Book Review: Ignite by Jenna Terese

"...Ignite is a must-read for fans of the Marvel universe.” 

— Sandra Fernandez Rhoads, YA author of Mortal Sight & Realms of Light

What if superhumans weren't considered heroes?

When Scarlett Marley is attacked by an illegal super with fire powers, she doesn’t get burned, but now she has a fire-like glow flickering in her eyes.

With superpowers criminalized, she has no choice but to turn herself over to the Superhuman Containment Facility, or risk hurting everyone she loves.

Her normal life seems lost forever, until she is selected to be one of the first to receive the experimental cure to destroy her powers. In exchange, she must first complete one mission:

Infiltrate and capture one of the largest gangs of supers in the remains of once-great Rapid City. 

With the cure and all her future at stake, Scarlett is prepared to do whatever it takes to bring these criminals to justice so she can return to her family. But this gang and their leader, Rez, aren’t what everyone says, and Scarlett begins to question everything she was ever told about the SCF and the fire flowing in her veins.

The cure is her only hope for returning her life to what it was before, but is that life worth returning to after all?

Series: Ignite, book 1

My rating:

Do you ever read certain books where you fully expect them to live up to the hype, but try not to keep your hopes up just in case it's not as good as you hoped, but it turns out to be everything you expected?

Yeah. Me too.

I've been 'friends' with Jenna on Instagram pretty much from the beginning, and being able to watch her journey from aspiring author to published author has been soooo gratifying. The way she talked about this story of hers, I could see how much it meant to her, and after reading Ignite, it's clear how hard she worked on this book.

Mmkay. Now that I've bragged a bit on Jenna as a debut author, let's dive into the story, shall we?

The beginning was a bit slow, to be honest, bordering on annoying with all the times it mentioned people scraping their paper cup to get the last bit of ice cream. But then it definitely picked up the pace when—gasp—Scarlett (the main character, in case you decided to skip the blurb) is attacked by a super.

A super. Not a superhero. Because people with superpowers are criminals.

At least...so says the government.

I adored Scarlett. Her struggles, her determination to do the right thing regardless of what it may mean for her...yes. And what I adored all the more was that it wasn't always clear what was right and what was wrong. Scarlett was so determined to make the right choice, the honest choice...but what happens when you can't see what is right and what is wrong? Do you stick with what you know, or do you explore the unknown? I really appreciated how Scarlett struggled to answer that question, and how she dealt with what followed, and how she chose to take responsibility for choices gone wrong.

Ares, Nadia, and Seth. *deep breath* So different. So unique. To be honest, they was almost allegorically symbolic of the different stages of spiritual growth, and I loved that so much.

But my favorite character? Rez. Always Rez. Having to decide whether or not it's worth doing wrong in order to protect the greater good and, ultimately, save lives. It was so obvious that he was under a lot of stress and pressure, but he still remained gentle and kind. I definitely need more of him in book 2.

The plot, as a whole, was different than I'm used to, but sooo good. My second superhero book, and so far we're 2 for 2! I can't wait to read Ignite's sequel!

*I received an e-copy of this book from the author for promotional purposes. All thoughts are my own.

What's your favorite superhero novel? If that's your thing (or even if it's not), definitely check this one out!