I was unable to review this book because of a conflict in my schedule. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused the publisher or the author of the work. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review for you and I look forward to reviewing for you in the future.

I love the idea of queer superheroes and Trial By Fire definitely fits that category. The author's creativity shined with this superhero world and I had fun reading about Elena's entry into a legion of local superheroes. This novel did have it's issues, one of them being the lack of editing support from the publisher. This story could have been much better, and should have been with the help of a seasoned editor to guide the author in achieving the most polished final product. Plot holes, grammar issues, and stale dialogue could have been avoided here. It would be fun to see this as a series but it needs more polish.

((2.5 stars))

This was nearly 2 stars but I decided to round up because I liked the way relationships were handled, especially the sexual aspect; there was a very healthy and frank discussion about their preferences, which is (sadly) quite rare in books so I really appreciated that!!

Unfortunately I felt that the plot itself was pretty trite and pedestrian. There was no real mystery or twists, and the idea of an alternate universe in which superheroes exist and are known to the public was interesting, but it was handled in a cliche sort of way and there wasn't anything particularly original going on. Perhaps a few months ago i'd have thought the plot was underdeveloped due to being a novella, but after reading some utterly superb novellas I find that's not really an excuse.

I lovvve the coverr! .. and the description! I'm happy i read this book!
Trial by Fire begins with Elena’s interview to join the Hollywood Heroes, a superhero group living in LA, protecting the people from villains, such as Consequence. It’s a character driven story, which for the most part is great. Elena becomes absorbing; she’s an easy, likable character, and her relationship with Lacey is compelling and consuming.
I really liked it, It was different and I wouldn't mind reading more from this world the author created!

Trial by Fire is a superhero romance. Except it's really more of a romance (possibly edging on erotica, there are a couple of graphic sex scenes but I'm not sure where that line is) with a superhero subplot. That's not a bad thing, but it wasn't what I was expecting from the blurb.

The Romance Story - The romance between Elena and Lacy (who isn't the group leader, despite the blurb) is really the focus of this story. The have a cute relationship which builds up gradually as Lacy helps Elena design her new costume. The 'at home' scenes and bantering between the two were my favourite parts of the story. Personally, I felt the sex scenes were a little awkward and took up too much screen-time compared to the plot, but the author has clearly done her best to represent safe sex and confirming consent, which I liked.

Representation - The Hollywood Heroes are a lesbian superhero team (epic!) but to be honest, the only characters we see for more than a line or two are Elena and Lacy. Elena is second-gen Chilean and Lacy is trans with Filipino heritage. The rest of the team seems to represent a variety of backgrounds and includes a non-binary character but I'd have liked to know more about them all.

The Superhero Story - This side was a little shakier in purely logistical terms. Elena joins the Hollywood Heroes as a new superpowered recruit. There's an interview and it all seems very prestigious and professional. Except once she's on the team, there's no training, no support and virtually no interaction with the team. Elena does all the investigative work on her own, the other's are mentioned but not shown to do any surveillance, and Elena and Lacy handle both of the villain fight scenes by themselves. I was almost expecting some kind of twist to come from it, that a mole in the Hollywood Heroes was working with the villain, perhaps?

Trial by Fire has a lot of potential but the main plot is a little sketchy and the plot/subplot balance feels off.
This review will go up on my blog Foxes & Fairytales on 01 July (https://foxesfairytale.wordpress.com/2017/07/01/review-trial-by-fire)

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34611357-trial-by-fire" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Trial by Fire" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1493997937m/34611357.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34611357-trial-by-fire">Trial by Fire</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14204591.Lore_Graham">Lore Graham</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2042114183">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I rec'd a copy from NetGalley/Less Than Three Press in exchange for a honest review. First time reading of this author. Elena and Lacey lead in this superhero action/romance. Not bad but for me a bit jumbled though a quick read. I liked the diversity as written and will definitely read more by Ms. Graham in the future. 3 stars.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/31134832-gail">View all my reviews</a>

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Rachael – ☆☆☆
This was an... odd book for me. There were really two different things going on. The superhero stuff and the romance.

I'll start with the romance. I loved the sweetly built relationship we saw budding between Lacy and Elena. However, there wasn't a whole lot of substance to either character in my mind, just two people who found something they weren't particularly looking for.

Then there is the superhero aspect. It was kind of a hot mess on one hand and interesting on the other. The team was obviously still fumbling around as they tried to become a unified group like the team on the east coast, but they didn't want to be just like the other team, but something more and better and I liked that they didn't just follow in the other's footsteps. I will say that it lacked any type of training for a new member (Elena) or practice working as a team in the field, which I found odd.

That being said, I did like the little bit of 'action' we got to see Elena and Lacy deal with. I liked that we got to Elena sort of freak out the first time she had to use her powers against a real person who would have to live with permanent damage... or die because of what she'd done to them.

Overall, I enjoyed the writing style and the various characters, I simply felt like there was a lot that needed to be further developed and expanded upon to really make the superhero thing work.

"Nothing captures the human imagination more than apocalypse, the end of times"

*
1 / 5

I hadn't realised that this was a novella when I downloaded it, otherwise I would have given Trial By Fire a miss. So part of my dislike of this book was it's not you, it's me. Everything felt rushed: the explanations, the romance, the character building, the antagonist. I didn't feel like most of it made much sense and the book had a confused tone: the writing and plot were suitable for a children's novel, but there were two very explicit sex scenes.

"I can run twice as fast as a cheetah," Lacy said teasingly. 'There's no keeping up with me"

We meet Elena, our main character, as she is in an interview with the Hollywood Heroes, a group of superheroes dedicated to fighting crime. It seems that a very small proportion of people are born with superpowers, though there is no explanation or exploration as to how this might be or the exact "rules" of this (most superheroes in Trial By Fire have one power, but the villain has at least two). Elena has the power of fire. The Hollywood Heroes have about eight members, but we only really meet two: Archive, the leader, and Lacy.

One of the first things that bugged me was that Elena joined the group on the basis of her powers and motives. She isn't said to have any previous crime fighting experience but is thrown straight into a dangerous situation with criminals without any sort of training or group exercises like you might expect. Instead there is several scenes and days devoted to her costume designing. Then there's the villain plot itself which involves Elena and Lacy skulking around compounds and the like wearing masks and trying to be inconspicuous. I just found the whole endeavour to be a touch ridiculous and implausible.

"Fuego rang in Elena's ears as she pulled on the mask"

Alongside this action plotline, there is the romance between Elena and Lacy. Graham has written quite a diverse book, with a f/f relationship and Lacy is a transgender woman (male to female, for those not down with the vocab!). Most of the diversity is just in passing, a mention of brown skin tone, but it was appreciated nonetheless. The romance itself was good on paper; the two had a few dates, spent time together, you could trace the buildup. But I found both character just so flat; this is partly due to the nature of the novella, but it still meant I didn't engage emotionally with the romance. Neither was I expecting it to play such a heavy role given the synopsis of the book. Then there's the couple of very explicit sex scenes with seemed at such odds to the tone of the book (I though it was written for children or quite YA - not the case); I did, however, appreciate the frank conversation the two had about their sexual preferences, although Lacy keeps referring to her penis as a clit, which I think is frankly unhelpful given the general lack of education concerning female genitalia. Other than this I felt that Lacy's trans identity was handled well and respectfully.

Overall, I didn't enjoy Trial By Fire. It might be better enjoyed by someone with a more vested interest in superhero books or a fan of the novella form.

My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of this book.

3.5 stars

I requested Lore Graham's Trial By Fire from Netgalley for one reason. The fact that this book features lesbian relationship and a trans character. See, I promise myself that I will try to read more outside my MM-romance comfort zone with cisgender characters. So this sounds like a perfect option!

I thought the relationship between Elena and Lacy felt naturally progressed. While the time-span was actually pretty quick but somehow I could feel the chemistry between the two that it didn't really matter. They just 'clicked' somehow. I adored the two of them. I even liked all the talks about what they liked to do during intimate moments, which was probably caused by Lacy who transitioned and have yet all the surgeries yet. It felt different for me.

I still skipped the sex scenes though *oops*. Nothing to do with 'lady-bits', I just don't like reading about sex that much being an asexual (I skip MF or MM sex too most of the times)

But I did feel the whole superhero and villain world-built to be a little lacking, even if I appreciated the big action near the end. Or maybe I admit that I'm just not into superhero stories, and prefer to see it on big screen.

This is a fun superhero novella which is supremely conscious of the need to include more diversity in fiction, and to be socially aware (e.g. of issues like people's relationship with the police). The main character dates women, her love interest is trans, there are non-binary characters, etc, etc. It's really refreshing that it didn't really do a 101 on it, either; 'here are the pronouns, the narrative is going to use them from here on out' was the most you get. It's also refreshingly frank about communication between couples, negotiating trans body issues (or non-issues), figuring out what people like... and even safe sex, as the use of a dental dam shows.

This is not my thing on one level, because I could happily go forever without knowing what genitalia anyone has, and I'm not that interested in reading sex scenes just for the sake of sex -- sometimes it can be important to character development or express something interesting or make you re-evaluate the whole relationship between the characters... For example, I'm thinking of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel books -- a lot of the sex scenes contain plot-important characterisation and even information. And when it comes to some characters/relationships, you've been waiting for it so long and it means so much for the characters that you can't help but pay attention. But I'm not that interested in the mechanics, and I wasn't invested enough in these characters to be particularly interested in the mere fact of them having fun sex, much as I appreciated the theme of clear communication.

If the fact that the story includes sex is a major nope for you, I can say that I think the scenes would be totally skippable without missing anything important; the rest of the story is fun, although relatively light on plot and heavier on the characters getting to know one another and getting together.

[Review link live from 10th June.]

<i>*I received this book from NetGalley, and Less Than Three in return for a fair review.*</i>

‘And that’s enough for me to keep playing superhero.’ – Lacey, near end of story.

There’s several ways I can ‘read’ and ‘take’ the story. And yes, that has an impact on rating and enjoyment of the story. I chose to take the story, read it in a certain way that ended up causing the story to be an enjoyable enough read. Though I might not have liked it as well if I’d gone a different direction.

I chose to go the direction that pulls in that quote above that started me off. The ‘playing superhero’. Because this story sure did seem to be filled with amateurs, people who didn’t really seem to know what they were doing, and were largely lucky to a) find someone to fight; b) ‘win’.

Why do I say that? Amateur superheroes? Well, a lot of time and effort apparently went into recruiting a new superhero to the group – that’s good, professional. But . . . then it was all – okay, you are in, make sure to come to the meetings, here are some phone numbers, be on call. And . . . that’s that. No attempt at any kind of training. No words on what to do on a day to day basis. No words on fighting techniques. Nothing. Heck, you could have everyone be from a military or police background and there still would have been some ‘okay, I was trained to do x in a situation like y, how were you trained?’ Here, no one seems to have any kind of background training. Nor do they appear to have taken any time to even think about how they might ‘mesh’ together (‘I have fire power. As in, fire comes out of me. ‘ ‘I have the ability to run really really fast.’ ‘I’m largely unable to be hurt – largely, not sure about bullets. Oh, and I might be strong-ish’.) Nope just – you are in now. Nothing was even said about what kind of costume might be best; Elena had to ask about that.

And the action that takes place in this book? Reflects that amateur hour approach to things. Like, they just kind of noticed/made mention of someone threatening the city without doing much about it. Elena, on her own, tracked down some information. Then she got some of her new teammates to help but – even there its amateur hour. Using your own personal vehicle? Um . . . a big thing was made about hiding your personal identities but . . .. *shrugs* And, what’s up with ‘everyone’ heading to that first crisis event (after Elena joined) but only Elena and Lacy actually going into action while everyone else just kind of sat around in their cars (everyone available, some couldn't make it . . . for . . no explained reason - I mean, Elena came and she was dead asleep and had to come in her work-out clothing because she doesn't have a costume, what were the others excuses?)? No clue what anyone else on the team brings to the group, maybe they are just pretending to be superheroes – only Lacy and Elena have shown their ‘abilities’ (super speed; ability to shoot fire out of fingers). Maybe the others stayed in the cars because they lied about having any kind of abilities (I know Guardian said they had something like invulnerable skin (or similar) but they never did get involved in any of the fights so . . . lying? Just . . . too busy to get involved in the fights? Fell asleep and forgot? Amateur hour.

Can’t really blame Elena, really, for the amateurish stuff she did. Using her personal car. Basically hugging her new girlfriend out late at night in plain sight of parked cars that she has under surveillance, instead of doing the more professional thing of having separation (so one ‘blast’ of whatever, bullets, magical power, fists, doesn’t take out both superheroes), and remaining in contact by the phones they did have (there are such things as hand free devices). As said, can’t blame her because no one taught her anything. And yes, this is also why I went this direction in my read – I think the author intended the story to be read this way – it is titled ‘Trial by Fire’ – she’s just tossed out there, unguided, untrained, trial by fire indeed.

Right, so, I wrote like three pages of notes while reading this short story. Let me see if I’ve covered everything in those notes. Oh, right. There’s a weirdly sibling like vibe coming off Elena and Lacey that I know isn’t intended, since they interact in sexual relations – and can’t keep their hands off each other (especially when they should, like when they are standing around watching a bad guy late at night). Made the sex scenes oddly disturbing. Mmphs. Bad vibe. Luckily the sex in the second scene quickly turned in a direction I want nothing to do with so I just leapt over it (eww, butt sex). First one was oddly interesting and arousing, though, so eww for a different reason. Hehe. Oh right. Heh. I lead into the ‘amateur hour’ in my notes by noting that safe sex practiced, but they didn’t seem to practice safe . . . um . . . superheroing (see training and stuff like that). Bah. I kind of ranted for three pages about the amateur hour stuff in my notes so I don’t have anything else from there to add.

Okay then. So, this story is about Elena, and from her point of view. She’s a paralegal living and working in Los Angeles California. She’s a Latina, a white Latina, as she puts it (parents from Chile), and has a superpower – the ability to have mild to strong resistance to heat and fire, while also being able to generate fire from her hands. She didn’t really want to actually use her powers until she got bored and decided to join a local superhero group. The story opens with them interviewing her.

Fairly quickly she’s a member, doesn’t have a suit yet, but does have some phone numbers. Despite lacking training or a costume to wear, she’s put on call immediately. And, almost immediately, she’s out in the thick of things. Battling a villain who calls himself Consequence.

Meanwhile, on the personal front, Elena picks up a new girlfriend named Lacy. Who happens to already be a member of the same superhero group Elena has joined (this kind of makes it seem like they meet first at a supermarket or something – no, Elena meets Lacy through the group). Luckily for my own sensibilities, they don’t go immediately from meeting to love, but they do seem to get to ‘can’t stop touching you’ rather quickly.

A good interesting story. I’d like to read more in this universe. And yes, I realize that I kind of said a bunch of stuff that could be seen as negative – I saw it as positives – as these are real people attempting to ‘do stuff’ with powers in the real world instead of something like personifications of goodness . . . or something like that.

ETA: Of note: If it's important to someone - Lacy, it is quickly learned, is transgender (MtF), and hasn't fully transitioned yet (and might never have 'bottom surgery' (did have whatever it is that is done to have breasts; still has a penis. Which she calls her lady cock . . . or clit)).

Rating: 3.77

May 17 2017