This was such a fun read!

Zoe was so quirky and funny. It made me laugh so much and it kept me interested.

WOW. The second I started this book I knew I wouldn’t be able to put it down. It gave the spy who dumped me vibes in the best way possible. Zoe was simply AMAZING and I would love to be her when I grow up. I loved the way you could see her and Sawyers relationship developing on the pages. Books where the main characters feelings keep growing for each other even when they don’t want them to and actively try to stop them are some of the best kind. Sawyer and Zoe are EVERYTHING.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I really all around enjoyed this book. It was such a quick and fun read. It made me laugh and the story was super engaging and entertaining.

The characters lacked a bit of depth but that was to be expected with a rom-com. The ending left me a bit confused as to the reasoning behind some choices that were made. Overall I feel like the story could’ve been a bit meatier than it was.

Also, he needs better pet names than “sweetheart” and “Lady” 😆 Doesn’t make me go weak at the knees lol.

If you love short chapters, dual pov, fast pace, humor, action, and a sprinkle of spice then this is the perfect book for you!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! ❤️

The Blonde Identity is a fun and action-packed novel with a slow-burn romance between a spy and the twin sister of an ally recently turned enemy.

Zoe wakes up in Paris with a head wound and no recollection of who she is and there's a handsome stranger telling her to run which then begins the chase of every organization imaginable coming after her for a flash drive she doesn't have. Turns out she's the twin sister of Alex a super spy everyone is after. With the help of Jake who is also a spy Zoe has to find out the mystery behind where Alex disappeared, and regain her memory back all while fighting off those who think she's her sister.

I love these characters, Jake is a grumpy but fun and sensitive hero who was perfect for quirky and carefree Zoe. Their banter was so fun to read, I genuinely laughed during some scenes. Their chemistry and the buildup of their romance during all the killing, shooting, and running felt natural. The tropes were just perfect, one bed, forced proximity, enemies to lovers. Although it's a closed-door romance with only steamy kisses I still enjoyed the story and with everything else going on I didn't mind it.

The action scenes were plentiful with an array of scenery all over Europe. There are huge twists, a HEA, and the potential for a follow-up novel.

Ally Carter did a phenomenal job crafting this story, all the action amongst the romance was balanced with one not taking from the other which made devouring this novel in one sitting easy.

I highly recommend picking this one up on August 8th if you enjoy a fast-paced, spy thriller with a light-hearted and swoon-worthy romance.

Thank you, NetGalley, Ally Carter and Avon and Harper Voyager for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Oh. My. Goodness. This book was worth the weight. I have adored Ally's books since I first read Heist Society and thought this is the book I wish I'd written first. This is her YA all grown up with the globe trotting feel of many of those earlier books. The heroine wakes up in the streets of Paris with no idea who she is other than every bad guy and agency on the planet seems to be after her. That launches a race to stay alive that is a delightful, laugh-out loud frolic of a spy story that will delight grown up Gallagher Girls as well as new to Ally Carter readers. Loved it. Has the feel of Mr and Mrs Smith.

Love, love, loved this book! I first read one of Ally Carters Gallagher Girls books as a teenager and fell in love with her spygirls! As an adult I absolutely love the adult spy game in the Blonde Identity! A girl with amnesia being mistaken for her twin sister who's a spy and now everyone is after her and a spy who apparently had a falling out with said sister and who has a mysterious past must team together to stay alive and maybe figure out what happened to Alex.

I screamed when I saw that Ally Carter was giving us an adult novel!!! I have been a lover of hers for so very long.

Going in I was worried that the green light of sex and swear words would muddle the plot.

Worry not! This new level of hers gives us everything we have always gotten with a Carter book, and more.

Him and Her, I'm not sharing their names here 😊, are so addicting. We get dual POVs throughout the book, and it's so addicting.

This was fantastic! I read it in just a few hours because I couldn't put it down.

Thank you to Avon Books and Netgalley for the advanced readers copy. All thoughts are my own.

Here's a reading tactic I highly recommend: When you've read a book description and know the book interests you, stick it on your TBR and then...forget the details. Professional clown who discovers she's secretly the daughter of the US president? Remember, vaguely, that there's something about the circus. Growing up gay in Ireland in the 90s? Remember "Ireland". Something to do with spies, written by Ally Carter? Well. Something to do with spies, written by Ally Carter. Don't revisit the description when you start the book—go in blind, and be all the more surprised for it.

The appeal of "The Blonde Identity" is obvious—I tore through Carter's "Gallagher Girls" series a decade or so back, and I was keen to see what she'd do with what is in a lot of ways "Gallagher Girls" for adults. And on that level, this entirely delivers: it's high-paced and energetic, basically a 300-page car chase with some kissing. Our heroine wakes up knowing from context clues that she's in Paris—and, conveniently, remembering a decent amount of pop culture; it's clear from relatively early on that if nothing else she's read more than her fair share of romance novels—but without a clue about who she is or *why* she's in Paris. She doesn't even know her name, and though I question the way in which that is figured out (very small spoiler: "Ask someone to test a pen and nine times out of ten they'll write their own name," claims the hero (loc. 1215; quotes may not be final), and I call bollocks—I draw squiggles, and I would wager that that's far more common), Carter does a sterling job of balancing what to reveal when.

The book does require a *high* level of suspension of disbelief. It occurred to me, late in the game, that I should have been counting the number of times the characters should have died—every time bullets fly or someone leaps out of a moving train or falls down a mountain or—well. The list would be long. In real life, these characters would be *real* dead by now. Since this is a grown-up Ally Carter book, I am entirely on board with this, but it helps that I got exactly what I was hoping for.

Recommended to other young-ish adults who have fond memories of the Gallagher Girls, and to those who don't mind their romance with a high level of improbability.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

The Blonde Identity is a whale of a good time, if a bit on the juvenile side. Snappy, action-packed, funny and well-plotted, it’s wonderfully entertaining summer fare that’s worth its weight in enjoyment.

A woman awakens in the middle of a Parisian street and realizes several things at once. She has no idea who she is and why she’s there; she seems to be bleeding pretty heavily from a gunshot wound, and a handsome man calling her Alex keeps yelling at her to get up and run before she’s taken hostage by Kozlov’s men.

“Alex” soon realizes that she is not, in fact, Alex – Alex is the name of her super-spy twin sister. This is explained to her by the hot guy, Jake Sawyer, and he explains that he has no idea what Alex’s sister’s name was, but it looks like his partner in the field definitely has a twin sister. Unfortunately they have no time to analyze this, since everything around them is exploding and they’re officially on the run together. “Alex” and Jake are now set to fool the evil folks after them, save the country, rescue the REAL Alex, find out “Alex”’s name…and maybe fall in love?

The Blonde Identity is not an artful piece of spycrafting work. People do physically impossible things, they fight comically impossible odds, and they go through some amazingly over the top strictures to get what they want.

But it’s fun watching “Alex” succeed and regain her identity, and the quest to take down Kozlov and his evil minions is genuinely gripping. It’s fun watching her fall in love with Jake, even though he does have an annoying tendency to talk down to and infantilize her at inappropriate times. And yeah, “Alex” isn’t the most mature of characters – you will be forced to listen to her muse upon her boobs a few times. But it’s a romp filled with stakes and characters worth caring about, and sometimes that’s enough.

Beware – the book does not come up with a definitive ending for “Alex” and Jake’s romance, and it does leave some portions of the Koslov storyline and info about the real Alex’s whereabouts to facilitate a sequel. It can’t even really be called a HFN ending, since the romance doesn’t fully percolate into something fulsome during the course of the book. Apparently there is a second instalment on the way, so if you’re looking to have every bow tied up neatly, this won’t be the novel for you.

But if you want something suspenseful and high-stakes, but still light-hearted and funny, then The Blonde Identity will have you waiting for that sequel.

As a long-time fan of Ally Carter and a reader who grew up with her previous spy and heist novels, I was so incredibly excited to hear that she was releasing her adult rom-com debut, also about spies. The Blonde Identity is a fun adventure filled with tension both from action packed sequences and the chemistry between our two main characters, Sawyer and Zoe. This book reminded me of the movie Knight and Day (with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz) so if you like seeing couples thrown into highly intense life-or-death situations where one half of the couple knows what they're doing and the other doesn't, definitely pick this book up! I'll admit there were times in the first 2/3rds of the story that felt drawn out and a little repetitive, but the last third pulls so many emotions out of you, about the action, the romance, and some family dynamics. At the end of the novel, we're left with a hint of a potential follow-up novel about Alex, so if that really is the case, I would love to read another novel in this universe.

This was the romance novel of my dreams!!!! No surprise as the Gallagher Girl books are one of my all time favorite series, and Ally Carter remains an auto buy author for me. This book is everything. Sawyer is sexy and brooding and grumpy but also fun and charming and sensitive. Our main character is quirky and hilarious and soft and relatable and filled with so much depth and nuance. And THE TROPES!!!! You can always tell when an author loves their genre, and Carter is no exception. Every page of this felt carefully crafted and so beautifully done. I was laughing and then I was squealing and then I was crying. Rinse and repeat for every chapter.

If you’re a fan of romance, you’re going to love this. Period. It does everything so well. The only one bed trope, the healing the love interest during an illness/injury trope, the fake dating trope, the spy tropes…it has everything—EVERYTHING—I love. Including the possibility of a spin off that better be in my hands by next year!!!

Truly, Carter did an incredible job, and this will be a book I come back to time and time again. At first glance, it is a sexy (fade to black) romance and a spy thriller. But really, it is a story of two people who are really just trying to find themselves and a future worth fighting for.

Five stars. I’d give it ten if I could.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager for allowing me to read an ARC of this book!

""You know, my favorite thing about the [book] is that it feels like a movie" - harry styles" - me about this book

BUT ACTUALLY. I cannot stress enough how fun and cinematic this felt. Sometimes you get in a rut of reading books that, while beautifully crafted, are really heavy and difficult to get through, and you just need a palette cleanser. THIS is that palette cleanser in every way. It's refreshingly fun, more than a little bit silly, and surprisingly action-packed for a book that's essentially a full fledged romcom.

The settings throughout this book are just excellent, with action scenes on moving boats, mountaintops, crowded city streets, and fancy agency safehouses, this entire story felt like it was actively playing in my head the entire time. I have never in my LIFE been so desperate for someone to buy the film rights of a book, Netflix please if you're listening we need you!!!

The most impressive feat of this book to me is Ally Carter's ability to craft these sweeping, page-turning action sequences while perfectly balancing that action with a main plot romance. I don't think I've ever read a book that managed to commit so well to both sides, without either side of the story feeling like a subplot. And (without spoiling anything, I swear!) the setup for a sequel...chef's kiss. Give me like 20 more of these minimum, thank youuuuu.

THE BLONDE IDENTITY by Ally Carter comes out August 8th and is an absolute delight!! Shout out to @avonbooks for making the correct and good choice of approving my request on NetGalley.

I did not want this book to end, and yet I HAD to get to the ending. I inhaled it in a single evening. It is funny and exciting and swoony! Those of us of a certain age might have fond Alias feels about it, including a certain red wig.

It has action, mystery, romance. It has "good girl" and "touch her and die" and only one bed and (lol) literally closed door. Something for everyone! Not to be missed! Way under-buzzed!!

Are you ready to buckle up for a heart-throbbing, action-packed espionage adventure that will leave you breathless? If so, prepare yourself for the exhilarating ride that is "Blonde Identity." This novel surpasses all expectations and delivers a thrilling narrative that is as addictive as it is entertaining. Forget what you thought you knew about spy novels because this book takes the genre to a whole new level.

While I have yet to dive into the author's Gallagher Girls series, "Blonde Identity" has convinced me that I've been missing out. The writing is smart, engaging, and infused with a healthy dose of sarcasm that had me chuckling throughout. I can already sense my to-be-read pile teetering under the weight of the author's previous works, but it's a risk I'm willing to take for the sake of literary enjoyment.

From the very first page, you're thrust into a gender-reversed version of the Bourne Identity storyline. Our protagonist, an injured woman, awakens on the streets of Paris with no memory of who she is or why she's being pursued. Enter the brooding and undeniably attractive Mr. Hot Guy, who urges her to run for her life. As she flees from menacing motorcyclists reminiscent of the Sons of Anarchy, the pulse-pounding action kicks into high gear. It turns out that she is not the notorious spy the intelligence agencies and dangerous Russian gang leaders are after. No, she's caught up in a case of mistaken identity caused by her twin sister, who has created a dangerous mess that she now must untangle. To evade her pursuers and uncover the truth, she reluctantly teams up with Mr. Hot Guy on a high-stakes adventure that will take them across Europe.

What makes this book truly exceptional is its ability to blend heart-racing action with an unexpected romance. The enemies-to-lovers trope adds an electrifying dynamic between our protagonist and her enigmatic partner. Their banter crackles with tension, and as the story unfolds, you can't help but root for them. Their chemistry leaps off the page, making the romance a satisfying and integral part of the narrative.

As the plot hurtles forward, taking us from one breathtaking location to another, the author's vivid descriptions transport you to the heart of Europe. Whether they're evading danger in the charming streets of Paris or unraveling secrets in the bustling markets of Istanbul, you'll feel like a passenger on this whirlwind adventure. The author's attention to detail and ability to create a vivid sense of place immerse you fully in the story.

Prepare to be swept away by this laugh-out-loud, fast-paced, and utterly wild ride. "Blonde Identity" will keep you on the edge of your seat, flipping through the pages at a rapid pace. It's a rollercoaster of emotions, with moments of intense action, heartwarming connections, and unexpected twists that will leave you gasping for breath. This book is a testament to the author's storytelling prowess and is a must-read for fans of espionage thrillers and exhilarating romance.

I extend my sincerest gratitude to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for granting me the opportunity to experience this electrifying adventure through a digital review copy. My honest opinions are a testament to the sheer brilliance of "Blonde Identity" and the captivating world the author has crafted.

What a rollercoaster this read was. I fell in love with Ally Carter’s world building with the Gallagher Girl series and when I read she was releasing a new spy novel with more adult themes, I scoured for more details.

The Blonde Identity immediately pulls you into the hectic and turbulent world of spies, fake relationships, twins, and never-ending car chases. It doesn’t give you the time to breathe, it just starts and doesn’t stop till the final page. Every single page turn had me chomping at the bit for more.

I especially loved the character of Zoe. Her no filter, quirky, quick thinking attitude is something I find so endearing in book characters. She reminds me in many ways of a smattering of characters from Gallagher Girls. I also can’t help but swoon over Sawyer 👀.

This is the (hopefully) beginning of a new romance/action series for me to hyper-fixate on. Thanks NetGalley for the early copy!

I was immediately drawn in by this cover and the reference to The Bourne Identity and it definitely lived up to both for me. I loved the premise here - a woman wakes up injured, bloody, and with no memory on the streets of Paris, where she's immediately targeted by a bunch of dudes on motorcycles with guns who think she has some kind of drive that they want. She gets away, only to see herself on TV and realize that she's a badass spy who is on the run. A partner/ally catches up with her and they run together, figuring out soon that she's actually not the spy in question but is her twin sister. The bad guys don't know that, so they're still being trailed and are in constant danger as they travel all over Europe trying to avoid a major Russian criminal organization and also various members of various international intelligence agencies. This was fast-paced and funny and had lots of adventure with a little romance, and I really enjoyed it. It definitely seemed like the end was teasing a sequel and I'm here for it.

Gallagher Girls for grownups, and I'm not mad about it.

A woman wakes up in Paris with a head wound, no idea how she got to Paris or got the head wound, and there's a man chasing after her. She has no idea why, or why she's even in Paris, so she runs. Turns out she also doesn't remember an identical twin sister, and that sister is a spy in some deep trouble.

A little cheesy, a little hard to follow, a little over the top, but I also couldn't stop pretending this was Zach and Cammie from the GG series, so there's that.

Another incredible ally carter book!!! Ally Carter is an incredible writer and I hope to be a fraction as good of a writer as Ally is one day. The Blonde Identity is an incredible thriller.

This is it. This is THE book of the year for me. The book of the decade, maybe even. I can't remember the last time I gobbled something up so quickly. Laugh-out-loud funny and heart-wrenching and action-packed, this is the book of my dreams. I will simply never be shutting up about it.

This book was just SO MUCH FUN!!! I laughed out loud in places (I couldn't help myself), and it was just so delightful. I loved the characters, the dialogue, the romance, the intrigue. This book has it all, and I am now off to read it again! TEN STARS!!