Teen Novel Team: The New Recruit by Jill Williamson...

About the book:
Name: The Mission League
Book One: The New Recruit
Author:  Jill Williamson
Gera: Adventure/ Action/ Spy-Thriller/ Speculative/ Christian
Page Count: 399
Age Range: 14+ (Has a few mentions of drugs in it (shown in a bad way of course). More geared towards boys, teens, and young adults.
Publisher: Marcher Lord Press

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 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.

My Review
Wonderful humor written throughout and great messages woven within. Jill Williamson has become a favorite author of mine.

Jill Williamson is one talented writer! She inspires me to try new steps in my writing. I am surprised over her ability to write so smoothly in different genre’s ( fantasy, Sci-Fi, Spy-adventure, and soon to be dystopian ). It’s something I don’t often see in writers. She still holds her special style/touch within them too

I know I have used “ fun” to describe her books in the past, but I can’t help but say it again. The New Recruit was fun!  I wish there was a real  Mission League. What a neat idea she has created. A Christian spy organization... so, so cool!

Jill Williamson truly knows the heart of guys and has a huge heart for our youth. It shines in her books (especially  Replication and The New Recruit). Spencer struggles with things that I’ve seen a lot of our youth struggle with. He had so many layers of realness sometimes you forget he’s fictional  ;-)

There are quite a few characters in The New Recruit, but Mrs. Williamson does a grand job at giving them all a distinct personality which makes them rememberable to the reader. My favorite character was Gabe. He was a great friend to Spencer and I could kinda relate to him sometimes… his prayer situation with Spencer later on in the book was something I got. It’s hard having non-Christian friends, especially when you greatly care and love them. It’s painful to see their struggles and know a way that can ease their hearts and comfort their mind... if only they seek it.

The book cover is a perfect fitting for the book. That is exactly how I would picture Spencer and it has a wonderful “spy” feel to it with the fiery bullet hole and the palace of Russia. In the beginning of each chapter there is a lovely cross logo with a rather witty idea of having each chapter title written out like a  report. I loved it! Brilliant! There is also a cool page of face drawings of most of the characters located in the front of the book… helped me picture and remember them better. A neat map of Russia done by the talented Nichole White, towards the middle of the book, and a character and Russian language guild located in the back… that really came in handy sometimes. Hey, I now know Russian… nyet, ya ne ponimayu. ;-)

The only bad thing I can say about this book is… it ends on a fast cliff hanger and you’ll have to wait to find out all the fun twist and turns in her plot in the next three books (I heard it’s a four book series). I look forward to finding out all the answers and joining in more adventures with Spencer and his friends.

Also there are a few typos, but I find that’s in any book. I’m sure there’s a typo or two within my review. ;-)

I would HIGHLY recommend The New Recruit, especially to teen boys 14+. The book is geared more to Christians but I think it would be a neat thing to give to a non-believer. I don’t know if everyone would agree with me on that.  My younger sister, who despises reading is wanting to read this book… how cool is that. ;-)

To purchase the paperback book follow this link Amazon
or this one Marcher Lord Press

Ebook fan...
Kindle
Nook

Check out the author's awesome website (she does free book contest every month) Also tons of writing tips http://www.jillwilliamson.com/

Be sure to look at the book series webpage and become a spy in this fun contest.
 http://themissionleague.com/

“Like” Facebook pages.
The Mission League series Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheMissionLeague

Spencer Garmond’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Spencer-Garmond/254361318000507