Ally Carter’s Take the Key and Lock Her Up is the third and final book in the Embassy Row series.
After discovering that she is a descendant of the long lost princess of Adria, Grace Blakely flees the country with Alexei, Jamie, and Dominic close behind. To evade the detection of assassins, the four of them are constantly moving, but everything changes when Adria’s Prime Minister contacts Grace in a place she should be safe. Knowing she can no longer run away, she decides to fight for her family, her friends, and her future.
As this is Gracie’s final book, one would hope for some solace for the girl. For many years, she suffered from the death of her mother. She thought she would find closure in seeking out her mother’s murderer, but only found more anguish. In See How They Run, she discovered she was the cause of her mother’s death and feel into a deeper pit of self-loathing and despair. Despite the kindness of her friends, she bottles up her actions and bears the weight of all the misfortune that happens around her. Buried under piles of guilt, her first instinct is to run when she sees trouble. While she still hasn’t broken the habit of acting impulsively, on her own, she is discovering the need for her friends.
Take the Keys and Lock Her Up was disappointing. Starting off with the positives, the plot was moving and fast paced. It never slowed down and grew more intense with each chapter. Unfortunately, the plot bounced all over the place, shattering the suspension of disbelief for a lot of people. The book traveled all over the world in seemingly no time. One minute it was in America, then it was in Europe, then Russia only a few seconds later. Characters appeared and disappeared with the same logic. With Gracie’s inane habit of ditching her friends, one would expect it would be impossible for anyone to find her, but they do. They popped into the story when needed and disappeared when Gracie felt like being alone. Once again, most of the characters were relegated to minor roles and received little of the development they deserved. Alexei did get a lot of attention, but that was only due the growing romance between him and the lead protagonist. Gracie was another problem onto herself. She was repetitive and occasionally irritating. The PTSD of previous books was gone and she kept flashing between being tired of the chase and lusting revenge. Her mental state was a frayed mess, but this time she didn’t try to push her friends away; she just ditched them. There is another personal problem I have with the series as a whole. Embassy Row is a unique and interesting idea. The second book used it to provide and overarching tension, but this book barely used it at all. Instead of capitalizing on the unique, political setting of Embassy Row, Ally Carter discovers the mystic history of Adria. While the plot progression matches her previous books, it was a missed opportunity.
I give this 327 page book 3.5 stars.
Series Analysis
Ally Carter's Embassy Row series is quite a departure from her usual novels. Instead of a talented lead, with a morally ambiguous skill set, we are given Grace Blakely, a broken girl suffering from guilt. After watching her mother die in front of her, this girl is mentally unstable. This girl also happens to be the granddaughter of a US ambassador and live in a place where the embassies of different countries are housed. With rival nations only a few blocks from each other, starting an international war is as easy as walking across the street. The series earns 4 stars here and on goodreads.
Embassy Row
In the city of Adria, several embassies for many different countries are housed close together. The United States' embassy can be right across the street from the Russian embassy and a couple blocks away from the Italian embassy. It is easy to go from embassy to embassy and it is just as easy to start an international war. Grace Blakely is the granddaughter of the US ambassador.