I was a little hesitant about this book when I saw the concept. Super powers in YA have been done so much that it’s almost impossible to escape the tropes, and so much YA has felt predictable to me lately. But when both Becca and Trisha said it was awesome, I knew I had to give it a shot (They’re both amazing writers in their own rights, and thus far, haven’t steered me wrong on books). When Leigh Ann asked for people to volunteer for a chance to read it early in exchange for an honest review, I couldn’t resist. I’ve been known to put down even my best friends’ books after a chapter or three if they’re bad. In those cases, I just explain to them why I couldn’t get through it. I figured worst case, I would read some of it, and if it was really bad, I could just bow out gracefully.
I was very pleasantly surprised. Not only was it not a trope-walk, but the style was engaging and the pace was crisp enough that I devoured it all in one sitting. I’d meant to read a chapter or two, then go back to configuring the new TV and maybe play some video games on it (purely for testing purposes, of course!). The next thing I knew, it was 3 hours later and I’d devoured the book without even getting up again. Uhm, oops?
Merrin, “Mer” Grey is a girl who knows her own mind. A half-powered freak compared to her Super talented twin brothers, she’s full of anger and resentment as she transfers to the normal’s high school for her sophomore year. All she can do is float, but she dreams of flying. Her only hope lies in the Hub, a massive Supers research facility hidden beneath the Kansas fields. If she can get an internship there, maybe she can figure out how to go from a One to a Two and finally fly.
When she meets Elias, with his gorgeous blue eyes, there’s an immediate spark; Not instalove, fortunately, though love follows fairly easily. Equally frightened and thrilled by the way he makes her feel, she slowly falls for him, opening herself up, until they manage to combine their powers and fly.
But not everything is what it seems, and they’re not as unobserved as they think they are. There’s a lot more at play than they suspect, and when things reach a fever pitch, Mer will have to choose between her head and heart, between what she’s always wanted and who she wants.
I’m a sucker for well done romance. I get tired of the instalove where their eyes meet and they’re instantly stupid in love with each other. The romance on this was VERY well done. It captured both the immediacy and overwhelmingness of teenage love, while making the growth of it seem realistic.
The Super powers were convincingly done. I could buy into the world building with it, and most of it was well woven into the narrative. The only point where I felt like I was being given a history lesson, it was one, but it worked. It was still well filtered through Mer’s world view.
My only real complaint is that I could have read far, far more of it, like a couple books more, minimum! (Luckily there’s a sequel coming out in October, TWO, so I don’t have to be tortured waiting too horribly long!) Looking forward to reading much more from Leigh Ann. Definitely an author to keep an eye on, I foresee very good things in her future.
You can read the first chapter here. Give it a shot, you might be as surprised as I was!!
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