The Squad by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Squad, so far, contains two books in the series, Perfect Cover and Killer Spirit. In the first book, Toby Klein is surprised to find a coded note telling her to attend a meeting for her high school’s varsity cheer squad. But then she finds out that those girls are much more than cheerleaders – they’re spies.

And Toby has to join them. To make her cover complete, she has to undergo a Phase 6 Makeover to make her look like one of those girls. Thanks to a background in martial arts, she doesn’t need any training in the physical fighting area, but she does need to learn how to cheer because she is, after all, a cheerleader. So even though Toby has her doubts about becoming one of those girls, she can’t help but feel thrilled to be hacking and sneaking and all else that spies do.

I found The Squad series to be a fun and refreshing read. First of all, I love the spy aspect and especially its combination with cheerleading. Toby’s character is easy to relate to, besides the hacking part of course. Many times, I found myself agreeing with all the cheerleading and other stereotypes going around her head. Plus, Toby is witty and hilarious. She’s what any reader is looking for in a main character.

I also liked how Jennifer Lynn Barnes kept the story unique. It may be that I have only read a handful of spy books, but I felt that The Squad series was special, which most likely had to do with the cheerleading part as previously stated. I felt that the missions that Toby and the Squad had to go on were fresh and not at all repetitive, and that is saying something for the girl (me) who can usually guess what happens next in spy books. I was totally surprised by the ending in Killer Spirit. Although the action never got dangerous to the point of multiple gunshots and catfights, the plot was exciting the whole way through.

I highly recommend all of you pick up copies of both books quickly, and I thought they were amazing. The Squad series is especially good for fans of the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz, (review of Snakehead here), and the Gallagher Girl series by Ally Carter (review of Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy here).

Rating: 4.5

Review copy from personal collection