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5 STARS! This review will contain no spoilers!
Thank you to Holiday House publishing for sending me the ARC of Desert Dark!
Summary:
Nadia Riley is a way above average student and when her home life no longer agrees with her, she gets offered a chance to attend a top secret government training school, but Desert Mountain Academy turns out to be way more than she bargained for when she learns she will be training for the CIA. Transferring during the semester has her behind academically and physically. While trying to catch up in school and get along with her teammates Libby, Alan, Damon, and team leader Jack, she has to compete in "survival courses" out in the desert. While all these events are going on there’s a double agent among the students trying to frame Nadia.
There’s even more information given in the synopsis of the book, but I suggest you do not read it because its way more fun to play the guessing game! I really really enjoyed reading this book! 5 star, action packed, snarky, high suspense YA debut novel from Sonja Stone. I am so glad I read this because my love for spy, covert ops, CIA school-type books has be reignited with a passion. If you like fast-paced-spy-plot reads, check this one out!
Plot:
If I could give the plot 6/5 stars I would because the fun never ends with this one. The book opens with a thrilling scene from Nadia's point of view in December then we're brought back in time by three months to see how we got there. I know that's not technically unique, but Stone just did an amazing job with the opening. First book I've read in a while that had the first page really pull me in.
Then the story just kept getting better and better and better. SO MANY TWISTS AND TURNS. SO MANY UNKNOWNS. Everyone is a suspect when you're reading. Everyone! I could not for the life of me narrow it down until the point where the clues got obvious and I could tell Stone wanted us to know exactly who it was. I kept going back and forth. No it's this guy. It's this girl. It's that guy. For the first 200 pages!
I also love the setting of this book. Lots of scenery these days have been set in deserts, but I found this one to be unique. It's on American soil, the school is gorgeous, the terrain was exquisitely described. I mean the imagery of a spy book is extremely important because you need those tiny details in a book like this. Stone did one hell of a job making you feel like you're really there.
Last the ending! OMG THE PLOT TWIST ENDING. Some people may have done better in making the connection, but my mind was out of it because I had to take so many break reading with school. So when I got the the finally big reveal. I was like... No. Wait. WHAT? I felt it coming right as I turning the page and then it hit me. The finals action scenes were written beautifully. And the last few bits just made me all happy inside.
Characters:
There's Nadia, Libby, Jack, Damon and Alan. Nadia is one smart girl. I'm glad she can stick up for herself and be cold blooded when she needs to be. Her overall character development throughout this book could be seen from the first few pages to the final fight scene. She had one of those personalities that you could related to so well that whenever I had a comeback for something another character said to her,she said basically the same thing!
Libby is not my fave, but I do like her friendship with Nadia. I think them being best friends was crucial because there was a desperate need for female female interactions at least somewhere in this book.
Jack, I had my ups and downs with. I thought he was going down right crazy at one point and was almost a tad bit bipolar but I think he won be over a little. I don't know if I ship him with Nadia though. I think I still would ship Damon with Nadia just because. They would've been cuter. Damon is a wonderful addition to the crew. If you've read Heroes of Olympus, he's like my Leo Valdez. The comedic relief/deep down really hurting soul of the book. Yepp, he's my Leo. And then there's Alan, who for the entire first half of the book I despised. Actually most of the book I despised him till maybe the last 60 or so pages. He's that one guys that makes all the rude sarcastic comments and just doesn't know when to shut his mouth. But then he started to change his attitude and became much more likable thank goodness.
Thank you for reading! :)