeling that the bad guys are actually real people, but we only see one side of them, because that is how Cammie needs to see them in order to be able to function.

Plot/Pacing/Structure:  The plot was constantly moving forward without ever losing me or making me feel overwhelmed.  Impressive in a book where there is a huge mystery the characters are trying to solve.  I also really appreciated that the book had its own plot with beginning, middle, and end, even though the large focus of this book is on the series plot.


Moments I Loved:  I loved the scene where Cammie is reunited with her best friends.  It could have easily been a simple scene that brought the main character back and reestablished her in the world we're used to, but Carter chose to introduce tension between Cammie and everyone she cares about.  This added emotional layer is explored throughout the book and is what made it my favorite in the series so far.

Along the same lines, I loved the scene where Bex and Cammie are in the woods near Joe Solomon's cabin.  There had been a rift between them since Cammie's return and this scene emphasized that the rift was not there becuase they had grown apart while Cammie was gone, but because of how much they care about each other.

WTF Moments: The moment when a traitor is discovered... wtf in a wonderful, that-did-not-just-happen, kind of way.  Although there were quite a few twists and reveals that I loved.


Overall:  The books have always been plot heavy, but in Out of Sight, Out of Time Carter took her characters places I didn't expect.  As I said, this is the best of the series so far and I can't wait to read more.


Reading Challenges: This book counts toward the following challenges: 294 pages toward the 15,000 page challenge.  Track all my progress on my 2012 Challenges page.