SuperNova by Liz Long

Blurb:
The streets of Arcania are overrun with crime, deteriorating as a madman named Fortune makes himself at home. He shows no mercy, striking down anyone in his path – including Nova Benson’s little sister. Devastated, Nova vows to seek justice for her family, but aside from her freak strength and impenetrable skin, how is she supposed to stop a monster like Fortune?

Cole Warner wants to help people. Entrusted to keep his family’s secret, he’s also frustrated at having to hide his gift. He knows he could do more to help in the fight against Fortune. If he could convince his sister Penelope to join him, they might even have a chance at beating him. When Cole meets Nova, he realizes his whole world is about to change. And he’s going to welcome it with open arms.

Falling for each other wasn’t part of the plan.

Then again, neither was becoming a superhero.

    

My Review:
3 stars — I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

Honestly, I could even go lower to 2.5 stars with this book, but I’m trying to shake off the negativity.  This book just wasn’t a match for me, and practically right from the start.  I can honestly say that I didn’t feel any emotion at Starling’s death (the little sister from the blurb, not a spoiler).  And right there that’s not a great sign.  I mean, if I’m not tapping into an author’s writing enough to feel emotion from a murder of a loved one, then it’s probably not a good match.  But I hate DNFing ARCs without giving it a fair shake, so I kept going.  And quite frankly it didn’t pick up for me until around the time Cole appeared in the story and we got his POV.  And not because he was necessarily book boyfriend material for me personally, but I thought he was a sweet and genuine person, and there was a bit more intriguing stuff coming into play with more gifted individuals.

So, basically, Nova was a dud for me.  On the surface we’re told she’s going through a lot, and sometimes I definitely felt her despair, but just not as I’d hoped I would I guess.  I didn’t really appreciate her habit of talking to herself, but that’s a Lenore taste thing, not necessarily a bad thing in general.  And on a side note, her friendship with Amber confused me.  I know she supposedly wasn’t as close to her but still liked her and whatnot, but she could be a bit superior in her own head with so much of the high school stuff.

My biggest problem with this story is that it constantly had me furrowing my brow in confusion and disbelief.  I do NOT understand the choices that the characters made.  I was constantly thinking “Seriously?  No one’s going to call the police, you’re just going to leave?”  “Seriously?  They have a major encounter with the bad guy, and they just easily run away and then it’s like a date and they don’t even really look at the news or anything to find out what happened?”  Sorry, I’m trying to be somewhat vague so as not to give spoilers, but the sequence of events in the plot just baffled me.

And the PARENTS!!!  Yet another story where they exist on the peripheral and just do not come into play basically ever.  Her father is a freaking lawyer, and she never updates him on her activities, or asks him how things are going on his end?  Cole and Pen’s father seems to be in the know on all things gifted, but we NEVER meet him?  I mean, I sort of get it, but it was too frustrating to me.

And crap, I’ve started getting ranty, so I’m going to stop.  Because that’s so unfair.  Basically this one just didn’t have enough good stuff sucking me in to want to continue with the series.  It was definitely not a match to my reading personality.  I will say that I’m glad I continued on and didn’t DNF b/c we did get some good stuff (particularly in Cole’s POV), and I enjoyed the sweet romance, even if it was a bit slow for my taste.  I just wish that someone was there to answer all my questions.  😛