About this book:
“Brady Hart has learned his leave crime fighting to the professionals. But what will he do when he discovers a new smartphone app luring kids into unsafe activities?
Brady's friends, Sunday and Gladiss, have already downloaded the FROOM app, and their rankings are soaring. Connecting with hundreds of new people is exciting, but the flashing dare button has them all concerned, especially after it results in a serious accident on Christmas Day.
Who issues the dares, and why are they targeting kids? Is it just a popularity game or is something sinister going on? Should Brady alert Special Agent Max Dunham or will that get him grounded until summer?
The answer seems simple--stay out of it--until a problem bubbles up that boggles his Why has Gladiss changed her appearance, and why has she gone from annoying him to ignoring him?”
Series: Book #2 in “The Belt of Truth” series. Review of Book #1 Here! (Set after to “The Good News Shoes” series by the same author, but does not have to be read first.)
Spiritual Content- Ephesians 6:14 and Proverbs 18:24 at the beginning & a few Scriptures at the end; Scriptures are read, remembered, mentioned, discussed, & thought over; Prayers & Thanking God; Church going & a sermon/lesson; Witnessing to others and inviting them to church; Talks about God, Jesus, helping others, & doing good deeds; ‘H’s are not capital when referring to God or Jesus; Brady hears God give him a direction to find someone; Mentions of God, Jesus, & His power; Mentions of prayers, praying, & thanking God; Mentions of Bibles, Bible reading, Bible apps, & those and events in the Bible; Mentions of churches, church going, inviting others to church, pastors, services, & Sunday school; Mentions of missionaries & mission trips; A couple mentions of a baptism; A mention of celebrating the birth of Jesus on Christmas; A mention of a blessing;
*Note: Gladiss tells Brady about her rank on the friend app plummeting when she added about Jesus to her account and people leaving her negative comments (such as she is following a myth, is not very smart, or is narrow-minded and judgmental; Brady asks if that bothered her and she says it doesn’t because Jesus said people would hate Him and His followers); Brady and a man from church take the church’s golf cart off the church’s property (without permission) to pick up someone for Sunday service (twice); Brady feels like there is an evil after his friends and their souls; A boy comments that his parents aren’t really “into God stuff” *Spoiler* but feels like God guided him away from a deadly situation and hopes that going to church with Brady will help him figure it out *End of Spoilers*; Mentions of evil; A few mentions of Santa Claus; A couple mentions of luck; A mention of a picture of a counterfeiter being drawn with devil horns; A mention of a video game about blasting aliens; A mention of aliens taking someone over.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘gah’, two ‘duh’s, two ‘shut up’s, six forms of ‘dumb’, seven ‘stupid’s, and seven forms of ‘wimp’; Eye rolling & Sarcasm; Brady lies on the app (saying he is pretending rather than lying because it’s for safety) and also to criminals; Almost being run over by a car (barely-above-not-detailed); Seeing others injured, seeing blood and broken bones, fear for others, & passing out (up to semi-detailed); Brady’s friends and classmates are on an app where everyone is ranked by others (either positively or negatively) & can receive dares from the app’s creators (some are dangerous or illegal such as jumping from a building, breaking into a school’s snack shack, or damaging property with a prank); Brady and his friends skip parts of school to help other kids who are in trouble (another kid covers for them; Even though he doesn’t like breaking rules, Brady reasons that God would protect the innocent); Brady finds a friend (a girl named Gladiss) too much at times because she’s always talking, very sparkly, and she comes over to his house often (Brady hopes that she will leave or go home first) but quickly notices when she isn’t acting the like herself and tries to help her; *Spoilers about this and the app* Negative comments made Gladiss change her appearance and try to go by a different cooler name, which makes Brady worried about her and try to help her; The app has kids doing “dares” including dangerous ones, but also ones that seem to help the community by delivering packages of candy and computers to others in their area; The kids are threatened to continue to help deliver the packages or they will be reported for delivering stolen merchandise (including Gladiss); Brady tells Gladiss that it was dangerous for her to meet someone by herself at a park for a package; *Major Spoilers* The computers actually have a hacking program that demands money from the user and infects other computers with the same virus; Brady says he can’t tell his FBI contact or his mom about it yet, but plans to; Before he can though, everything gets revealed; Brady is not grounded again which makes his sister comment on their parents “getting soft” but Brady thinks it’s because their parents knew he tried not to get involved with the FBI again *End of Spoilers*; Brady deals with bullies taunting him for being smart at school & when talking to them later, they say they don’t actually hate him but don’t understand his level of smart so it pushes their buttons (*Spoilers* One of the bullies asks for help from Brady because the other bully is caught up in the app’s delivery scheme; Brady realizes that the bullies aren’t his enemies because they are victims of an unseen enemy that is preying on them; When a bully is in a dangerous and possibly deadly situation, Brady is very upset and prays for his safety (he is injured, but alive); The bully apologizes for being mean to Brady and hopes that going to church can help him figure out (Brady says that church can help, but only Jesus can change someone) *End of Spoilers*); Many mentions of crimes, criminals, kids doing dares that can be dangerous and/or illegal (including breaking into school property and stealing), & threats; Mentions of events in Book #1 including criminals, crimes, a counterfeiting ring, shoplifters, slavery, being locked in a truck, hostage situation, & near abduction; Mentions of break-ins, stealing, burglars, & thieves; Mentions of arrests & jail; Mentions of major injuries, pain, blood/bleeding, & passing out (border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Mentions of bullies, being bullies, being beat up or pushed by them, & hatred; Mentions of lies, lying, liars, & deception (including other kids lying to parents, police, and authority figures; Brady comments that it’s never good to hide things from moms); A few mentions of bombs, drugs, drug lords, & mafia bosses; A few mentions of the possibility of kids being hit by a car; A few mentions of cancer treatments & a heart attack (including Sunday’s best friend who is in remission from leukemia treatments); A mention of blackmail; A mention of rumors; A mention of throwing up; A mention of poop; A mention of a pet cat getting out and never coming back;
*Note: Brady tries hard to stay away from the FBI after promising his parents he would and not get involved with them (*Spoilers* He technically does, but does see and talk with those affiliated with the FBI; He plans to tell his mom about the app, but everything is revealed at the end; Brady is not grounded again which makes his sister comment on their parents “getting soft” but Brady thinks it’s because their parents knew he tried not to get involved with the FBI again *End of Spoilers*; Brady was grounded for events in the prior book and had limited access to his electronics during that time; Brady is given a cell phone that has “usage restrictions” on it from his parents; Brady’s best friend is a boy named Sunday who is originally from Kenya and is in remission from leukemia treatments (no details on the treatments beside prior when Brady was concerned one time that he wouldn’t see him again); When wondering what he can do to help Gladiss (who isn’t talking to him), Brady thinks through many options and then thinks “man, I sound like a girl”; Mentions of a TV show & character (MacGyver); Mentions of fictional characters (Wonder Woman, Hulk, Spider-Man, & The Grinch); Mentions of brand names (Milk Duds, Junior Mints, M&M, Skittles, Tootsie-Pop, Sprite, & Slinky); A few mentions of car brands; A mention of Girl Scout cookies; A mention of Starbucks; A mention of a peace sign; A mention of a woman being told she would never have kids (but prayed and prayed about it and found out she was pregnant one day).
Sexual Content- An adult tells Brady and Sunday to not let a “pretty girl lure you with her charm” because if that happens “they’ll be no telling what you’ll do to get her attention” (Brady thinks the man is crazy because he does not want the girl’s attention in that way); Brady’s mom tells him to keep his bedroom door open when Gladiss comes over, which makes Brady sweat at the “gross thought” of his mom thinking that he is going to hold the girl’s hand or something; Another girl waves to Brady and it’s implied he gets warm/blushes over it (twice); A boy calls Gladiss “cute” and it’s later noted that his eyes light up at seeing her (Brady thinks it’s gross to see his two friends crushing on each other and flirting).
-Brady Hart, age 11
1st person P.O.V. of Brady
272 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
It felt a little strange to read a book that starts at Christmas time in April, but I was honestly too excited to read this book after reading the first book in the duology last month to wait. This was a very exciting story and I liked many elements of it! I could see different parts (especially the humor and friend groups) like a movie in my head which added to my enjoyment and eagerness to see what would happen next.
This duology would be great for boys and girls, but particularly for those that like adventures or mysteries. I think this book and the prior one in the series are a perfect mix between those two genres because while it’s not really a “whodunit” kind of mystery story, there is trying to help those caught up in the problem, finding out the motive of the criminals, and stopping all of it from continuing.
I’m truly bummed there aren’t more books in this series as I loved seeing Riley Mae again and also greatly enjoyed Brady’s adventures! But it was a good ending to the series with a lot of character development of side characters and lessons learned for everyone involved. Definitely an underrated gem in my eyes and one I would recommend for sure!
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
