http;//bactra.org/weblog/algae-2014-02.html#vaughn ( )

Abandoning this at 20% because other more engaging books keep making me avoid it. Done ignoring the hints. :)

This one's a sequel to After the Golden Age. Years have passed since that adventure. Celia West is now married, the president of West Corp, and the mother of two teenage daughters. Her eldest, Anna, is acting moody and secretive. Is it just plain adolescence? Or has Anna developed super powers and a compulsion to don a costume and fight crime? After all, it does run in her family...

Overall, the book was pleasant to read. But, like most sequels, it doesn't quite live up to the original.
--J. ( )

While not perfect, this is a solid character-grounded book about superheroes and their families. Set more than a few years after AFTER THE GOLDEN AGE, the two POV characters are mother and daughter, non-powered Celia West (from the aforementioned ATGA) and secretly-powered Anna West-Mentis.

This is a great book I'd lend to girls looking for a good and true YA book with supers in it. Marvelous coming of age story for Anna as well as a great continuation of Celia's story from the first book. ( )

Lots of fun, more political, tense & dramatic than the first, and more of a story, too. ?áI really got into the characters. ?áAnd not just Anna - this is not to be brushed off as a YA book. ?áEven though I'm not big on series, I find myself wishing for another entry. ?áAnd even though I'm not a fan of paranormal, I might just check out the author's Kitty Norville books.

Btw, if you think there's a possibility you'll read both books, definitely start with the first. ?áThis spoils a lot of After the Golden Age.

An example of the fun details Vaughn includes: There are superhero groupies" and even a website dedicated to spottings of the masked vgilantes. ?áWhen news breaks, "The Rooftop Watch site crashed its servers."

An example of the serious/ thoughtful aspect of the book: "There was a lesson here, one she reveled in: Suffering and happiness weren't incompatible."" ( )