Book review: The New Recruit by Jill Williamson

I had the pleasure of reading Jill Williamson's award winning Blood of Kings trilogy and thorougly enjoyed her characters and her writing style.

When I stepped into the world she had designed in The New Recruit it was a bit of a jolt from medieval to present day. :)




The YA novel follows skeptic Spencer Garmon who is forced to choose between military school and a Christian spy organization. He signs on with the Bible geeks. But before he even boards the plane for Moscow, Spencer realizes this is no Bible club.

These guys mean business.

Stumbling onto a case involving a gang of homeless boys, a chilling tattoo, and the always beautiful Anya Vseveloda, Spencer struggles to find the faith needed to save the Mission League from enemy infiltration.

Jill Williamson has done it again with The New Recruit,  book 1 of 4 in The Mission League series. Her voice is wonderful and her characters believable. Her plot is well woven and held my interest right until the very end.

I identified with Spencer and appreciated that his transition to belief wasn't an easy one. I also enjoyed the fact that all the Christians were unique and had flaws of their own. Very refreshing!

With each page turn I became more engrossed with the storyline and the plight of the characters--despite their failings.

I highly recommend this novel and I'm looking forward to the next installment!
I give it:

           

Which means drop your danish and shower another year! Pick up this book (Amazon) and you won't be disappointed.

Check out Jill Williamson's beautiful blog at  www.jillwilliamson.com.
You can also check out the website The Mission League serie http://themissionleague.com/

Jill Williamson is an author of all things weird. She grew up in Alaska with no electricity, an outhouse, and a lot of mosquitoes. Her Blood of Kings trilogy won two Christy Awards, and she recently released Replication, a science fiction teen novel from Zonderkidz. Jill lives in Oregon with her husband and two children and a whole lot of deer.



*I received a complimentary copy of this book for my review. I was not required to give a positive review, only my honest opinion - which I've done. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.*

The Dopple Ganger Chronicles: The Secret Escape

 

The First Escape & The Secret of the Indigo Moon - by G.P. Taylor (Book 1 & 2 in The Dopple Ganger Chronicles).

Artwork by Daniel Boultwood, Joseph Sapulich, and Tony Lee.

Graphic Novel or Illustranovella

278 and 291 pages

Back cover of The First Escape: At Isambard Dunstan's School for Wayward Children, life is trouble for fourteen-year-old identical twins Sadie and Saskia Dopple and their friend, former thief Erik Morrissey Ganger. But what starts out as a perfectly normal day of food fights, rioting classmates, and (yawn) threats of expulsion goes suddenly and horribly wrong when a mysterious, wealthy woman appears at the school and adopts Saskia...without her sister.

So begins the adventures of Sadie, Saskia and Erik. Touted by the Heaven and Earth show on the BBC as "The new C.S. Lewis" I was a little disappointed after finishing the first book. Not to be deterred I decided to read the second book before doing my review. Here are my findings.

As a Writer...when I saw these books on the shelf I was immediately intrigued. Still being a kid at heart I loved the mixture of writing and pictures that Taylor had done. His writing has many tangible phrases in it which draw the reader into the book. The art work is fantastic and really draws you into the story. This is a wonderful hybrid for kids and adults as well to read.

As a Christian...I was excited to see something so innovative and new on the shelves for Christians. That being said, the story line is a little dark. It paints evil as well, evil. Although not gory or over explicit it does put the main characters in scary situations. I was a little disappointed after reading the first book as it seemed to have very little Christian themes in it. Not to be deterred I decided to give the second book a chance. I am glad that I did! In the first book there is very little to like about the mischievous protagonists, Sadie and Saskia. They go beyond the boundary of being merely naughty children. But the second book has exciting character development. Not to mention it contains much more of the Christian theme. So, if you are a brave reader looking for something new you may want to take a look. My only warning is not to stop at the first book. There are many more redeeming qualities in the second book.

As a Mother... I barely got through the first book before it was taken by my oldest child! I would recommend these books for older children due to frightening scenes. These books would appeal to those children who struggle to read as the excitement and artwork help them to make it through the books. Probably why the London Times calls it "Hotter than Potter."

I give this book   .

You can check out the Dopple Ganger Chronicles website here. 

G.P. Taylor's website is here.

I hope to read the final book shortly,

and I will review it on the blog as well.