Reviewed by Jennifer Rummel for TeensReadToo.com

Toby hates cheerleaders. She could care less about the God Squad, the most popular girls in school.

Then she finds two coded messages in her locker inviting her to try out for the squad. At first she thinks these messages are a joke, but then curiosity gets the better of her.

The first meeting is just an introduction to the squad, without practicing. At 5:30 the next morning, she attends her first practice. Toby is not a morning person -- her snark More...

If you'd told me at the beginning of sophomore year that I was going to end up a government operative, I would have thought you were crazy, but if you'd told me I was destined to become a cheerleader, I would have had you committed, no questions asked. At that point in time, there were three things in life that I knew for certain: 1)I was a girl who'd never met a site she couldn't hack or a code she couldn't break, 2) I had a roundhouse that could put a grown man in the hospital, and 3) I would More...

A few months ago, I discovered The Squad series from Jennifer Lynn Barnes and I read the 2nd Book and enjoyed it as I love spy novels like this as it reminds me of one of my all-time favourite shows "Veronica Mars" mixed with a bit of the movie "DEBS".
In The Squad , we meet Toby Klein who has just enrolled as a transfer at Baysview High School and loves to be invisible but that won't last for long as somebody or should I say a group of people know who she really is and wants her skills. We disc More...

originally posted at curledupkids.com

The last thing Toby Klein ever wants to be compared to is a cheerleader. She’s nothing like them – they do roundoffs and back flips; she does roundhouses and Jujitsu. Cheerleaders like skirts and body glitter, and Toby is more of a combat boots and black pants kind of a girl. So why is she getting notes in her locker from the cheerleading squad – scribbled in purple glitter ink, no less – demanding she attend a recruiting meeting after school? When Toby, agai More...

Toby is NOT cheerleader material. . .so when she is sent an invite to the elite cheerleading tryouts she is understandably suspicious. She is not going to become one of those girls even if they have some silly notion that she might make a good pom-pom waving cheerleader. . .and then she finds the message, encoded into the invite:

Come Alone

Toby is intruiged, obviously cheerleaders are not smart enough to encode a message! So who is trying to embarass her? Then she gets another message, encoded More...

High school sophomore Toby Klein is not exactly cheerleader material. She wears combat boots, is a third degree black belt, and spends her spare time hacking into very secure computer systems. So when “the God squad,” as they are frequently referred to, sends her coded notes inviting her to try out, Toby is bewildered and curious, but has no intention of wearing a short skirt and sporting pom-poms. Then she learns that The Squad is a top-secret government program that trains and uses the girls a More...

This book was a TEN on the twists and turns scale. The ending was so unexpected. I thought I knew what was going to happen but I was wrong.

I couldn't help but notice it's kind of similar to The Specialists Series. In both books, each person on the team has a special skill. And it's kind of ironic how both series are in the perspective of a computer whiz.

I loved the characterization of Toby. She's sassy, sarcastic, and smart. But the zero to hero thing is a little unrealistic. In reality, someone More...

Okay, my favorite teen-spy novel will always be "Gallagher girls" but that doesn't mean i didnt enjoy this book...i had so much fun through out the novel and i LOVED ITT!!!:)
It was completely hilarious and made me laugh so hard at times..Toby is just amazing and she's such a bad ass but also caring and sensitive at times..i found Noah adorable and their sister-brother relationship was really cute..my most memorable part from the story has to be when toby is dreams about Bubbles suddenly appear More...

Surprisingly, this was pretty good! But, from the genres on the side of Goodreads, I'm guessing that this book wasn't supposed to be that humorous? Honestly, I thought that this was more of a comedy book than anything else, and I just couldn't get over how ridiculous everything was. The whole spy and cheerleading thing, hilarious. I'm not sure if this was more steered towards younger readers, but I couldn't stop laughing at some parts. It's so unrealistic and unbelievable - that I actually liked More...

Sometimes there is nothing more entertaining than a good YA novel. The Squad: Perfect Cover was a page-turner that I finished in a day, filled with adventure, excitement, and surprises. Toby Klein, social outcast and computer-hacker is shocked to find herself being hounded as a Bayport High Varsity cheerleader recruit. It turns out that the squad of vapid and clueless, popular, pretty girls is actually a government operative training to be CIA agents. Using bulletproof bras, bubble gum bombs, an More...

What a book! I seriously just picked it up at Walmart before our beach trip, and I was thoroughly impressed. I have a huge respect for cheerleaders, so how do you think reading about high school cheerleaders as clever, beautiful world-saving spies went over for me? Yes, really well. And another plus, I was laughing out loud about every second page, and I had a huge grin on my face the entire book.

Toby is a tomboy computer hacker. She protects her little brother from high school jocks and hates all cheerleaders. Then one day everything she knows gets turned upside down. The varsity Cheerleaders turn out to secretly be spies and she has to join them. The twins give Toby a level six make over and all of a sudden Toby is popular. Toby hates popular people. Toby doesn't have long to adjust however because her first mission has arrived and the fate of foreign agents are depending on them, not More...

OH MY GOD.



I've just found out I almost died today.


From Wikipedia:

Death from laughter refers to a rare instance of death, usually resulting from cardiac arrest or asphyxiation, caused by a fit of laughter. Instances of death by laughter have been recorded from Ancient Greece to the modern day. The first recorded use of the alternative term fatal hilarity is from 1956.
Death may result from several pathologies that deviate from benign laughter. Infarction of the pons and medulla oblongata in the b More...

The Squad: Perfect Cover by Jennifer Lynn Barnes was a captivating novel about a tomboy named Toby. In the novel, Toby goes to a school called Bayport High. Bayport is a picturesque high school. They have new, updated facilities, and they are a very wealthy school. As Toby knows, every school works the same way. The jocks and cheerleaders are the most popular, some people are in the middle, and the losers are, well, losers. Toby knows that she isn't popular, and she's fine with that; so when she More...

Good as a book

4.5 Stars

Okay what I didn't like about the book was:
Character
1 Toby She's supposed to be a bad-ass chick hacker that has a black belt. BUT she was so , so, so annoying!!!
She was switching from being bad-ass to being so annoying and all "What? I can't connect the dots?
I got kinda irritating just reading how much she switched personality.
2.Plot So, the climax was pretty much at(view spoiler)[at the party with JACK PEYTON (the son the enemy) and photocopied his BUTT! Just to get into the buildi (hide spoiler)] More...

Originally posted on My Book Musings.

I started browsing through my unread books and saw The Squad by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. I have read Tattoo by her before, and while it was interesting, it just didn’t hit the spot for me. I wasn’t left raving about it…unlike The Squad series, or at least Perfect Cover did.

The Squad is about the varsity cheerleaders in Bayport High.The squad is composed of the most beautiful, perfect-looking girls – the ‘IT’ girls in campus. But underneath their gorgeous looks ( More...

Who knew I would enjoy a book that had cheerleaders in the backdrop? I am so much like Toby, sarcasm and all, that it was like reading an biography of myself, well minus the cheerleading and the secret agent parts, maybe. I am the smart-mouthed techie! Too hilarious. It was like she was reading my mind. I was laughing out loud throughout most of the book. I stayed away from the popular crowd in high school and in college until my last year when I decided it was time to grace them with my presenc More...

I liked this book, it was a simple easy read that killed my Sunday afternoon. Toby was like able enough and her general dislike of cheerleaders while slowly becoming one of "those girls" herself amused me but also fit with what you'd expect to happen. The other characters were interesting and I can see room for fleshing them out in the next books. The thing that annoyed me about this book was the fact that Toby didn't ask nearly enough questions about who they worked for and where their orders More...

Perfect Cover, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, is not as good as I hoped. I thought that this book were slow on some parts. This book was not to my taste. Perfect Cover, starts off with a girl named Toby. She is on the bottom of the social ladder, and definitely not a cheerleading material. She finds two notes in her locker inviting her to the God Squad. From that, the story goes as her doing training, missions, and cheerleading.
I personally thought this book was bad. Compared to other spy books I hav More...

I do not even remember exactly how I stumbled across this, but I remember being completely intrigued by the summary. I am a complete sucker for a good spy story, especially in YA. This sounded like it was fun, so I decided to get it through inter-library loan at my library.

Toby was a fabulous narrator from the beginning. Tough, snarky, and always protecting her hilarious younger brother, she stole my heart from the first page. Her tone is very sarcastic, but at the same time her heart shines thr More...

Toby Klein is a sixteen year old girl attending Bayport High. She's a rebel, fierce, brave and a social outcast. She starts to receive some encrypted messages from the popular Varsity Cheerleading Squad about upcoming try-outs. What do the cheerleaders want with her? She just wants to melt into the background and protect her little brother, Noah, from school bullies. Well, after some curiosity that Toby has surrounding the mysterious notes, she decides to go to the try-outs just because it will More...

Fun! This is book is just outrageously funny, with plenty of snarky wit to pass around.

Toby could never imagine being a cheerleader. Proud of her social outcast status, her hacking skills and her ability to beat up football players in defense of her little brother, Toby found herself recruited to the God Squad, Bayport's elite cheerleading team. To her surprise, the cheerleaders are more than just perky attitude and glittering outfits. They are also elite government operatives.

Thus starts the r More...

this was light-hearted and fun. better than reading the second book - i once again love reading things in order! sigh. i wish i had this time. stinking library not having this one.

toby is still fun, but toby turns out definitely not be my favorite. lucy rocks. i love lucy and the twins and zee and brooke and chloe and bubbles . . . i wish we saw more of april.

it's a lot of fun, and it definitely takes the "cheerleaders are dumb" stereotype and turns it on its head - or, rather, uses it to the More...

ooo its FINALLY in the libary... hopefully will get it soon... spies, geeks, and cheerleaders... whats not to love???

This is a fantastical story in which rich high school cheerleaders are also undercover super agents. The lead is an antisocial hacker who spends her time trying to be invisible and keeping her oversexed younger brother from being beat up by football players. She is recruited into the Squad, and her life is turned upside down. Besides the pink and glitter, she is suddenly very visible and is learning that Those Girls are also people.

This is a very fun, snarky romp through secret agent territory i More...

An excellent light read that moves with the precision of a well crafted cheer. The plot slowed a little with the introduction and backstory of the characters, but tension and hilarious internal dialogue distracted you. One or two flat characters, but there's plenty of room to expand as the series (I assume one is coming) continues. I very much enjoyed Noah, the side-kick brother. Realistic teen dialogue. Realistic teen attitude. Shaky on the realistic government and actual school interaction stu More...

Perhaps I would have liked this book more if I hadn't read the Gallagher Girls series (Ally Carter.)

Similar idea - high school girls training to be secret agents. Except that in this book, it's all about perfection. Perfect hair, perfect accessories, perfect make up, perfect wardrobe. Complete makeovers and everything pink. Pulling off missions by flaunting their bodies and flirting. Cheerleaders are untouchable - head of the social hierarchy, vice principal obeying their every whim, homework co More...

Honestly, I would give this book 4.5 stars, but I loved it overall, so I decided to give it five stars. I really enjoyed the MC's reaction, however I felt that the overall 'mission' was way too simple. Nothing major seemed to stand out as a huge dilemma for me, like the MC getting captured, or they have hand-to-hand combat in a life-threatening situation. I really loved the concept of cheerleaders working for a government agency (because really, who would've thought?), the details, and the creat More...

If told me a few months ago that I would read a book about cheerleaders and like it, I would put you in a straightjacket. Now? I'd force you to read this book so I can have someone to discuss it with. I'm more of a sci/fi/supernatural/fantasy girl, but I love humour as well. I couldn't stop laughing when I read this book. Friends would give me odd looks when I'd giggle as I read it at school. So if you want something that will bring tears to your eyes (in the pee-your-pants kind of way), then th More...

This was a random find for me. It was sitting on someone's bookshelf and caught my eye because I read other books by the author. I'm not a cheerleader fan, but the spy stuff sounded interesting. Unfortunately for the book, a whole heap of books came in at the library and it sat in my to read pile since October. I know, my bad right. (And that is as close to preppy speak as I will get. You can so blame the book for that.)

So I finally decided to read it. I did like the book. The characters were in More...