A_TiffyFit's Reading Corner: superheroes

Book Title: Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain
Author: Richard Roberts
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Publishing Date: February 15, 2014
Length: 376 pages
Source: Courtesy Copy for Review Purposes from publisher

Penelope Akk wants to be a superhero. She's got superhero parents. She's got the ultimate mad science power, filling her life with crazy gadgets even she doesn't understand. She has two super powered best friends. In middle school, the line between good and evil looks clear.

In real life, nothing is that clear. All it takes is one hero's sidekick picking a fight, and Penny and her friends are labeled supervillains. In the process, Penny learns a hard lesson about villainy: She's good at it.

Criminal masterminds, heroes in power armor, bottles of dragon blood, alien war drones, shape shifters and ghosts, no matter what the super powered world throws at her, Penny and her friends come out on top. They have to. If she can keep winning, maybe she can clear her name before her mom and dad find out

I finished this book a couple of weeks ago and wrote my review and...forgot to post it. So I'm posting it now!

This was a delightful read for me as an adult and one I would have enjoyed as a middle schooler! In a world where super heroes and super villains are abundant, Penelope Akk is the daughter of two superheroes and just waiting for the day her super powers show up. She and her friends are eager to get through middle school without dealing with the "meanies" and when her powers show up, she discovers she's a scientist! She is a mad scientist who spaces out while creating her super gadgets and needs to learn to control it. From The Machine she creates that does amazing things to the super power serum she develops for her friend, Penny is on her way to becoming a...supervillain? Eek!

I really loved this book and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone who likes a fast-paced, action-packed fantasy filled with super heroes and super villains, who are truly goodhearted and not nearly as evil as you would expect!

Definitely re-readable and one I'd like on my shelves for future possible kids, nieces, nephews, etc. I'd recommend to any parent with young middle schoolers to adults who just want a fun story to escape within!

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Justice
Book One of The Galilee Falls Trilogy
Jennifer Harlow
Genre: Urban Fantasy (Superhero)
Publisher: Devil on the Left Books
Date of Publication: 5/13
ISBN: 978-0-9893944-0-6 ebook
ISBN: 978-0-9893944-1-3 print
ASIN: B00CTY1QZ8

Cover Artist: Damonza

Book Description:

It’s hard being a regular police officer in Galilee Falls, a city with the highest concentration of superheroes and villains in the country. It’s even harder watching your best friend, the man you’re secretly in love with your whole life, planning to marry another woman. Detective Joanna Fallon has to contend with both. When the vilest supervillain in the city’s history, Alkaline, the former crime boss who can shoot acid from his wrists, escapes from the maximum security prison, the whole city is gripped by panic.

Leading the pursuit is Captain Harry O’Hara, Joanna’s boss and secret lover, and the city’s champion superhero Justice, who caught the villain last time, much to Joanna’s chagrin. Before her father was murdered in a mugging twenty years earlier, Joanna worshiped the hero, but when he disappeared and failed to save her father, that adoration turned to contempt for all supers.

After Alkaline attacks too close to home and targets Joanna as his next victim, tough-as-nail Joanna has to contend with her increasing fear while struggling to choose between her life-long crush and her new-found love.

At turns vulnerable and fierce, equally mordant and winsome, Joanna is an earnest yet emotionally damaged heroine, who despite the tough breaks of her childhood sees the good in people and vow to protect her beloved city at all costs. An ass-kicking petite firecracker with no superpowers of her own, she charges after supervillains unflinchingly, never losing her wit even when facing her toughest fight. With a coy blend of whimsy and vivid imagination, she delivers both humor and thrills in an action-packed and edgy blend of comic book cool, fantasy-noir, and bitter-sweet romance.

A_TiffyFit's Review

In all honesty, I can't sum it up better than the blurb. I was so excited to see the invite to the tour and even more excited to land it. You see...I love super heroes. I love them flawed, I love them gritty, I love them shining and perfect. I love a tough cookie heroine who shows signs of vulnerability and yet musters on. This book did not disappoint me. Entertaining, sweet, action-filled, and wonderful from the dedication: Dedicated to anyone who saw injustice and had the strength to say, “Not on my watch.” to the very last page, which is not a cliffhanger ending, and yet you want more. If asked what I thought at the very end of the book, I would answer you, "Mmm. MORE!"

For anyone who has ever been in love with their best friend, you sympathize with Joanna. You do, despite some of the pettiness. You don't just sympathize, you empathize. Happy your best friend is happy, annoyed at the love of his/her life that should've been you. Through a few chapters, you see the lovely messiness of human emotions, the entanglements we weave for ourselves, the love we close ourselves off to without even realizing it, and then the pain that tears us open, able to hold even more love.

But this isn't a romance; it just has some romance in it. This is a super-hero book. Okay, technically a super vigilante, at least according to Jo. But if superheros are sworn in as deputies, then they're no longer vigilantes, right?!

The secret identity is not so secret and quite obvious from the first few pages, the first SCENE really where you see a couple glance at one another. I found it obvious. And I found a certain someone's completely obliviousness funny.

Vividly written, I could practically see this novel unfold in my head like a wonderful comic. A graphic novel version would be amazing, however, I'd really like books two and three in the Galilee Falls trilogy first! I snorted at some parts, teared up at others, nodded along, cheered when the character did what I wanted her to do, and was happy that they were prepared for the inevitable.

There are well-placed hints and yes, you could call some of the plot predictable. For me, it in no way damaged my enjoyment. I kept reading and loved it.

About the Author:

Jennifer Harlow spent her restless childhood fighting with her three brothers and scaring the heck out of herself with horror movies and books. She grew up to earn a degree at the University of Virginia which she put to use as a radio DJ, crisis hotline volunteer, bookseller, lab assistant, wedding coordinator, and government investigator.

Currently she calls Northern Virginia home but that restless itch is ever present. In her free time, she continues to scare the beejepers out of herself watching scary movies and opening her credit card bills.

She is the author of the Amazon Best-Selling F.R.E.A.K.S. Squad and Midnight Magic Series. For the soundtracks to her books visit www.jenniferharlowbooks.com.

http://www.jenniferharlowbooks.com

http://blog.jenniferharlowbooks.com Tales From the Darkside Blog

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/jenharlowbooks

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jennifer.harlow.52

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4708453.Jennifer_Harlow

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/jenharlowbooks/

Excerpt:
“‘Can you be so cruel?’
‘Yes, I can be very cruel. I have been taught by masters.’”
-Paramount Picture’s The Heiress (1949)

Prologue
The wolves are at the gate.
I count thirty police officers on my security monitors, including SWAT, all armed to the gills led by him. I always knew this day would come. It has been almost twenty years in the making, but now it’s here…this must have been how Nero felt as he played that fiddle. My Rome is burning. Soon my freedom will be gone and yet I could still manage a tune. First things first.
Waverly, one of my loyal employees these two years, runs into the study. His fear does not inspire confidence. “Sir, what are we supposed to do? The police and—”
“Stop sniveling for one,” I say, taking a sip of my Scotch. I will miss this.
“Did Grace—”
The bullet I put between his eyes stops the rest of that sentence. I don’t have time to answer a million questions. Company’s coming. I down the rest of my drink as I run the electromagnet over my computer. Cleaner than the day I bought it. Must leave things tidy. I’ve already set the timers in the file cabinets. Thirty more seconds before, like Nero, all that remains of my empire is ashes.
The bombs detonate as I walk down the hall, no louder than gunshots but still rocking the walls sprinkling dust on my paintings. I wonder what will happen to my art. Probably sold for victim reparations. The Degas alone will cover the cost of the library we destroyed today. Smith and Rees are waiting in what is left of my living room. Just looking at it, especially what’s left of Bradley under that bloody sheet, I feel embarrassed for myself. I never lose control like that. I don’t know what I was thinking. I suppose I’m paying the price now.
“Sir, where do you want us?” Smith, a five year veteran of my service, asks.
I turn over the couch with a sigh. “Gentlemen, I want to thank you both for your loyal service through the years. You have both been invaluable. I wish things could have gone a different way. I apologize.” I fire a single shot into Smith’s forehead. Poor Rees is too shocked to even draw on me before he meets the same ending. The loose ends are no more. The rest is in the hands of the fates.
The last of my security doors fall, the sound of steel hitting marble echoing through the room. I cross my leg, wipe the speckles of dust off my costume, and put a smile on my face. The bane of my existence, the man I hate, who has consumed my life for years, super-speeds into my living room as if he owns it. And the press calls me arrogant.
“Alkaline,” he says beneath that dark mask.
“Justice,” I say with a nod. We stare at each other for a few seconds, even now locked in battle. “Grace?”
“She’s safe. You can’t hurt her or anyone else ever again.” He pauses for dramatic effect, or to savor his victory. “Will this be easy or hard?”
For a moment, I consider an attack. It always gives me almost orgasmic pleasure when my fist hits his body and he cries out in pain. One last taste for the road? No, I quell this urge. My body has not completely healed from our fight a few hours ago and quite frankly, I need a break. Being the scourge of the city is exhausting. “You may take me to jail now.”
As I’m led out past the frightened police and gawking bystanders, I keep that smile on my face. Not because I’m arrogant, not to save face, because…I may have lost this battle, but the war has just begun.
Then Rome will truly burn.

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