IHeartYAFiction

Short and Sweet:Palace of Spies is a fun book. The characters are full & vibrant and completely alive. Sarah Zettel excels at creating realistic people that are easy to visualize and connect to. It is a bit short on spies for a book of it's title though.... and my only big complaint is that I think the original title was more fitting (A Most Dangerous Deception) and equally exciting and likeable.To Elaborate....First of all, I want to say that I went into this book thinking it was going to be 'intense & serious' and instead found it to be 'fun & adventurous.' I felt like it had a similar vibe to Poison by Bridget Zinn. That is to say, I could see it made into a fun Ella Enchanted/Brave type movie. This is not to say there aren't serious factors at play, but only that they aren't overly dramatic or dark in their architecture or in my reception of them.Peggy is our MC, and after she is tossed out of her Uncle's house for refusing to accept an unpleasant arranged marriage, she is offered a position by the mysterious Mr. Tinderflint, impersonating a deceased 'lady in waiting.' She originally takes the position believing her predecessor, Lady Francesca, died of natural causes, but upon arrival at King George's palace she stumbles upon evidence that Fran may have actually been murdered.Unfortunately, Peggy has a much longer list of suspects than clues. It seems that someone knows Fran is dead and is playing along, but if Peggy doesn't discover who, she will likely find herself meeting the same fate sooner rather than later. Lastly, there is a bit of a love triangle, but I barely noticed it as it was always clear to me whom Peggy favored. ;)And I did struggle a bit between a 3.5 and 4 star rating here, but since Palace of Spies was truly a pleasure to read I settled on 4 very much deserved stars. ;)Dying to read this one too??? Lucky you! I happen to have a gorgeous, ARC copy for one lucky US winner! Stop by my blog to enter! Sabrina @I Heart Y.A. Fiction(Originally published at iheartyafiction.blogspot.com)