Blog Tour: Jessica Cole: Model Spy - Code Red Lipstick, Sarah Sky

Pages: 320

Publisher: Scholastic

Release Date: 5^th June 2014

Edition: e-book, review copy

Other Titles in this Series: Fashion Assassin

Models, spies and lipstick gadgets in this fast-paced new series. Jessica Cole is just your average teenager, except when she’s strutting down the glamorous catwalks of Paris. When her father, a former spy, vanishes mysteriously, Jessica takes matters into her own hands. She’s not just good at striking a pose, she’s going to take on MI6 and beat them at their own game. Following her father’s trail, Jessica’s investigation leaves her hot on the trail of a deranged former supermodel, Allegra Knight, who plans to unleash mayhem on an unsuspecting teenage population with the launch of her new miracle face cream, Teenosity.

Thanks to Faye and Scholastic for this. Be sure to check out the rest of the blog tour for Jessica Cole!

I have to confess that I was a little reluctant to read Code Red Lipstick, but it eventually won me over. It’s fast-paced, easy to read and lots of fun.

Now I’m a big fan of America’s Next Top Model. I love all of the wacky clothes, the crying and bitching, but it’s the photo shoots and resulting pictures that I’m in it for and Sarah Sky delivers some really excellent scenes with Jessica struggling with ridiculous shoots just like the poor girls on ANTM. In fact, the novel opens with one! It was so visceral and real – Jessica was almost a character in the shoot, if you know what I mean – that I actually flicked through a couple of pages to check I was reading the right book! Such good fun to read; I only wish she had time for a few more in between hunting down her dad’s captors. I did find the constant name dropping of designers a little irritating, however.

Being the daughter of an MI6 spy, Jessica knows a lot about covert operations and that’s pretty cool, but not nearly as cool as all of the gadgets she got as she went into the dragon’s lair. A bracelet that allowed her to swing like Spiderman, a diamond stud that cuts glass, an x-ray compact and so much more, all packed into a little make-up bag. I want it all. I liked that Jessica used her status as a model and a young, teenage girl as a decoy to put people off the scent and make them think she’s just a silly little girl obsessed with make-up – it was satisfying and promotes a strong message about a very judged profession.

Perfect for fans of Geek Girl and the Gallagher Girls series, Jessica Cole: model Spy is a brilliant way to get reluctant readers stuck into an involving, full-throttle read.

Sophie