Review: Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter

Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter
Publisher: Orchard  Books 
Publication Date: March 27th 2018.
My rating: 3 Stars. 

Dear Logan, Someday I'm going to write a book: How Not to Die in Alaska - A Girl's Guide to Fashionable Survival. I bet you don't know that a hair pin can make an excellent fishing hook. You may think you can use just any kind of mud for mud masks, but trust me, you CAN'T! In a pinch, nothing starts a fire like nail polish remover. Alaska is tough. You might know this, if you ever replied to my letters. After Maddie's Secret Service dad takes a bullet for the president, he takes Maddie somewhere he thinks they'll be safe - far away from the White House and the president's son, Logan. But when Logan comes to Alaska, so does the danger. If there's one thing Alaska has taught Maddie, it's how to survive. And now her best friend's life depends on it ...

I had such high hopes going into Not If I Save You First, I'd adored Carter's books in the past and the absolutely amazing premise of course drew me in, so I'm kind of disappointed that I didn't end up enjoying this book more. Not If I Save You First started off wonderfully, I was drawn into Maddie's world and her friendship with Logan the president's son. I could tell that despite being just ten years old their friendship meant the world to them, so having this abruptly taken away from them, of course would be shocking to say the least. But with how important they were to each other, you would have thought that they would have stayed in touch any means possible, so what was going on with Logan? I could tell he was struggling through life without Maddie, but couldn't he even reply to a single letter? Or was he not even receiving them? All I knew that when they finally reunited, I wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on. Being reunited in Alaska, was one of the most unusual places, but it sort of felt like a backdrop to a James Bond film with the way that things down. The entire set up, the chase and the fast pace given to us by Carter was brilliant. I had no real idea why these people were after Logan, but I was eager for both of them to make it out safely. My only complaint was that when things came to ahead, the reasoning behind everything felt sort of underwhelming to me, like there was this whole build up, but for no reason. And I can't explain it, it felt as if this book was a bit too young for me, I don't know if this is because I'm sort of falling out with Young Adult books at the minute, but like I said unfortunately this book wasn't able to leave the greatest impression with me.