Breaking the Circle is the second book of 'The Maya Brown Missions' series. This book can be read on its own. Overall I would not want my kids reading it now and would wait until they are a bit older. It was a good story though. ( )

It took me a while to review this book because I had to secure a copy of the first book in the series (I hate reading books out of order!). I am a bit confused as to the audience for this book - I found the subjects a bit too mature for the 9-12 crowd but the writing style would not appeal to the 13+ crowd. I wasn't too impressed with the writing style but the topics are prevalent in today's society (unfortunately). I don't think I will seek out the third book in the series. ( )

At the start of the second book in this ongoing series, Maya is mugged by a frightened girl, a young man and a rather aggressive dog. Through pluck and courage, she manages to get her things back but somehow ends up deeper into the crime ring that the two muggers are involved with. It ends up close to home, when the mugging boy shows up at a party as the boyfriend of one her friends, and it's clear that the friend is into drugs, which the boy is selling. Maya is pulled into a world of drugs and human trafficking.

An interesting series concept, with Maya following in the footsteps of her adoptive mother secret agent Pam. It feels a bit After School Special to me - like when Kay freely admits early on to drug use and potential prostitution. Not sure if this is appropriate for middle school, and really don't see a high school audience for it.

While Mayas mother is called away on a mission, she is mugged by a boy and his girlfriend. Later at a friends party she see's them there and learns they are drug sellers, but the drugs they are selling are laced with a deadly substance. Maya soon finds out they are also involved with human trafficking of girls. Will Maya be able to stop the drugs from reaching anymore clients and help the trafficked girls, or does she become to involved to make it out alive.
Very entertaining read. ( )

BREAKING THE CIRCLE is the second book of The Maya Brown Missions and an improvement over CIRCLE OF FIRE. It can stand on its own, so you can go ahead and start the series here if you're sufficiently intrigued by my review.

Maya Brown is a fifteen-year-old Muslim teenager raised by an intelligence agent who rescued her from the fire that killed her family in Kosovo. She's a proactive young woman who doesn't like to sit and wait for problems to be solved. If she sees a chance to act, she's going to take it, whether the police or Drug Unit or whoever is ready - which isn't always the best plan.

BREAKING THE CIRCLE begins when Maya is robbed by a young woman named Kay and a boy named Gerard. When she runs into Kay later, she learns that Kay is an illegal immigrant working as a prostitute for the men who brought her into the country and Gerard is a drug dealer. Maya gets revved up to save Kay and get Gerard arrested. But she quickly learns that Gerard is but a small cog in a large cartel and that it's very hard to save a drug addict, because the thing they care about most in the world is their next fix.

The Maya Brown Missions have a more realistic feel than many other kid spy books I've read, such as the Alex Rider series. Maya's not working for an organization or armed with cool gadgets. She's bumbling around on her own. While her plans are often terrible, she is good at thinking on her feet and managing to keep her cool in tough situations.

BREAKING THE CIRCLE is written a little simpler than it needs to be. To me, it read like a middle grade novel, but I feel like sex slavery is more of a young adult topic. (Appropriately to a younger age group, Maya slips pretty easily out of any danger of being violated herself. Which I am thankful for, because I don't want to read about a plucky fifteen-year-old heroine being raped.) I just feel like the book's subject matter calls for slightly more complex writing.

But BREAKING THE CIRCLE is pretty fun, with lots of action, and it's nice to have a book series featuring a girl spy. This series isn't my favorite, but there's definitely an audience for it. ( )