Review: Powerless

Book one of The Hero Agenda

By Tera Lynn Childs and Tracy Deebs
Available June 2 from Sourcebooks Fire
Review copy

I couldn't resist reading POWERLESS.  I like Tera Lynn Childs' Greek mythology-inspired series and Tracy Deebs' romance novels as Tracy Wolff.  Plus, novels featuring superheroes are one of my favorite things.  A topic I like by authors I enjoy?  Yep, no way I could resist.

I'm glad I didn't.  POWERLESS is a propulsive read that both tells an exciting story and sets up several future plotlines for a series.  It all starts in a lab, where Kenna Swift is working late.  Kenna is powerless, but she's also immune to powers thanks to a serum her mother secretly cooked up.  Hero or villain, it doesn't matter - although Kenna can still be hurt by collateral damage.  That's why she remembers the three villains who invaded the lab looking for a friend, even though one of them thought he wiped her mind.  Kenna knows who the heroes and the villains are, but she can't help thinking that they didn't seem that evil.  So she goes snooping.

If you like stories about family secrets, people banding together to do the right thing, and creative uses of chapstick, you'll enjoy POWERLESS.  I liked that there was an interesting mix of relationships in the main group.  There's Kenna, her best friend Rebel, and her ex-boyfriend Jeremy representing the heroes.  Then Draven (who Kenna is attracted to), Dante, and Nitro representing the villains.  There are romantic, sibling, and friend relationships within the group, in addition to some tensions between people who used to be enemies.  This mix means that even though it is a larger ensemble, there's a lot to define each character and how they react to the others.

I liked that Childs and Deebs didn't spend too long building up to the heroes-are-the-villains reveal.  (In fact, the prologue basically gives it away.)  It's where the story is obviously heading, so why save it for the climax?  When we get it at the beginning of the book we get to see more of how Kenna reacts.  (To be fair, it is mostly denial at first.)

POWERLESS did feel like the beginning of a series.  There's several action scenes, but they're mostly set up for events in future books.  At the same time, I feel like Childs and Deebs still managed to tell a complete story about Kenna and her friends.  I'm definitely curious about how things will play out in the second book.

Be sure to visit on Thursday, 6/18 for an extended excerpt of POWERLESS and a jewelry giveaway.