Book Review - All Fall Down

All Fall Down
Author: Ally Carter
Series: Embassy Row #1
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery | Young Adult
Release Date: 5th Febuary 2015
Publishers: Orchard Books
No. Pages: 320
Source: Review Copy - Orchard Books
Rating:

Grace can best be described as a daredevil, an Army brat, and a rebel. She is also the only granddaughter of perhaps the most powerful ambassador in the world and Grace has spent every summer of her childhood running across the roofs of Embassy Row.

Now, at age sixteen, she's come back to stay - in order to solve the mystery of her mother's death. In the process, she uncovers an international conspiracy of unsettling proportions, and must choose her friends and watch her foes carefully if she and the world are to be saved.

So this is only the 2nd book I've read by Ally Carter I know I know it's a shocker because everyone seems to be a massive fan of her, but for me the only other book was I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You and though I liked it, I as left feeling like I just wanted so much more. When I first heard about All Fall Down it was because of a tweet by Amanda, someone who is a massive fan of Ally Carter and after reading the summary I like how it sounded different and a little bit more grown up than I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You. I also don't like to completely write off a author based on just one book so I thought I would give it a shot, it was very different to how I imagined it and that's a good thing. I don't think I was hoping for anything in particular, but I liked what I got all the same. Should we get to the actual review bit then? Yes, I think we should.

As the summary suggest the main character Grace is a 16 year old girl who's mum was murdered. What you don't red in the summary is Grace witnessed it all and now suffers badly from post traumatic stress disorder, has anxiety levels through the roof and has to live with the fact that no one believes her about the man she saw in her house the night her mother died. After Grace returns to Embassy Row for the first time since her mothers death, the place she spent her childhood, she decides that there really isn't anything left to do but take matters in to her own hands and find out the truth about what happened.

As far as storylines go it was pretty unique and I really liked that about it. I liked how even though it was almost always based in the same scenery, it didn't get boring or feel samey, just enough happened to keep you on your toes. Did I semi predict what was going to happen? Yes, but I wouldn't say I consider this book predictable, there is just enough action and people throwing you off the scent to even be 100% what's happened and who is behind it, it was possibly my favourite about the book because I can't help be speculate very early on and my idea more often or not will turn out to be true so it was a nice thing to be surprised. Another thing I really liked about the book is that regardless of how much was going on around Grace, the book just flowed really well. I didn't find myself getting confused once at what was happening, something that normally happens with books that have way too much action.

Should we talk about the characters? First I should probably say that even though I liked Noah, Alexei is the one who owns my heart <3 (Yes Amanda, that does mean he's all yours ;) haha). I can't exactly say what it is about him that I just fell straight away for, maybe its the bad boy image or the fact that he's a) known her since she was a kid, opening up the 'seeing you in a different light' romance b) he's really protective of her, and I don't think it's just because he's looking out for her on her brother's orders and c) when I read he was Russian I just kept thinking of Dimitri Belikov from Vampire Academy. I know, he's nothing like him but I couldn't help it haha. Regardless of the reasons, he was just a really brilliant character. (so was Noah).

When it comes to Grace, I was a little bit up and down about her. At the start I just couldn't connect really with her. But thankfully as the story went on and her character developed a little more I found myself really like her and I felt so sorry for her when her panic attacks and memorise were triggered. The last few years had been tough on her because of what she had seen but she's also had to deal with the fact that even her family don't believe her and that has to be really lonley. Was she a mope around kind of character though? No, thankfully. She was a strong minded and willed young girl who had some serious amount of determination.

The rest of the characters are just as well written and relatable. You have Megan, someone who used to be nothing more than an acquaintance from her childhood but ends up becoming a close friend of Graces. We have Rosie, a lovely petite girl who likes to spend her time sneaking up on people and getting into little place when no one is watching. And then we have Noah, Grace's designated new best friend, someone who is assigned to show her around at first and grows to be something more.

All in all I really enjoyed this book, and because of it I think I'll be starting up the Gallagher Girls series again to see if there was something I over looked. All Fall Down wasn't a love story, it was a book about a girl just struggling to hold on to what she believes in and will do everything to prove she's right. You have friendship that is filled with lots of banter and loyalty that it's impossible not to be engrossed in the relationships. It was a perfect book to what I think will be a great series.