Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Sovereign by April Daniels


Sovereign by April Daniels

Review by Lauren

source: copy from Netgalley; all opinions are my own

Official Summary (add on Goodreads)Only nine months after her debut as the fourth superhero to fight under the name Dreadnought, Danny Tozer is already a scarred veteran. Protecting a city the size of New Port is a team-sized job and she's doing it alone. Between her newfound celebrity and her demanding cape duties, Dreadnought is stretched thin, and it's only going to get worse. 

When she crosses a newly discovered supervillain, Dreadnought comes under attack from all quarters. From her troubled family life to her disintegrating friendship with Calamity, there's no trick too dirty and no lever too cruel for this villain to use against her. 

She might be hard to kill, but there's more than one way to destroy a hero. Before the war is over, Dreadnought will be forced to confront parts of herself she never wanted to acknowledge. 

And behind it all, an old enemy waits in the wings to unleash a plot that will scar the world forever.

Review: Sovereign is the second book in the Nemesis series, which follows the transgender superhero Danny Tozer. Danny is male-to-female and when she was granted the powers of Dreadnought, her body finally mirrored the way she felt on the inside. Danny is great at her job, but she has a lot of anger for a teenager. She's been through a lot, even with superhero powers, and everything seems to be mentally and emotionally catching up to her, even if her physical strength just gets better.

I loved the first book, Dreadnought, so I was really excited to read the sequel. I thought this one was just as good. I love the intricacies of superheros, the villains, and everything that goes into making these books. Daniels has an amazing imagination. While this series is fully developed, with a lot of great information, there are never any info dumps. Things are revealed as needed and it works! As for Sovereign, I really loved the journey that Daniels takes Danny on in terms of her anger and past traumas. I felt it was handled well, and as realistically as possible when dealing with super humans.

If you haven't read Dreadnought yet, please do, and if you have, then I hope you'll continue with Sovereign. 

3 comments:

Verushka said...

This sounds so wonderfully done -- especially as the author has taken supeheroes and grounded it in some plot points that any one can identify with from the sounds of it?

Kit @ Metaphors and Moonlight said...

This one sounds like it gets a lot more intense and serious. The whole series sounds really unique though!

Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity said...

Sadly I didn't love this one quite as much as the first :( But I'm glad you did! I definitely agree that the deeper and quite traumatic events of Danny's past were handled with respect and realism, which was great. I think that since this book focussed more on the fighting and superhero aspects I missed the character development and relationships from the first. Although I will say I loved the romance in this one :D Lovely review, Lauren <3