Utter thrash. Nonsensical. Boners were mentioned way too many times.

I loved it. ( )

Based on the blurb alone, I suspected I would like this story. A superhero who was raised by wolves in the wilds of Montana until age seven, who is now a teenager with several secrets in his past, has an enormous ego and an almost pathological need to become famous combined with Rob Rosen’s trademark humor, after all, is bound to be amusing. But that isn’t all this novel has to offer. I also got a significant dose of suspense, conspiracies out the wazoo, hilarious references to other superhero fandoms, hormonal teenagers trying to save the world, and a great action adventure with lots of superpowers on display. The characters are fascinating as well, not at all the “standard” good-versus-bad guys most superhero stories thrive on, but instead real men with moral issues and very human needs. With a plot that twists more times than a superhero’s cape in a storm, as far as I am concerned, ‘Fierce’ lives up to its name – and then some!

Lucas tells his story in first person and his tone of voice alternates between philosophical, boasting, and very, very funny. He goes through what he remembers of his childhood before launching into the story itself, but it’s all a flashback that leads up to the very beginning of the book: Lucas in a cage, yelling for help. I was on pins on needles to find out how he got there, why his superpowers were not sufficient to get him out, and what would happen next.

While the focus is on Lucas trying to discover who he really is, where he came from, and who his biological parents are, the secondary characters with their individual agendas are almost as interesting. There is Craig, childhood friend, first boyfriend, and ex whose motives and actions throughout most of the book are less than transparent. There is Lucas’s boss at the café where he works, who is older and becomes a great mentor. There is Lucas’s newest boyfriend who has a homophobic brother he doesn’t know about, a farmer in financial trouble as a father, and who goes from roommate to essential supporter of Lucas’s case in a very selfless way. There are others as well, and I loved getting to know and love – or hate, as the case may have been – each and every one of them.

If you like snarky, sarcastic teenagers with a secret to uncover and a cause to fight for, if you enjoy action/adventure of the superhero kind with a somewhat unusual explanation for said superpowers, and if you’re looking for a read that is laugh-out-loud funny, suspenseful, mysterious, hot, surprising, and has an ending that is as sweet as it is poignant, then you will probably like this novel as much as I do. It’s entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time, and has some great character growth as a very enjoyable bonus. What more could I ask for?


NOTE: This book was provided by the author for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. ( )