So I had read this late because I got behind reading the first. Needless to say i slacked. And holy shit was I not ready!! NICKY YESSSSS!!!! These books are amazing! This author is incredible. And omg!! I need more!! I have never felt so much as when I read a book by TJ Klune! It has me laughing and crying and all the emotions!! Please please go read this! You will not regret it!!

Flash Fire is a delightful continuation of TJ Klune’s The Extraordinaries series. Both his feelings for Seth and the secret identities of Pyro Storm and Shadow Star revealed, Flash Fire introduces and resolves some other serious questions: Are there any other Extraordinaries? What is the duty of the Extraordinaries to their community? What is Simon Burke up to? How do you make a dental dam? Will Nick ever finish an Extraordinaries fanfic?

This book is both hilarious and heartwarming. I appreciate Klune’s ability to balance humor and serious topics, including grief, neurodiversity, queerness, positive sexuality, and systemic racism.

For a series about superheroes, these books are much more character-driven than plot-driven, although there are many exciting, action-packed plot moments as well. Nick is such an enjoyable character to read about and watch grow as the series continues. The portrayal of Nick’s ADHD is one of my favorite aspects of this series — Klune does not sugarcoat the difficulty neurodiverse individuals experience living in a neurotyical world, but he shows the power of a strong support system in validating one’s experience in the world and recognizing the strengths in having a brain that works differently.

One of the things I was most interested in going into this book was to see how Klune addressed the critiques received about the Extraordinaries for its romanticism of police and downplaying of police violence. I was impressed by the way he handled it, which was to illustrate Nick grappling with the fact he has romanticized the police and has overlooked that one of his best friends, Gibby, who is Black, has had a completely different experience with police than his own. He also comes to terms with how wrong it was for his father to assault a witness, discussed in the first installment of the series. I found Nick’s self-reflection about his biases to be reminiscent of ones I’ve had and seemed appropriate for a teenager.

Lastly I want to commend the sex positive parenting portrayed in the book. We see a (presumably) heterosexual man who has taken the time to learn about queer sex so he can talk to his son about it, who DOES talk to his son about safe sex, who does not reprimand his son for normative sexual desire, and who prioritizes his son’s sexual safety over his feelings about whether his son “should” be having sex.

Overall, Klune does a great job of creating a queer version of the traditional superhero story combined with the coming of age aspects common to YA novels. And based on the ending of this novel, I’m sure readers will be on the edge of the seats waiting for the conclusion to this trilogy.

Not for me! I love TJ Klune’s other books but just can’t get into this series. I think it’s a wonderful YA and LGBTQ+ series that will be THE series a lot of young people need to read, just doesn’t fully grab my attention.

So who do I need to contact to get TJ Klune to write these books forever? I adore Nick and the new discoveries we had in this book. And that sneak peek wrecked me! Can't wait for the next one!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge, TJ Klune, and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.

I have never read this author, nor had I heard of this book until I blindly requested permission to read it. I had no idea what I was going into when I got accepted. I'm not a big fan of superheroes in general, but I like expanding my reading universe, so I was interested in seeing how this book would contribute to expanding it.

I decided that since this was the second book of The Extraordinaries series, to go ahead and read the first one so that I wouldn't miss anything from the story line that might be important to the second book.

Oh my gosh, I had no idea how much I would fall in love with this series, and I'm crossing my fingers that the author continues this story line. Flash Fire ended on a cliffhanger, and I NEED ANSWERS!

The writing was phenomenal, and the characters were very lovable. I'm recommending this series to everyone I know because it was just that amazing. Both books are a five star read for me!

The Extraordinaries (The Extraordinaries #1) was fabulous. Friendships & romance, superheroes & fanfiction, humor & warmth. ⁣FLASH FIRE was a delightful continuation for Seth and Nick. I appreciated the LGBTQ+ and mental health (ADHD) representation. I'm already looking forward to book 3.

Nick and Seth are back at it! Now that Pyrostorm's identity is known to his closest friends and new boyfriend, things have changed a bit. Team Pyrostorm is in full force watching out for their favorite hero as he watches over Nova City, protecting them from even darker forces this time around.

As a queer comic reader and lover of superheroes, this series means so much to me. Seeing queer superheroes in fiction is rare and Flash Fire does such a great job of balancing the superhero with the queer identity and queer romance. Seth and Nick are such a great couple, but their romance never overshadows the action. It never becomes inconvenient to the plotline and I loved that. You get just enough of them to satisfy whilst diving right through the action scenes.

Aside from the action-packed scenes, my favorite thing about this series is that the characters are so good! Even the minor characters like their friends' parents are fully fleshed out. You know exactly who they are and they really mean something to the plot.

This book was an absolute blast to read. I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good queer romance, action, superheroes, comedy, family drama. It has a little something for everyone and delivers big!

This was a fun read that was perfect for Ya audiences. I gave it four stars and would recommend. Highly enjoyable

These books are so tough for me to review just because I enjoy them so much, but it’s hard to explain why. They’re just so fun and chaotic, and work perfectly for me. I just love the characters, their relationships with each other, and the plot, and all 3 come together so well for me.

I already knew this from book 1, but I really love Nick and Seth together and how healthy their relationship seems. They trust each other and love each other and just make each other so happy (while also have their occasional ‘fights’ or sore spots at least). I also love that this book didn’t try to shove in some annoying drama to keep their relationship ‘interesting’, and that jealousy didn’t become some huge thing (which it easily could have, and then reinforced that stupid bi stereotype. But it was all avoided! It was so refreshing!) This book does have a little less of their relationship just because of how the plot works and how things developed, but in the end it was still a good balance of plot and relationship!

The side characters also continued to play a large role in the overall story, and I love how Nick’s other friends got to spend time with him in this book too. We get to see how Nick relies on each of his friends differently, and how the dynamic between pairs of the group differs from the overall group dynamic. It’s a friend group that works altogether but also on a one-to-one basis, which is hard to find (both in books and in real life). They also all felt quite fleshed out and had their own side plots going on that would sometimes contribute to what Nick was dealing with himself, and I liked how interconnected it all was.

I also still just love Nick as a narrator, and getting to see a story with a narrator that has a brain as chaotic as mine. I can’t get distracted while reading because Nick is getting distracted for me instead! He goes on the tangents that I otherwise would!

Lastly, I also enjoyed the plot of this one, even if I had guessed the major twists of this book from the clues in book 1. It was enjoyable nonetheless, and I can’t wait to see where this all leads in book 3! I also really like that the superpowers keep coming in more and more, and can’t wait to see more of that in the next book, too. Overall, just very excited for the next book!

This was a great book for teens but as someone in my 30s, I felt way too old to be reading it. I love Klune's adult novels and will keep reading them for sure! And I think it's great that someone is writing novels that are *actually* for queer teens and not for adults *about* queer teens. So while this book was not for me I think it is a 5-star book and I'm so happy it exists. Klune also did a great job of addressing the complaints about the first book in the series.

4 stars. The second book in the Extraordinaries series and I loved it! The story moves along great and builds the characters and story from the first installment. Love this author.

I adore TJ Klune, so I was grateful to the opportunity to read an advanced arc of Flash Fire to review it.

However, I have to be honest. I’m a little disappointed. This book wasn’t bad at all, but I wasn’t fully here for it. There was a lot to enjoy and laugh at, and it kept me mostly engaged. But I feel like it didn’t have to drag out the way it did, and I especially am not into the fact that this is meant to be a trilogy. I feel like if this book wasn’t drawn out the way it was and they moved on to whatever happens in book 3 and just wrapped it up here, I would’ve enjoyed it much more. Because I enjoy TJ Klune’s books, I will read the third in this series, but I’m skeptical and I fear feeling like I do whenever my favorite shows begin pumping out more needless, ridiculous seasons instead of ending at a reasonable good note and then I have to stop watching it. If it weren’t for the author, I probably wouldn’t read the third book.

Thank you Macmillan-Tor / Forge for this eARC via netgalley.

3.5 / 5 stars

Nick and the gang are at it again. When more extraordinaries are entering the scene, Nick and his friends are out to go see what is going on. Nick must face many trials, heartbreak, and confusion as he questions everything about his life. Everyone is out looking to unveil Pyrostorm as they demand the truth from all extraordinaries.

This was a good addition to this series. I will say that the book felt a little long despite all the great humor and conflict. These books always make me burst out laughing as I read them. I think that the diversity and message is fantastic as well as very well-written.

I will say, as much as it pains me to, that I really don’t like the idea of another book for this series. I personally think that the series is getting too drawn out and it would have been better off as a duology like I thought it was. I see series potential for the concept, but I just do not think that the interest is fully there and strong enough for it.

Overall I adore these characters and I find the story to be very humorous and well written. I do plan to continue reading at this point, but if the next book feels slow like this one did quite often at times, I may change my mind.

TJ Klune is a masterful storyteller, and in this second book of the Extraordinaries, he has not disappointed. How he manages to fit ADHD, supernatural abilities, pharmaceutical company/rich CEO shenanigans, BLM, police corruption, young love, queer characters, epic fight scenes, teen angst, journalistic biases, and more into less than 350 pages, I just can't imagine -- each one of these components could be an ok book on their own, but mashed up together, I'm in love with these characters. I want a second trilogy written from Seth Grey's viewpoint, and a third from Gibby's, and a fourth from Jazz's. Heck, I want to live in Nova City and be BFFs with Team Lighthouse and their parents. The slow build to the cinematic climax and the easter egg cliffhanger ending.... I neeeeeed the third book to come out by December. I can't wait!

I don’t think any author captures humor as brilliantly as TJ Klune.

Flash Fire continues the tradition of being everything we’ve ever needed from an ode to The Community (as Nick says “hell yes, GAY RIGHTS!) the superhero fandom, our neurodivergent brethren, while also being an impassioned love letter to fanfic and hormones.

Nicky and the gang are back and things are cringier than ever! Chapter one will have you EXPIRING from second hand embarrassment or chocking on your own saliva from laughing so hard.

Nick is unapologetically NICK, and while this sequel sees him processing multiple truth bombs, Klune manages to keep Nicky’s spark alive. No matter the ills, Nicky is written to be self aware enough to poke fun at himself. The self-deprecation is such a relatable element.

The sequel takes a left turn and makes some interesting commentary on the topic of police. I think Klune addresses the issues of our society through Nicky’s lens of being a cop’s kid in an insightful and meaningful way, but the shift is pretty drastic. However, I do feel like the way in which Klune writes Nicky’s train of thought while grappling with his father’s profession mirrors how most teens would go about exploring the very real fact that their parents aren’t perfect.

4.5/5

I think I set my expectations too high for his books. I loved the first one but this one felt a little forced. I love TJ Klune so I’m willing to say I was in the wrong mood for this book. Let’s go with that.

'Flash Fire' by TJ Klune is book two in The Extraordinaries, a series about everyday teens with not-so-everyday abilities.

Though I missed out on the debut book, I definitely intend to go back and catch up.. because this one was delightful. I laughed so much in the opening pages and didn't want to put it down, even briefly and had to keep explaining to the people around me why I was laughing at all.

Nick Bell is the central figure, a charming boy with ADHD, enough enthusiasm for multiple people, and a hot superhero boyfriend. When he isn't busy helping out via his place on 'Team PyroStorm' or even better.. making out with the Extraordinary himself, he spends his time writing fanfics about his favorite hero and trying to deal with the fact he doesn't have any special powers of his own.

As new Extraordinaries come to light, like a pair of twins who can manipulate smoke and ice, a telekinetic enigma, and a drag queen with the best name and possibly the best catchphrases ever heard, Team PyroStorm has to figure out who's a threat to Nova City and who they can count on to help.

Old secrets start to bubble up in the midst of everything else, making Nick question who he can trust and what he really knows about those he's come to idealize.

There are spots of dialogue throughout the book that are brilliantly funny and remind me of people I know. Most of the brightest dialogue is front-loaded and while I feel the topics handled later are very important, the way they are addressed often feels a little less natural in the moment.

I can't say the reveals weren't predictable to me, but they might not be for others. Likewise, instead of feeling disappointed that I already knew where things were going, I was pleased.. even excited.. to see them come to fruition.

Nick and Seth are so lovely together, I just adore them. And Gibby and Jazz are a very close second to that. I really enjoyed how genuine and warm these relationships were in a genre where stories seem to thrive largely on conflict between couples. It's a very 'us against the world' theme at times and it made my investment in the outcome much stronger. These are people who love completely and are there for one another first and foremost.

It's also nice to see some pretty healthy parent-kid relationships, where they can interact with each other respectfully and it's not all one-sided demands for obedience. Though that's obviously not every scenario, it is present here.. and something I can relate to personally.

The story itself is really fun, lots of action scenes and excitement, plus we seem to be set-up for another book while avoiding the dreaded cliffhanger. I can happily recommend this to fans of stories about superheroes, coming of age stories, and teen camaraderie at its best.

I never want Nick and Seth’s story to end!!!!! This book was funny, heartbreaking, infuriating, swoony, goofy, and everything in between! TJ Klune wrote an amazing follow up to The Extraordinaries and dare I say that I loved this one even more than the first book! Loved every moment of it!

So, T J Klune knocked it out of the park with the first novel in this series, The Extraordinaries. It was punchy, intriguing and all together marshmallowy soft. Going in I was just a tad worried that this wouldn’t live up to expectations, but overall, it was actually a fairly good sequel.

We start off not long after where The Extraordinaries left off with Pyro Storm saving the day and the ‘other guy’ being led away to the closest institution for the criminally inclined. Nick’s main focus now is working through his own issues and attempting to deduce what his father is keeping from him. It’s all kind of a little monotone to begin but I seem to find that everything I’ve read of Klune’s has a lukewarm initial few chapters. They are good for situating the audience to where we are within the narrative and that’s ok with me.

Once Flash Fire gets into the swing of things, it really starts to take an interesting turn. The attentive reader will have realised that something isn’t quite right about the way things have been going down with Nick and this one expands upon what I assume most people will have picked up on when the whole bridge ‘thing’ happened with Rebecca Firestone and her miraculous rescue. Here is where I’ll stop though, because as the ever amazing River Song so rightly exclaimed, spoilers.

Once again Klune writes a narrative that from the surface seems light and fluffy but once you look a little deeper (and I mean I get it if you aren’t that person) it’s a commentary on societal expectations and our inherent need to know everything about everyone in this world of instant gratification and fast information. I absolutely ADORED the inclusion of a drag queen super hero because why not be freaking fabulous while saving the world.

In Flash Fire, the villain is much more apparent from the beginning, with the return of old foes and the introduction of new ones in the form of Smoke and Ice. I just wish there was a little more focus on shenanigans throughout rather than a couple of chunks of confrontation separated by a lot of teen angst and embarrassing parenting. While I am a little confused how a certain event actually came to be (she turns into smoke, you couldn’t escape that?) overall the snarkiness and sheer determination to ruin everyone’s day was a welcome occurrence.

Overall, it’s just a sweet story about a boy who’s in love with a super hero, still kind of oblivious to things happening around him but also, I feel like it makes me love him more. There’s underlying themes of found family, explorations of lost loves, a little too much sex education and all around just general shenanigans. If you loved Marissa Meyer’s Renegades, V E Schwab’s Vicious or pretty much any super hero movie, this one is definitely for you.

I really enjoyed Klune’s The Extraordinaries and House in the Cerulean Sea so I was interested in this sequel. For me, the pacing was slow in this book so I didn’t love it. Additionally, it seemed like Klune was trying to touch on too many social justice issues in one book that it became overbearing to the story, especially given the general audience for a LGBTQ+ YA book. I did still like the main characters and appreciate the gay and neurodivergent representation on page.