James Adams himself is a very flawed human being, with a violent temper, repeatedly cheats on his girlfriends, has sexist and minor homophobic tendencies (at least at the beginning), and loves getting into trouble with the law (with indications that, if it weren't for CHERUB, he'd be spending a lot of life behind bars), but he (usually) has good intentions at heart, and he's often up against guys who kill and/or torture people without remorse.

I’m not,’ James said defensively. ‘Heights I can handle, but jumping out of an aeroplane is slightly different.’ Boarding School: CHERUB Campus is something of a boarding school, in that the students all live on Campus. However, because they are all orphans, Campus is their full time home, not just a place that their parents ship them off to during most of the year. It is also not particularly snobbish, posh or upper class in its culture, even if it is rather well funded and well equipped. Drugs Are Bad: CHERUB will let their agents get away with a lot, both on campus and during missions (partly because finding new kids who can join is really tough), but one thing which will result in immediate expulsion without question is willing consumption of a Class A drug (such as cocaine). The end notes of Shadow Wave say that James did not cheat on Kerry in his first year at university (she hadn't yet retired from CHERUB yet), though she suspected otherwise. At the end of Shadow Wave, Kerry gets accepted in Stanford University and, one year later, goes there with James. Kerry has an exceptional talent in martial arts and as James describes “…is a good all rounder in academics.” In the final book, New Guard, it is revealed that her and James marry in September 2017, and …Parental Abandonment: This trope is a job requirement for CHERUB agents. They must all be either orphans with no known living family members that can assume guardianship, abandoned children, or they must have some other situation that prevents their parents from being involved in their lives. By Brigands M.C. however, the rules have been relaxed (due to constant shortages of physically and mentally able orphans) so that ex-cherubs can enroll their own children if they so choose. Hassam Bin Hassam from The Sleepwalker is abusive towards his wife and son murdering the former and makes a fortune from reselling shoddy plane parts, which can cause plane crashes. He is also a hypocrite who preaches that his son must respect his heritage, but is happy to ignore it himself. Hassam is one of the few villains to be killed off instead of arrested, pulling a Suicide by Cop after taking his son hostage and having him subsequently freed by a CHERUB agent. Living MacGuffin: Ethan Aramov. CHERUB wants him to take down the Aramov clan, Irena seemingly wants him and his mother to take over after she dies, and Leonid just wants him dead.

Heroic BSoD: In Class A, James is forced to shoot and kill a man in self defence. He had no other option and it was obviously justified, but he's affected by it for some time. Use his previous connection to KMG to infiltrate the Mad Dogs gang to uncover their criminal activity and prevent a gang war (with Bruce Norris) (SUCCESS) ( Mad Dogs) Death by Origin Story: The cherubs are all required to be orphaned or abandoned with no family members likely to turn up and claim them. This trope strikes main characters James and Lauren, as their mother dies just chapters into the first book and Lauren's father is sent to jail for smuggling cigarettes after hitting Lauren. Kerry is flown to hospital to have surgery on her knee. Kerry later apologises for her outburst and says that when she broke Bruce's leg he was cool about it, so she is not trying to hold a grudge against him. Mac subsequently punishes James and the others (pointing out that James and Gabrielle are equally responsible due to the teasing that took place before the fight) by giving them laps and gardening duties. The gap of less than four seconds between jumps turned the queue into a slow walk. Every time someone lined up in the doorway, James hoped they’d mess up so that they’d be out of the drop zone before his turn came around. But each trainee had invested ninety-six gruelling days into qualifying as a CHERUB agent. Bruised, hungry and exhausted, they’d put in too much to let fear get the better of them now.In this book I believe it did a greater job in exploring it’s secondary characters than our main protagonists. Although, this may be due to the case that our beloved main agents are maturing and that the author wants to investigate new attributes behind different characters. Muchamore has proven that he has a good understanding of the main figures' personalities very well. I especially like the sections concentrated upon Bruce and the antagonists such as Wheels and Junior. Including Junior, there were returning personas from one of my favourite books from Muchamore’s collection: Class A, which adds to the sense of nostalgia which I thrive upon. Through growing to love these characters and the progression of missions, this book ends the story of one of the older generations, Kyle who was the person who first recruited James to CHERUB. This was sad to see as I loved Kyle’s sassy nature yet maturity on how he acted liked an older brother to James. Nevertheless, James’ maturity level has notably changed and has become a minor, but significant pivotal moment in the series, where James interaction with his current girlfriend, Diana has become more honest and knowledgeable to An investigation into the Keith Moore in Class A was derailed because so many of the cops were accused of being on Keith's payroll. How many were actually guilty is unclear, since Keith apparently spreads corruption rumours to obstruct the police. Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While "evil" may be pushing it, many of the antagonists have families which they clearly care about because outside of their criminal activities, they're just normal people. CHERUB exploits this fact by having their agents befriend their targets' children and by extension, the targets themselves. Unlike the trainees, James didn’t have equipment to contend with because the instructors’ stuff was being delivered by boat.

Follows the reunion of four old sixth form friends. They head to Spain to visit the fifth member of the gang, but things take a dark turn. The friends bury Tiny Blair but are scared when the villa suffers a power cut and flares are fired and believe the Serbs are trying to intimidate them. The short story "The Switch" sees Ramiro, the Corrupt Politician and child slaver in charge of the diamond smuggling ring, walk away a free man due to Diplomatic Impunity while his associates all go to jail, escaping prosecution in his home country due to strong personal ties with the president. The training department are stretched thin with staff off and it clearly has an effect on the quality of training as there is no way a blue shirt would dare launch a can off Mr Large (A shovel maybe one time yes but Lauren Adams... nuff said). I have an interesting post in mind discussing this at great length and detail. Leonid Aramov is marked out as a monster in part by his raping of his wife and several Korean refugees.Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Every book ends with one, explaining the aftermath of that book's mission, the fates of the criminals, and what the CHERUB agents involved did next. As the Grand Finale of the first series, Shadow Wave takes it a step further, covering almost every notable CHERUB agent throughout the series, even the ones who had been Out of Focus for a while. Mission Briefing: Almost every mission includes a lengthy written mission briefing. While the mission briefings will not self destruct, agents are not allowed to remove them from Mission Control, a rule that James does not always follow.