A sprawling metropolis, a nefarious plan that may or may not involve circus performers, and a runaway socialite teenager that decides her goal in life is to be a superhero-or barring that, to be the apprentice to one.

I was so simple. I had to pull the ultimate girl move. I kicked the clown in the nuts.

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Ryder the superhero is less than thrilled about this, even though socialite Bremy St. James keeps being in the right (or wrong?) places at the right (or wrong?) times. When it turns out that the crime of the century involves not only her formerly-disabled sister, but her scheming father Atticus St. James and his entire company, Bremy suddenly finds herself (and everyone she knows) involved in the downfall of the city.

Why is this on our bookshelf?

It’s a book about superheroes, and even better than that? It’s a book about LADY superheroes.

Note: We received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Rating (2 stars)

Although it’s a book about lady superheroes and I am nothing if not a fan of lady superheroes, the first thing that stalled me was the dialogue.

Although billed as “Bridget Jones’ Diary” meets “Heroes,” it was really more like “Repo: The Genetic Opera” meets “Clueless”. With lines like: “I hated clowns, and this one must have consulted a scary clown stylist because his look scored a ten on the heebie-jeebie meter,” this is not a book that transcends the YA label easily. It’s definitely on par with the Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging series, just…with a superhero.

The plot was also thin in places. The events were quite event-y, with bad guys and good guys and fights and superhero butt kicking, but the filler pieces that should have really advanced the story were awfully thin, and seemed to get lost in the action.

Overall, this is probably a solid read for the Angus demographic, and a pretty good feminist superhero story, but coming to it as an adult I was hoping for a little more substance.