Relentless by Tera Lynn Childs and Tracy Deebs

Series: The Hero Agenda Duology (bk. 2)

Genera(s): Sci-fi/Romance

Subjects: superheroes, supervillians, abilities, superpowers, conspiracies

Setting: Boulder, Colorado

POV/Tense: 1st person POV, present tense: Kenna Swift

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 279 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Summary/ product description: “Revenge is easy, but justice is worth fighting for…

Kenna is tired of being lied to—and hunted by the very allies she once trusted. Unearthing the dark secrets of the superhero world has not only endangered her life, now her boyfriend faces execution for crimes he didn’t commit and her mother is being held captive in a secret governmental prison.

Kenna is determined to stand up for what’s right and save those she loves from unspeakable fates. It’s time for the betrayal to end. It’s time for the real criminals to face justice.

But the truth is even more terrifying than Kenna could imagine. A conspiracy threatens the fate of heroes, villains, and all of humanity. If Kenna’s going to survive, she must draw on her deepest strength: her resilience. Because when Kenna’s pushed to the limit, she doesn’t break down. She fights back.”

My Review:  Relentless is the sequel to Powerless and (probably) the finale to the Hero’s Agenda duology. If you haven’t read Powerless, I recommend it to those who enjoyed  Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson, V is For Villain by Peter Moore, Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Illusive by Emily Llyod-Jones, Blackout by Robison Wells, Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, Red Queen by Victoria Avyard, The Young Elite by Marie Lu, or anything superhero-related. Also fans of Tera Lynn Childs’s Sweet Venom series.

Kenna in the first book had discovered that she had a power. She can control electromagnetic energy, knocking out electronics with EMPs. Also, she’s a villain and since the serum wore off, her villain mark is visible and she can use her ability. In this world, a type of virus with 2 strains, one for heroes and one for villain, gives people powers and also leaves a mark behind the ear that differentiates heroes and villains. To me it seems like there is no difference between the heroes and villain other that the mark, and it’s more prejudice than anything.

Kenna’s villain boyfriend Draven is being put on trial to be executed. Kenna and her team of “hillains” (heroes and villains working together) are there to rescue him. Kenna has disguised herself at a media reporter and her team is waiting in the wing ready to go on her mark. Everything goes haywire, and though they rescue Draven, someone else isn’t so lucky and Kenna suffers a loss so hard, that she’s not sure how she can move on. She set out for revenge, ready to defeat Rex Malone, the hero with malicious intentions, with everything she’s got. This is an action packed sequel that reads like an actual super hero movie or TV shows. It’s set in Colorado, which is a nice change of pace from all the NYC and Cali set superhero stories. And I’ve been to the Denver area in Colorado before, so that’s a plus.

I really did enjoy this series. It was very short, though. The characters are very unqiue from one another. I did have difficultly remembering the character at first since it’s been a year and Powerless was a pretty fast and short book too. I forgot who’s who and what their power or relation is. I tried keeping track, though.

Character Recap: Kenna Swift (villain) is the main character, and her boyfriend Draven Cole (villain) has memory and bio manipulation ability, and he has blue eyes dark hair. Draven is Rex Malone’s illegitimate son and cousin of Dante (villain) and Deacon Cole (villain), who are twins with wind and water manipulation powers. Nitro (villain) is British and can throw fireballs of various colors that identify what they do. Nitro’s brother is Quake (villain), who can make small earthquakes. Nitro also has a crush of Riley Malone (hero), Rex’s legitimate son who can fly. Riley’s sister is Rebel aka Rachel Malone (hero), and she has telekinetic powers. She’s also Kenna’s best friend. Rex Malone (hero), their father, is an evil SOB with super hearing and wants to control and torture villains. His wife has ice powers. Jeremy Abernathy (hero) is part of the Hillains team, and he has technopathic abilities. He’s also Kenna’s ex-boyfriend and he’s a nerd. V aka Victoria (villain) is Draven’s bodyguard hired by his uncle Anton Cole. Also, Kenna’s mom is a scientist that developed a serum to protect a person from the effects super powers. Kenna’s dad was a superhero.

Cover Art Review: Not that great of cover. I’m not sure I understand what the symbol is for. Does it represent the villains? It’s just a blah cover. The complementary color scheme is an interesting choice though.

Powerless by Tera Lynn Childs and Tracy Deebs

Series: The Hero Agenda (bk. 1)

Genera(s): Sci-fi/Romance

Subjects: superheroes, supervillians, abilities, superpowers, conspiracies

Setting: Boulder, Colorado

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, present tense: Kenna Swift

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 295 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $16.99

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Summary/ product description: “Kenna is tired of being "normal". The only thing special about her is that she isn't special at all. Which is frustrating in a world of absolutes. Villains, like the one who killed her father, are bad. Heroes, like her mother and best friend, are good. And Kenna, unlike everyone else around her, is completely ordinary— which she hates.

She’s secretly working on an experiment that will land her a place among the Heroes, but when a Villain saves her life during a break-in at her lab, Kenna discovers there’s a whole lot of gray area when it comes to good and evil and who she can trust.. After all…not all strength comes from superpowers.”

My Review:  Powerless is superheroes, supervillains, and those who fit in neither category. Kenna is powerless, an ordinary. Her mother is a scientist who works for the heroes and her father was a superhero and now is dead. When a group of villains break into her mother’s lab, Kenna fights back. These villains don’t seem as evil as Kenna’s been told, though. They don’t kill her and one tried to wipe her memory. It doesn’t work because of Kenna’s secret. She’s immune to superpower because a serum that her mother created for her to take.

Kenna meets Draven, a villain who actually wants to the right things. He’s the one with the memory power. He doesn’t want Kenna to get hurt. Kenna finds him very hot and attractive. Draven is the love interest of this story. There are other Villians: Dante, who wants to rescue his twin Deacon from the heroes’ labs. Nitro, who has energy blasting powers. Quake is Nitro’s brother. Kenna’s best friend, Rebel, is the daughter of the president of the heroes’ organization, and she has telekinesis. She’s the girlfriend of a villain. Jeremy, another hero, is a technopath.

This story is full of action and awesome superpowers. It’s fun like all of Tera’s books. There’s humor and bickering and well-developed, interesting characters. There are twists you will never see coming, maybe. I mean, I saw them coming. Some may be obvious, but I’m happy when I’m right so I don’t mind. I’m so excited to read the sequel. I’m happy this isn’t a standalone.

I recommend this book to those who enjoyed V is For Villain by Peter Moore, Illusive by Emily Llyod-Jones, Blackout by Robison Wells, Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, Red Queen by Victoria Avyard, The Young Elite by Marie Lu, or anything superhero-related. Also fans of Tera Lynn Childs’s Sweet Venom series.

Cover Art Review: I love the way the title looks and how it’s sideways. I also like the spark and the eye. Eyes are overused on covers, but this one is pretty interesting. It reminds me of the cover of Crash by Lisa McMann, though.

Burn by Sarah Fine and Walter Jury

Series: Scan (bk. 2, finale)

Genera(s): Sci-fi Thriller

Subjects: aliens, adventure, science, secret societies, conspiracies

Setting: New York and various other places

POV/Tense: 1st person POV, present tense: Tate Archer

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 329 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Penguin: Putnam Children’s

Summary/ product description: “"Car chases, explosions and action galore—awesome."—Kirkus Reviews on Scan

At the cliffhanger ending of Scan, Tate loses the very thing he was fighting to protect, what his father had called the key to human survival. Tate doesn't have much time to worry about it because he needs to get away, to ensure he and Christina are safe. His father left him one last thing that can do just that—a safehouse, which turns out to be a clue to what's really threatening the planet. As Tate follows the clues his father left behind, he starts to uncover the truth, realizing he's up against an enemy he's only beginning to understand.

A riveting, fast-paced "we are not alone" adventure, Burn thrills to the very end.”

My Review:  Burn is the finale to what started in Scan. I didn’t know this was a duology, or a two-book series. I guess sequel-finale are getting more popular. Anyways, I enjoyed Scan so much, I was hoping for more than two books. At least the sequel was awesome and it properly wraps up the story.

Our hero, Tate Archer, is an awesome narrator, and his girlfriend Christina is kickass too. They remind me of Gray and Bree from the Taken trilogy by Erin Bowman or Alex and Darla from Ashfall or any of those awesome sci-fi YA couples. Not so heavy on the romance though. Tate has a ridiculous amount of skills. Like the kind of skills that a secret agent/spy might have. His father taught him multiple languages, martial arts, chemistry and war strategy. And he also went to normal high school too. He’s too busy running from the Core to protect his father’s device to deal with school now.

This series is action packed. It’s like twice as action packed as many of the sci-fi books I’ve read recently. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the action and become lost and confused, but I can picture it okay. I love all the sci-fi elements of this series. I feel like going on a alien-related series YA kick. These aliens aren’t scary like the ones in the Alien movie though. These aliens are pretty much genetically identical to Humans and they call themselves H2. When they breed with a human, their offspring is H2. That’s why now 2/3 of the population is H2, though most are unaware of their existence. Tate’s father made a device using alien tech to detect the different species. Blue for human, red for H2. The scanner scan someone as orange, so do they now have a 3^rd species hiding under their noses?

So much happens in this book! Allies are made between prior enemies. Discoveries are made. I’d hate to spoil the ending, so I guess you should read the book. If you have now read scan, you should. I recommend this to fans of The 5^th Wave by Rick Yancey, Maximum Ride, Divergent and other sci-fi/action books. I met the authors last year. Did you know Walter Jury (that’s a pen name) is a movie producer who worked on Divergent? That’s awesome! I didn’t know that when I met him. Sarah Fine also wrote Of Metal Wishes, which I want to read.

Cover Art Review: I love these new covers! The illustration/photo is amazing.