The Specialists: Model Spy - Shannon Greenland

****1/2 - I love spy stories, and teen spy stories tend to be even better - mostly because I'm a sucker for 'cool school' stories, and teen spies get to go to spy school. Here there's potential for a great Mission: Impossible type interaction and missions. And this had modeling! I can't wait to dig into the next one...

Sixteen-year-old computer genius Kelly is in a world of trouble when she's caught hacking into the U.S. government's computer system to help out a friend. Now Kelly faces two choices - she can either serve her sentence in juvenile detention, or she can join a secret elite team of teenaged spies known as the Specialists.

Of course she decides to give the Specialists a chance, receives the code name GiGi (short for Genius Girl), and gets to know the others in her new team. And soon, klutzy GiGi has to prepare for her first undercover assignment - as a model.

This was So Cool! Where to start? I guess with the characters: I really love them. All of them. Already. There's an easy sort of cameraderie that pervades the Specialists that I really enjoy. The others in the team, while they don't feature a lot in this book, are likeable and intriguing. I'm really excited about Bruiser's story (although I don't think it's out yet). The author uses dialogue well to give the reader a feel for her characters. They each have a different way of speaking and a different attitude. Everybody actually did feel distinct, and not in a separated through stereotypes way.

Kelly is believably absent-minded and awkward around others her age because of a lack of interaction. I loved her obsession with lollipops and her tendency to let her mouth run faster than her brain when she got nervous. Plus the fact that she thought in code when she was nervous was quite endearing. Personally some of her computer geekery went way, way over my head, but it was cool. And I enjoyed the tension involved in the huge crush.

I loved the way the training was depicted. Not a lot of time was spent on it (sad, but understandable), but it was enough to give the reader a real sense of the new supportive environment GiGi found herself in. And to make her blossoming into a talented spy believable. I thought her undercover mission was pretty cool, too, although I wish there had been a little bit more time with GiGi actually having to pass as a model - having to do a show or a shoot or something. It makes sense not to dwell on the side stories, it's an adventure series, after all, but I can wish for it, right?

So - do you like spy stories? Mission: Impossible? The Gallagher Girls by Ally Carter? If so, get thee to the bookstore. This book was amazing. I have the whole series at the top of my TBR pile now. And I'm so ready to get back to Specialist Training!

Interested in other opinions?
Presenting Lenore
Book Muncher