A Dangerous Year by Kes Trester

A Dangerous Year by Kes Trester ISBN-13: 9781620079072 Paperback: 255 pages Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press Released: Sept. 26, 2017

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Seventeen-year-old Riley Collins has grown up in some of the world’s most dangerous cities, learning political strategies from her ambassador dad and defensive skills from his security chief. The only thing they didn’t prepare her for: life as an American teenager.

After an incident forces her to leave her Pakistani home, Riley is recruited by the State Department to attend Harrington Academy, one of the most elite boarding schools in Connecticut. The catch: she must use her tactical skills to covertly keep an eye on Hayden Frasier, the daughter of a tech billionaire whose new code-breaking spyware has the international intelligence community in an uproar.

Disturbing signs begin to appear that Hayden might be in real danger and her protection much weaker than Riley was told.


My Review:
A Dangerous Year is a young adult novel. Much of the story was about Riley trying to fit in at school. From the title, I was expecting a story spanning a year focused on Riley protecting Hayden, but Riley only does this for a few weeks. Don't expect Riley to be a super-spy. She's given few instructions on how to do her new job, and she made common sense mistakes left and right. Things like getting very drunk or showing off that she can kick butt when she's supposed to be undercover. Her main weakness was an irresistible, hunky boy that Hayden warned her to stay away from. Riley's supposed to make friends with Hayden, but Riley forgot that every time she saw him.

Halfway into the book (and a couple weeks into the school term), Riley got a shipment of spy gear from home. She knew how to use it all (without instructions), and I was left confused: is she supposed to be a super-spy after all or are we supposed to be laughing at her mistakes? Well, she kept making basic mistakes and bad assumptions, didn't pass on information to her bosses like she was supposed to, put off looking into important clues, etc. I wasn't even surprised by the "surprise twists," but Riley sure was.

Don't get me wrong: it's a fun story and clearly meant to be humorous. But it's more teen high school drama than bodyguard detail. If you like that type of teen movie or TV show, then you'll probably enjoy the book. There was no sex. There was a fair amount of bad language.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.