Thank you for the opportunities to read this book. I have attempted it on a number of occasions but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get into it.

I unfortunately did not enjoy the book the way I had hoped I would. I thought that I had posted this review already, but apparently something went wrong. The switching in the POVs and the writing just weren't for me.

This book earns a solid 3 stars. It's literally a middle of the road book for me. Not bad, not great. It was fine. It's full of cliches and is very formulaic and that's the reason why I won't be continuing the series along with a few writing quirks. Most YA books refer to the parents by Mom and Dad. This one had the characters saying Mom and Dad in their dialogue and then referred to them by their first names outside of dialogue and it was confusing as all get out. I also was kind of taken aback by the sexual moments. I'm not a prude, but usually YA books have fade to black or more tame descriptions. I know teens are having sex, but it was a lot to see it in a YA book. I would really classify this as more NA than YA even though the MCs are in high school (they are turning 18 or already 18). The switches between POVs also could be jarring in some moments too.

This book is very, but very different from the usual ones. It’s about a theme that is mostly dealt only in comics, Superheroes.

The author wanted to do something different, so she created this world where some are born with special abilities. At eighteen years of enroll in the S.U.C. and they can start doing super, with a mask, uniforms, and an agent, fighting against evil.

Our protagonist is the daughter of two super very famous, and after the age of 18 she also begins to practice the family profession, even if she still has to graduate. Meet other three super of her age and immediately make friends without knowing their true identity. But the case that they decide to follow all together is the most dangerous of all, even if they don’t know it yet.

They have to fight against a super-active scientist, who is creating serums to enhance the power of the villains, making them unbeatable. But fortunately until now he has always failed. It seems, however, that he found the right guinea pig, the one strong enough not to die, and the four guys say they have to stop him.

So they launch into this adventure without anyone knowing anything. They could even die, but this is their job.

The book begins very well, a beautiful book for all ages, to be read even to the little ones, in an English so fluent. Only at the end, in the epilogue, there is a small scene that seems absolutely out of place, and I still can not understand for the author to have added it. I’m talking about a scene forbidden to minors, mind you, for they are literally six staves that can easily be skipped.

I enjoyed reading this book, to change every now and then, also because it’s small, and I was sent by netgalley last year.

Finally got round to reading this and I was so disappointed. I had such high expectations for this and I didn't enjoy it at all. The writing was pretty basic, the constant switching between POVs was frustrating as there was no warning whatsoever and I didn't connect with any of the characters. I assume there will be a second book for this because this felt like a setup to something else, but I wouldn't read any more in this world. A shame because it had potential but ultimately it was not a very good book. Sorry.

This was a very easy read with the story flowing nicely.
Although written for the older teens, adults will also enjoy this.

Set in a world of Superheros and Supervillains Masked is a must for any fan of comics or Superheros. Set in a rich and beautifully crafted world it is a story that will grip you from it's first pages and hold your attention until you've reached the very end.

[The review will go live on my blog on the 1st of December at 11:00 pm GMT+8.)

I don't think I've read a superhero book before. This was a fun read. It reminded me of Sky High in places - the main character being the child of famous superhero parents, one who has flight and the to other super strength, the whole high school aspect of it, the other teen supers reactions to the Vada's famous parents.

Even a bit of the dialogue gave me Sky High flashbacks. Particularly the bit where Nick broke up with Scarlet. It was almost word for word with the movie.

But the main plot was a lot darker than Sky High's. again, similarity in the long thought to be dead villain not being dead and attempting to finish up their pet project. Still, the balancing of a normal life with a super life was interesting to read. It was predictable at times - the first mention of Nick already made it obvious that he would be Vada's love interest. Victor and Henley's first meeting foreshadowed his interest and her darkness.

Henley as a character initially annoyed me after she started blowing up at Vada. Female friendships in stories are important to me, and to see one disintegrating for apparently no reason made me a little annoyed. But the explanation about 'turning' made some sense as to why the seemingly flighty but not evil girl we see in the beginning fully embraces her role as a villainous. It came a little late in the story, but at least we got that one explanation.

The stark difference between Majestic and Vada as characters was a little startling. We see glimpses of it, but her treatment of Orion right off the bat just did not mesh well with what I knew of Vada prior to that. She seemed to dislike him on sight for no reason, and then her competitive side reared its head. It might have made more sense if her reaction had been the other way around, with a casual acquaintance turning a little sour over mutual competitive spirits and stubbornness.

Still, it was an easy read with an engaging plot and lots of banter.

After watching Justice League today, and being highly disappointed< I think I'm going to leave superhero moves and books along for a while. It's nothing it against this even tho I tried reading it and couldn't get into it..

"Keeping your super identity a secret from normals was pretty much standard in the world today. It was safer that way. If a villain didn't know who you were in your everyday life, he couldn't use that information against you."

~MASKED



MASKED has an interesting take on the superhero genre: Cyper City is a world where you know you're Super when you're little, and you train and dream about your future superhero name until you turn 18, when you can officially register your name and start taking classes to use your powers for real. You can even snag an agent, which means someone whose powers deal with the tech-side of things can make you cool toys and keep an eye on you in battle so you're not completely alone.

Vada is really excited to become 18 and register her superhero name, Majestic. She's been training for this moment her entire life, coming from a family of Supers, and she wants to debut with a bang. She starts investigating a case that becomes a string of Super murders and discovers that her best friend Henley might be next. Her best friend who wasn't supposed to be a Super. Her best friend who downed a mystery drug at a party and gained powers and may now be a villain. Yeah, that friend. She's joined by friends she made at superhero training, including Orion, who she takes an instant disliking to...but readers will be rooting for the two to get together in the next book!

I really liked the interaction between Vada and Nick and the way you see what they're both going through. They're both experiencing very different things as they come into their powers. Vada was born into it and Nick drank a mystery drug that gave him invasive powers he's struggling to control. All of the characters experience personality changes when in their Super identity, which was starting to bug me when there was a reason revealed: If you stay in your alter ego for two long, it starts to fuse to you and become your permanent self. You lose who you have always been and become someone else entirely. So that makes sense, especially for the wild swing in Henley. But it took a while to get used to it!

While MASKED is marketed as Young Adult, and the characters are turning 18 and graduating high school, the rest of the series will take place at college and I would call this a New Adult novel, especially since it contains more mature content that will expand as the series continues.

MASKED is the first book in the Superheroes Undercover series. I really enjoyed watching the characters grow, and there's a big battle toward the end with loose ends, so it's very easy for readers to immediately covet the next book in the series and see where these characters go next.

In the introduction, the author talks about the process in writing this book.

<i>The idea came from my daughter’s obsession with a television show that featured superheroes. I started to think about the lack of superhero representation in books, other than comics.</i>

What? Really? There’s hundreds and hundreds of them!

<i>Even with the many TV shows in this theme, there aren’t nearly the same number of books, especially with female readers in mind, so I decided to write one.</i>

Ok. So maybe that’s fair. But that’s probably true of every genre.

Anyway, this was a decent superhero story with good, solid writing. I enjoyed learning about the characters and it definitely kept my attention. I would recommend it to anyone who liked good superhero stories or good writing. But there wasn't anything that made this stand out from other stories. I was glad to see a story with a female protagonist - though it's sad that the hero just not being another dude is enough to make the story different.

Although, for making a point to write a book with female readers in mind, it was odd to read that:

"Majestic rolled her eyes at Whiskey’s insistence to use military code when communicating in her suit."

But 3 paragraphs later, he says "good girl" to Majestic and she doesn't bat an eye. What, is she a dog? A toddler?

The discussion of the alter ego was interesting! It seems like a different explanation than I've heard before.

Then I hit 90% and I thought, there better not be a damn cliffhanger here!

And about that time it seemed like the author really upped her game. Or had I not been reading as closely before? I laughed more at the last 10%, and then the epilogue went racing from PG-13 to R.

Overall, I liked the book, and am about to check JD Wright's web page for the sequel. I'm hoping we get to know a little more about Jewel in the next book!

An interesting book that was fun to read, but wasn't that spectacular / different. It was a nice read

After tremendously enjoying Dreadnought about a teenage girl with newly discovered superpowers trying to make a difference, I thought I would equally enjoy Masked, about a couple of teens with powers using them for good. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. I try to find the good in anything I read, but this book was a long hard slog with very little to reward my perseverance.

 First of all, Masked suffers from identity confusion - it includes some sexual content that seems as though it's aimed at the New Adult market, but the characters are all so juvenile that this could fit into the Middle Grade category. Some books transcend age groups, but this isn't one of them, and by muddling the line of which category it belongs to, it doesn't fit in either.

Second, there's the problem of tonal whiplash - this isn't the type of book that examines social issues or delicate nuances of human interaction. It's more on-the-nose and explains jokes to make sure you understand the humour:

---
'Ha!' Vortex slapped his thigh. 'She means that she wants to hit you with her hand and her power. That's funny.'

Orion laughed, but only at Vortex's strange need to explain every joke that he heard. It was annoying yet entertaining.
----

The concept of 'show, don't tell' is unknown throughout Masked - but then we have a prominent female character gifted with the power of persuasion who abuses this by (among other criminal actions) making hot guys have sex with her, and the fact that this is rape is never once called out. It's horrific how casually the story establishes that the hapless neighbor was 'bent to her will' in the bedroom without offering any other perspective or judgment on that behavior. 

I also question how dramatically her actions escalated to rape and pillage - this ordinary teenage girl woke up with powers and instantly began a life of villainy with no downward spiral or context to make sense of her antics. The boys in Lord of the Flies took longer to descend into violence and feral behavior! It didn't feel justified and seemed more like playing into lazy stereotypes of female antagonists by emphasizing her sexuality rather than caring enough to develop her character so that this was an understandable, if morally repugnant, path to take. 

Third, our heroes are so flat and lacking in personality or any believable human responses that it's practically their defining characteristic. Here is Orion, whose gift is telepathy, faced with a character who is withholding important information:

---
Unable to sway him to talk, Majestic turned to Orion, and pointed to her head.

'What?' Orion mouthed. He eyed the angry Velocious carefully then turned back to Majestic who continued to tap on her forehead. 'I don't understand what-'

Then he did. Of course. His power. He'd gotten so used to switching it off that at times he forgot about the ability.
---

I'm sorry, WHAT. Orion has been struggling with his telepathy since the start of the book and having this ability is the whole reason he's training to be a superhero, but he somehow just FORGETS he can read minds?! Why is he even in a latex suit facing off against baddies if he doesn't remember his telepathic abilities? It's like a cop seeing someone speeding and going, 'Oh no, I wish there was a way I could catch up to them and pull them over' while forgetting they have a car and police sirens to do just that. 

Later on, the teenage superhero-wannabes encounter a notorious supervillain, one who has been responsible for countless deaths and who has blazed a path of mayhem and destruction. He was presumed dead in an explosion, which enabled him to take his experiments underground and continue to work in secret, killing innocent kids to perfect his evil plan. Now, maybe I can understand Majestic and co not telling the Superheroes UnderCover organization about Dr Chem originally as they wanted to capture him, save Eden and get all the glory. It was stupid, but kids can make short-sighted decisions in the heat of the moment. 

AFTER the battle, however, they've been picked up by S.U.C and this would be the time to tell them everything they know so that trained adults who have spent their entire careers honing their powers and capturing criminals can go after Dr Chem - but nope!

---
Orion looked down at Majestic. 'You want to keep your freedom? I want to finish what we started. We  can do both, but not if half this team is grounded until graduation. That's too much time for Dr. You-know-who to build another mutant army and kidnap more supers to kill.'

'This is crazy,' Majestic said, shaking her head. 'My Parents work for the S.U.C. Lying ot the S.U.C. is the same as lying to them.'

Orion leaned closer. 'How are your parents going to feel when they find out that you went to the power plant without telling them?'
---

Ohhh, I see. Avoiding parental disapproval and keeping from being grounded are much more serious priorities! Orion's acknowledged that Dr Chem's plans are to create more monsters and kill more people, but somehow everyone thinks the best plan is for a group of inexperienced teens to work on tracking down this villain in their spare time after school! What ridiculous kind of logic is this?! Proving themselves by capturing Dr Chem and settling their score takes priority over the safety of the public, okay, gotcha. 

Even beyond these enormously stupid decisions, the characters fail to make sense on a normal everyday level. For example, when Orion (more commonly known as Nick) first gets his powers, he is completely baffled as to what is happening to him. If an ordinary teen in our day and age was able to hear people's thoughts, they would instantly know that it was telepathy, even though that's impossible. Orion lives in a world where people have superpowers, but here's his response:

---
'Whoa,' Nick murmured. What the fuck? He had been watching Janet when the last remarks were made. She hadn't said them. At least, not with her lips. So how in the world had he heard her?

Janet just shook her head, a look of pity all over her face. Nick didn't need to read her mind to know that she probably felt sorry for him. Hell, she'd practically said it just a while ago. Wait. Read her mind? Is that what he'd been doing? Is that how he heard her when she wasn't speaking?
---

Buy a clue, Sherlock! How is it possible that these kids can reference Harry Potter by dropping 'You Know Who' and 'Voldemort' into conversation, but the diagnosis of mind-reading takes a lot of brainpower to think up? Mind-reading is a big part of the fifth Harry Potter book, that should be the natural conclusion any teen would jump to with that pop culture background!

I could point to any endless number of illogical choices and stilted writing that punctures any chances of believable characterization in our leads, the whole book is filled with examples. For just one more so that this post isn't entirely focused on Orion's obtuseness, there's repeated scenes with Majestic asking to go to the toilet in the middle of class so that she can hide in a closet with her tech support friend and find out the latest information on the case. Why is this even necessary? They have to have LUNCH BREAKS. Even if theirs didn't coincide, there's such things as emails and text messages!

But no, let's have Majestic ask for bathroom breaks so often it defies belief the teacher would grant her request when she disappears for half the class and hole up in a closet to get information that could be so much more easily shared with half the trouble. Sure, why not. Makes as little sense as the rest of this book.

I read the blurb about the book and I was excited. I read some reviews and that excitement waned but I decided to still go in with an open mind. I'm glad I did because I did actually enjoy the read, even if a few things bothered me about the book.
Recently there've been more and more books about superheroes. Not graphic novels or comics but actual novels. I love this trend. I've loved superheroes since I was a kid and, in my opinion, if you don't enjoy a good superhero story there's something wrong with you. There were 2 main things in this book that really bothered me though. The first is that, at first glance of the story material, this seems very much like it should be a young adult novel. It's really not and all because of the sexual content. The way the story is written would definitely place it in the young adult genre but it's a though it had adult sexual content written in. In my experience, there's a line between the sexual content I see in young adult novels and what I see in adult novels; this falls squarely in adult territory. The second thing that really bothered me, and bothered me much more than the first, is the fact that the serum seems to be able to alter personalities as well as super powers but this is never talked about. It's almost like the author meant to write it in and just plain forgot it. It bothered me throughout.
Besides what I mentioned, I did actually enjoy reading the novel and, if given the chance, will probably read its sequels. The faults were not enough to completely ruin the story but they did take something that could have been amazing and made it just pretty good.

Masked was definitely for the mature reader. These 18 year old’s were fast and sexual. It made me uncomfortable, how borderline abusive these characters were. In this book even the heroes were a-holes. Vada treated Orion like garbage, and as far as I could tell there was no logical reason for it. She just decided she hated him from the moment she laid eyes on him. And Orion, he thought the way to win her over was through unwelcome advances. Even worse, the more crappy Vada treated Orion the more he liked her. And the more Orion hit on Vada the more he won her over! I hate when YA glorifies unhealthy romance. It’s not what we should be teaching teenagers.

The overall plot was decent. I’ve read better, but I’ve also read a lot worse. The writing style was at the same level. The ending wasn’t a cliffhanger, but it definitely didn’t feel like a standalone. I may or may not continue reading this series, it depends on how I feel when the sequel comes out. If it was presented to me now, I’d probably pass.

Full review posted on 10/6

I was intrigued by the blurb and the cover, but was somewhat disappointed in the writing. While the writing was extremely descriptive I found some of the storyline to be rather tenuous I.e. the way in which one of the supporting characters suddenly becomes a a super villain. Both the change in the character and her behaviour are annoying - and the sex scenes left me wondering if this is actually a YA title or NA.
However it was an easy read.
Beware the cliffhanger ending just as the storyline really gets going.

With thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an ARC in exchange of an unbiased opinion.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me a free ARC!

With a pile of other books on my list, I'm going to sadly have to put this in DNF. In her preface, the author talks about how superheroes are in almost every genre of storytelling, but not seen often in fiction. This is true, and one of the reasons I wanted to give this book a shot! But unfortunately, the abundance of superhero stories still makes for competition, and by about 25% into the book I was skimming a line a page, and about 50% in decided my opinion wasn't going to change.

In a way, this charmingly reminded me of Sky High--albeit with more language and mature content (though... not more mature characters?). Vada as a protagonist had promise, though I even 50% in I'm not... completely sure... what her main motivation/conflict is? Other than to make a good debut as a superhero. Two unsuspecting characters get powers early in the book, and I found their side-stories a bit more interesting. But ultimately, there wasn't enough of a hook to keep me going.

I think, even though superheroes aren't seen often in fiction (which I still think would be cool), the basic trope is one we're pretty familiar with: People with special abilities having to live among normal people and have adventures under the radar. That's a fairly standard line of story. For me, this book just didn't add enough to the conversation to make reading the same basic trope interesting.

But, again, didn't finish it, so take all this with a huge grain of salt. I'm sure a lot of people will like this! Especially if they're new to the genre of magical realism and all that.

First off, I want to say that while there is a lot of adult content, this book reads more like a middle grade book, or a younger young adult book. I would not suggest anyone under fifteen read this due to the content however. But I can definitely see some parts being remade to fit a television show/movie for a younger audience.

The first couple of chapters read kind of slow, but as we get introduced to the main characters, and some of the plot points come into play, the book really starts to speed up. I really enjoyed the superhero aspect that this book specifically took. It mostly followed three main characters, one who was born with her superpowers, one who was given superpowers but was able to be trained by the good guys, and one a girl who was given super powers but was trained by a villain. Because of this, the theme of "are people born bad, or do they become that way" is taken into play, as the two that were made end up reacting and using their powers differently.

The romance was cute, if a little predictable (but also funny). The diversity was a little lacking, but there weren't really a lot of characters mentioned, and the next book is definitely set up to change that.

All-in-all, this was an easy read and I enjoyed it. Masked took me out of my reading slump and I can't wait to see where the book goes next.

** I received Masked from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my review. However, all opinions are my own.

I thought this book was good.I mean the story line was good and it did keep me reading. My main issue was that the main characters were 18-19 but they acted like 12-13-year-olds.

This book is more for 16 and older because of the sexual content.

This book kept me so engrossed I did not want to stop reading. There was never a boring or dull moment It does not matter what age you are teen or older , you will love this book.   I would recommend this book because it's fantastically written and so entertaining, I can't wait to read the next one.