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.

The Taking by Kimberly Derting

Series: The Taking (bk. 1)

Genera(s): Sci-fi Mystery/Romance

Subjects: abductions, abilities, aliens,

Setting: Burlington, Washington

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, past tense: Kyra Agnew

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 357 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover, now in Paperback

List Price: $17.99/$9.99

Publisher: HarperTeen

Summary/ product description: “A flash of white light . . . and then . . . nothing.

When sixteen-year-old Kyra Agnew wakes up behind a Dumpster at the Gas ’n’ Sip, she has no memory of how she got there. With a terrible headache and a major case of déjà vu, she heads home only to discover that five years have passed . . . yet she hasn’t aged a day.

Everything else about Kyra’s old life is different. Her parents are divorced, her boyfriend, Austin, is in college and dating her best friend, and her dad has changed from an uptight neat-freak to a drunken conspiracy theorist who blames her five-year disappearance on little green men.

Confused and lost, Kyra isn’t sure how to move forward unless she uncovers the truth. With Austin gone, she turns to Tyler, Austin’s annoying kid brother, who is now seventeen and who she has a sudden undeniable attraction to. As Tyler and Kyra retrace her steps from the fateful night of her disappearance, they discover strange phenomena that no one can explain, and they begin to wonder if Kyra’s father is not as crazy as he seems. There are others like her who have been taken . . . and returned. Kyra races to find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had, but what if the life she wants back is not her own?”

My Review:  I finally decided to start this series since I know the 3^rd book is coming out in 2 months and it’s spring break, so why not series-binge? The Taking was a fun, entertaining and mysterious sci-fi read. Perfect for fan of the X-files. I watched the new 6-part series recently, so I felt in the mood for some alien stuff.

Kyra Agnew, a 16-year old girl from Burlington, Washington, was taken after her high school softball team won the championship in 2009. She got into an argument with her dad, exited the car and saw a blinding light. She wakes up on the ground behind a gas station thinking she somehow choose to sleep outside for the night. She doesn’t find out that actually 5 years have gone buy since that night until mistake her boyfriend’s younger brother Tyler for her boyfriend Austin. Tyler who was only 12 last time she saw him, and is now suddenly looking 17. Austin is now 22 and at college.

Kyra should be 21 now, but she looks exactly the same as she did the night she disappeared, down to her clothes and the bruise on her leg. She discovers her parents divorced, he mother remarried and she now has a little half brother. Everyone is astounded at her return. Kyra is upset with how her family is not the same anymore and feel angry with her mother and jealous of her new brother, and even refuses to get to know her new stepfather. Her real father is living in a trailer park now, kicked out by her mother for spouting crazy ideas of alien abduction and other conspiracy theories. The NSA wants to speak with Kyra, and may want to even experiment on her. There’s a mysterious boy with coppery eyes that keeps showing up where she goes. The one bright spot in her life is Tyler, who listen to whatever Kyra has to say. Tyler, who she’s now falling for.

This was a thrilling, romantic, and awesome book. There’s not enough sci-fi YA book currently out there that are set in contemporary times. I love dystopian books, but once in a while I’d like some modern science fiction. Some “paranormal romance” book could as science fiction, I suppose.

I really liked the romance between Kyra and Tyler. Tyler so funny and sweet. He’s a book nerd and does sidewalk chalk drawing to impress Kyra. He’s very open about his feeling for her, extremely flirtatious. He doesn’t like to be serious because he makes jokes in serious situation. Kyra is more serious, but she can easily banter along with him. He jokes about her being a dumb jock when she calls him a nerd. It’s very cute. It also feels a little heart wrenching toward the end. I’m also hoping there will be no love triangle, so I’m just going to dive into the sequel without reading the description.

Also, I think that’s the way Kyra’s change since she got back is cool. The blood thing’s a bummer, but I hope the abilities develop. They seem to be stereotypical “enhanced” stuff, so I wonder if there’s more to come possibly.

I recommend this series to fan of: The Rules trilogy by Stacy Kade, Blackout by Robison Wells, Rush (the Game Trilogy) by Eve Silver. Pretty much anything with aliens, or teens gaining superpowers. X-file fans, Fringe fans, Kimberly Derting fans (I only read the Body Finder series).

Cover Art Review: Love the title made out of fireflies! Perfect!

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.