Books for Christian Girls: "Recruits" by Thomas Locke

About this book:

“For more than a decade, twins Sean and Dillon Kirrel have felt pulled toward another world--a place they have sketched out in detail and posted on the walls of their bedroom. They are certain it is out there. Soon after their seventeenth birthday, they are approached by a clandestine scout. To him, Earth is just a distant and unmonitored outpost of human civilization. But he explains that Sean and Dillon share a unique gift--the ability to transfer instantly from place to place. Transitors who are also twins are especially rare, and so they are offered an opportunity to prove themselves as recruits to the human assembly. If they don't succeed within thirty days, their minds will be wiped. Either they make the grade as inter-planetary travelers--or this never happened.”

Series: Book #1 in the “Recruits” series.

Spiritual Content- N/A;

*Note: Mentions of aliens; A couple mentions of ice ages; A couple mentions of auras.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a form of ‘shut up’, a ‘stupid’, a ‘sucker’, a form of ‘wimp’, and four ‘idiot’s; Combat, Fighting, & Attacks (semi-detailed); An explosion, earthquake, & fires (semi-detailed); Pain, Blood/Bleeding, & Injuries (up to semi-detailed); Seeing aliens take over people’s bodies & people exploding (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of pain, injuries, blood/bleeding, & passing out (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of an accident & death; Mentions of the possibility of being murdered & a car crash; Mentions of wars & killing; Mentions of people’s bodies being taken over by aliens; Mentions of attacks, fighting, & combat; Mentions of racing cars dangerously & accidents; Mentions of violence; Mentions of threats; Mentions of bombs; Mentions of nightmares (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of jails, prisons, & arrests; Mentions of parties, alcohol, drinking, & drunks; Mentions of a separation & divorce; Mentions of lies & lying; A couple mentions of a certain type of people being hunted & killed; A couple mentions of suicides; A couple mentions of hangings; A couple mentions of kidnappings; A couple mentions of rumors; A mention of terrorists; A mention of hangover; A mention of bullies; A mention of gambling; A mention of smoking; A mention of throwing up; A mention of bug droppings; A mention of flesh-eating bugs;

*Note: Mentions of car brands; Mentions of designers.

Sexual Content- a neck kiss, two not-detailed kisses, seven barely-above-not-detailed kisses, and a border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed kiss; Remembering a kiss (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Hand Holding, & Warmth (barely-above-not-detailed); Wanting to touch, smell, & be near to someone; Blushes; Noticing, Staring, & Smelling; Flirting; three forms of ‘hot’; Mentions of a jerk cornering a girl & later grabbing her hair (assault); Mentions of touches & embraces; Mentions of noticing & staring; Mentions of ladies & the twins make comments about having ladies; Mentions of dating, dates, liking someone, girlfriends, boyfriends, & breakups; Mentions of jealousy; Mentions of blushes; A few mentions of flirting; A couple mentions of a man wanting a woman; A couple mentions of a married couple embracing & kissing; Some Love & the emotions;

*Note: Mentions of girls wearing small, tight outfits & the twins taking notice; A few mentions of a girl’s short dress & a twin noticing; A few mentions of undergarments.

-Sean Kirrel, age 17-18
P.O.V. switches between them
368 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{Add ½ for those who like Sci-Fi/Fantasy books. Add ½ for those who are okay with no Christian content.}

First off, I’d like to go on the record for saying that I’m so not an expert in Science Fiction-y type stuff. Or the Fantasy genre, which I honestly don’t even read much of because my head hurts after around fifty pages and I get so lost in what’s happening.

I have to say, though, my head didn’t hurt at all while reading this one. So that’s a good thing. Mostly.

I was pretty befuddled by the end of this book that there was no Christian content at all in this 375+ paged book. About mid-way I sent out on Goodreads to see if anyone knew if there was any, but was told that this author seems to stick with focusing more on clean content rather than spiritual content. After reading my first book by this author, I can see that.

Overall, the fighting and combat was not gory. I’ve read other Christian YA books that had more details in the blood and fighting, so I appreciated that this one was cleaner in that regard.

Some thoughts I had while reading this book include: “Praise the Lord for fictional twins who don’t have similar names.”, “Is this what a guy’s brain is like?” {side-note: it’s weird.}, “Getting somewhat tired of the “they’re talking but it’s like singing” element in fantasy books~”, and “That was a quick first kiss, girlie.”

They did kind of lose me when they starting mentioning aliens and whatnot, but I honestly just chalked that up to being Sci-Fi.

I wasn’t a super big fan of Sean ~~(or Special Snowflake #1 has I referred to quite a few times while reading)~~; Insgar was my favorite, but she didn’t appear until 50 pages till the end.

Although I wasn’t a total fan of reading a young teen guy’s POV—it wasn’t so bad—but there was some clothing mentions I didn’t like, plus it got kisser than I feel most male readers would like, but was still cleaner than others with a female main character, so I can give props for that.

So complete overall, it was okay. For me, at least. I’m still debating if I’ll pick up the second book, but this first one was interesting. Just not my cup of tea and missed the Spiritual Content I was expecting.

See y’all on Wednesday with a new review!