TW: gun violence, death of an infant, injustice & misuse of power, animal cruelty (insects), minor self mutilation
3.8

The Renegades are the protectors of all- or, that's what they want people to think. But Nova knows what happens when you start relying on superheroes. When her family was murdered, she was taken in by her uncle- famous super villain- and she tried very hard never to look back. But now it's been years since his death and their movement is dying. It's desperation that launches the plan- get Nova into the Renegades as an inside man. It's surprising that it works at all, but there are more surprises in store for Nova and her team.

I picked up this book because I desperately needed super heroes, and it definitely scratched the itch. This book is full of powers big and small, supers heroic and villainous, and a whole lot of plots.
I think the characters are all really interesting, and I love the world explored here. The powers themselves are plain fun to get to explore, and you never quite know what you're going to get.

There's also a theme of parallel secret identities which adds drama and a nice amount of tension for and between the characters. While I didn't necessarily care all that much about Adrian or his desires, his alter ego is very cool and its addition does some cool things for the plot by large.

However, a lot of this book felt kind of flat for me. I enjoy complicated morality and flawed characters, and seeing as Nova is originally a villain through and through I expected more of a chaotic nature to her. The characters being very lawful and more or less moral (beyond the obvious exceptions who are meant to function as such) was a let down. I also thought most of the twists are fairly obvious, and the romance which is clearly supposed to be core to the story felt forced for a good chunk of it and trite throughout.

I didn't really expect to get sucked in enough to want to read the sequel, but it ends well and now I'm tempted. There's enough set up that it could be really cool!