James and his friends Kerry, Bruce, and Gabrielle have their first mission after summer vacation, and since James and Bruce have been slacking off Kerry and Gabrielle beat them performance-wise in the mission and so Bruce and James must walk back to the hotel. When they arrive back at the hotel, Kerry and Gabrielle mock Bruce and James because they could have used the phone and the money left on the counter to call a cab and could have been driven back to the hotel, emphasizing the fact of how much they are out of practice. Bruce and Kerry get into a fight where Bruce makes the pin in Kerry’s bad knee shift, sending her to the hospital. Since Gabrielle and James are their teammates, they too are sent back. This sets the scene for the plot of The Dealer or Class A.
While back at home base Kerry, James, Kyle, and Nicole all are sent on a mission to assist police in Luton to take down KMG, Europe’s biggest cocaine ring. James must befriend the head boss Keith’s son Junior, and is to also get to the heart of KMG even if it means being recruited as the dealers. As the others are given out their respective jobs, they have one main rule to follow: They are not allowed to take any of the drugs unless it is against their own will (not peer pressure) or they will get kicked out of CHERUB and sent to a foster home under an alias where they will start their new normal life.
James finds things a lot more difficult whilst on this mission as he can relate to Junior’s worries about his dad being arrested as his mom used to run a shoplifting ring in London and he used to worry daily about the same thing. A bit of romance brews between James, Nicole, and Kerry, but as James has to get close to/go out with April Junior’s sister he realizes that he really wants to go out with Kerry. Surprising News comes about both Kyle and Nicole in this story, and Lauren James’ little sister builds from being little kid who could not enter basic training to turning 10 and finally being able to enter it. Sparks fly between James and Kerry that will surely be built upon in the next book.
I really like how this series does not shy away from putting the characters into dangerous situations, even though they are technically still kids they do treat them as full spies instead of junior spies. This story also shows more realistic examples of how widespread the drug trade is, even in the fictional sense.I still believe that the characters still act above their age level in some situations, especially romantically, but I notice that the characters are aging as the books go on so I believe that this small issue will fix itself soon enough as they grow into their ages. I am loving this series more book by book and I look forward to reading it more.
Overall Rating: 4/5
