Review: The New Recruit by Jill Williamson

The New Recruit is a Christian teen spy novel. Yes, you read that correctly.

The backcover blurb is:
Forced to choose between military school and a Christian spy organization, skeptic Spencer Garmond 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 into a case involving a gang of homeless boys a chilling tattoo, and the always beatuiful Anya Vseveloda, Spencer struggles to find the faith needed to save the Mission League from enemy infiltration.

On a scale of one to five, I give this one a five.

The plot was fun, the character development was good, and there's this really great cliffhanger at the end that leaves room for more books in the series. In fact, Mrs. Williamson has self-published a sequel novella called Chokepoint (click here to see it on Amazon), all the proceeds of which go to help a family adopt a little girl from Eastern Europe.

Anyway.

I had feared that, since this was a book about a skeptic being converted, it would be super preachy/gushy.  Don't get me wrong, it's nice to hear people talk about their faith, but one can only take so much.  I did not think there was too much of that in the book. And it balanced out with Spencer's snarky voice.  There is one "force the Bible down your throat until you believe" character, but the rest were very low-key, "you'll believe in your own time" folks. 

All in all, I really enjoyed it.  I won my copy in a giveaway at The Life of a Teenage Writer, run by the lovely Katelyn. Mrs. Williamson actually gave the book away herself, and she even signed the book to me! I meant to post a picture of it, but frankly I'm too lazy to do that. 

Currently I'm reading Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, which my Auntie S recommended.  So far it's pretty good.