Hey everyone! Joy from Penguin Teen here to talk about my favorite read of this month, Devil Darling Spy. In case you missed this month’s book haul, I’ll leave it below!

ON WITH THE BOOK.

In case this if the first time you’re hearing about it, Devil Darling Spy is the sequel to Orphan Monster Spy–and before you say anything, nah, it isn’t required to have read the first one to get into this one (I’ll explain why further down this page.) The year is 1940 and Sarah Goldstein is hiding in plain sight as Ursula Haller, the Shirley Temple of Nazi high society. She helps the resistance by spying on Nazi generals at cocktail parties in Berlin, but she yearns to do more. Then the spy she works for, the Captain, gets word of a German doctor who’s gone rogue in Central Africa. Rumors say the doctor is experimenting with a weapon of germ warfare so deadly it could wipe out entire cities. It’s up to the Captain and Sarah to reach the doctor and seize this weapon–known as “the Bleeding”–before the Nazis can use it to murder thousands.

Okay, so there are a few reasons I really loved this read, and why I think my fellow historical fiction fans will too!

1. Guess what? I’m a very distracted person. I need my books to move FAST.

Devil Darling Spy is one of those 450-page books that feels like I just scrolled through a quick article. It’s the sort of book you pick up and then BOOM, when did the sun go down? Oops, I’ve been reading for four hours. You know what I mean.

2. It scared me.

Ghosts? Scary. Ghouls? Sure, scary. But DISEASE? I’m terrified. This book is the third type of scary. The type with weaponized disease that could take out entire countries. That’s the type of realistic-scary I have a very hard time putting down.

3. The setting! 

Sarah travels to West Africa in search of the spreading disease. There’s so much travel in this book I never felt like I was standing in place for too long.

4. Sarah

She was such a fun character to watch grow and survive in the most difficult of situations. I loved that she was a very human character–never completely fearless, but learning to face what terrifies her anyway.

5. I read the second one BEFORE the first!

Devil Darling Spy is the sequel to Orphan Monster Spy. Don’t ask me why…but I picked up the second one before reading the first one. It was so easy to dive right in and understand what was going on without the context of book one. Of course, after reading it, I had to go back to read Orphan Monster Spy!

Get your copy of DEVIL DARLING SPY here!