by Stuart Gibbs
ages:10+
First sentence: “‘Hello, Ben,’ said the man in my living room.”
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Ben is basically your average kid. He goes to a regular school, is a regular loser, and aside from being a math whiz, there’s really nothing special about him.

So, it’s to his surprise when Alexander Hamilton, of the CIA, shows up at his house, inviting Ben to join this super-secret, super-exclusive spy-in-training school.

Well, who wouldn’t jump at the chance?

 Except, once he gets to spy school, Ben realizes that things aren’t exactly what they seem. Sure, he makes some friends, develops a crush on a super-hot 3rd year girl (who also happens to be a great spy), but it turns out that he’s well, a fall-guy. And there’s a mole in the school. And people are out to kill Ben.

The question is: will he survive long enough to find out who?

I hoped this one would be all the fun of Belly Up and maybe more. I mean: espionage, a cool cover, a spy school, and a mystery? What could go wrong?

Well…. it’s not that it went wrong, it’s more that it just didn’t go right enough. Ben was a bit of a wash as a main character; it’s not that I never connected with him, it’s just that Erica — his crush, and the one who makes the plot move — so outshines Ben that it’s hard to really connect with him. I felt like he was the loser sidekick for most of the book (sure, he comes through in the end), which is okay, but not what I was expecting. On the other hand, Gibbs never really quite got the fish-out-of-water thing quite right either.

Still, the mystery is solid, and while the Big Reveal comes a little out of left field, there are enough clues that perhaps someone who was paying better attention than I could figure it out.

It was a decent second effort; I just wish is was more.