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A review by nicolemhewitt
Get Real by Tellulah Darling
5.0
This review and many more can be found on my blog: Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Get Real is a New Adult paranormal romantic comedy with a fun and sassy cast of characters. The book takes place in an alternate version of the world where a small subset of the population has powers. There are four different types of "Cadabras" (people with powers) - Bruisers, who either have super strength or super speed, Bios, who can manipulate organic materials, Moody's, who can read or manipulate people's feelings, and Gizmos, who can manipulate technology and the like. Francesca is a Bio and has spent her whole life training to be a Healer, like her mom - but what she really wants is to become a sort of Cad detective. She can't bring herself to tell her moms that, though. But when she and Rafa, who has his own parental issues, find themselves under magical attack, they end up investigating and Rafa might get her chance to solve magical crimes after all.
What I LOVED:
Francesca.
I loved Francesca's brand of snarky humor and smarts. She was the type of character that I easily was able to like because she was believable and real. And while she had a whole slew of positive qualities, she wasn't without a flaw or two (her biggest being her inability to speak up for herself to her moms - she truly was a good girl with a snarky undertone, which I kind of loved).
Cultural diversity.
The characters in this book were very diverse. Just with the two main characters, you had three different languages thrown in - Francesca was Italian and Rafa was Venezuelan. I liked seeing bits of those cultures and languages thrown in throughout the book. In the author's notes at the end, I found out that Darling has family members from both of these cultures and she pooled from her experiences with them and used their expertise to help write the book - it showed because it all felt very authentic!
The magical system.
I loved Darling's brand of magic - similar to superpowers but with enough differences to make it unique. I was especially intrigued by how the Cads used magic with their technology. The powers were interesting because, although there were only four major types, they could manifest themselves in different ways, giving the Cads very different ways that they could use them. And I'm eager to find out more about Minna's unique brand of magic in future books - I can't give away too much about what makes it unique without spoiling things, but I'll just say that I'm very intrigued!
The negatives:
Slightly confusing in some small parts.
While I loved the magical system in this book, there were times that it was just a little bit confusing - trying to figure out who could do what and why and why Minna's magic was so different. Also, the characters traveled a lot (and very quickly, due to the magic involved) and I sometimes had trouble keeping track of where they were. I wish there had been a little bit more definition to the settings, especially the foreign ones. There were three narrators to the book (Francesca, Rafa and Minna) - I didn't have trouble keeping track of who was who or anything, but people who aren't fans of multiple narrators might find this to be a negative. Really, though, the moments of confusion or keeping track of these things was minimal - I mostly just really enjoyed this book!
This is the second series I've read by Darling (LOVED her first one) and this one does not disappoint - I'm eager to see what Darling has in store in future books! Oh, and while this is a series, there's no cliffhanger - it could almost be a standalone except for the overall story arc that Darling has created - I thought that she did this perfectly - gave us resolution but a definite direction for future books. I give this installment 4/5 stars.
***Disclosure: This book was provided to me by NetGalley and the author in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***
Get Real is a New Adult paranormal romantic comedy with a fun and sassy cast of characters. The book takes place in an alternate version of the world where a small subset of the population has powers. There are four different types of "Cadabras" (people with powers) - Bruisers, who either have super strength or super speed, Bios, who can manipulate organic materials, Moody's, who can read or manipulate people's feelings, and Gizmos, who can manipulate technology and the like. Francesca is a Bio and has spent her whole life training to be a Healer, like her mom - but what she really wants is to become a sort of Cad detective. She can't bring herself to tell her moms that, though. But when she and Rafa, who has his own parental issues, find themselves under magical attack, they end up investigating and Rafa might get her chance to solve magical crimes after all.
What I LOVED:
Francesca.
I loved Francesca's brand of snarky humor and smarts. She was the type of character that I easily was able to like because she was believable and real. And while she had a whole slew of positive qualities, she wasn't without a flaw or two (her biggest being her inability to speak up for herself to her moms - she truly was a good girl with a snarky undertone, which I kind of loved).
Cultural diversity.
The characters in this book were very diverse. Just with the two main characters, you had three different languages thrown in - Francesca was Italian and Rafa was Venezuelan. I liked seeing bits of those cultures and languages thrown in throughout the book. In the author's notes at the end, I found out that Darling has family members from both of these cultures and she pooled from her experiences with them and used their expertise to help write the book - it showed because it all felt very authentic!
The magical system.
I loved Darling's brand of magic - similar to superpowers but with enough differences to make it unique. I was especially intrigued by how the Cads used magic with their technology. The powers were interesting because, although there were only four major types, they could manifest themselves in different ways, giving the Cads very different ways that they could use them. And I'm eager to find out more about Minna's unique brand of magic in future books - I can't give away too much about what makes it unique without spoiling things, but I'll just say that I'm very intrigued!
The negatives:
Slightly confusing in some small parts.
While I loved the magical system in this book, there were times that it was just a little bit confusing - trying to figure out who could do what and why and why Minna's magic was so different. Also, the characters traveled a lot (and very quickly, due to the magic involved) and I sometimes had trouble keeping track of where they were. I wish there had been a little bit more definition to the settings, especially the foreign ones. There were three narrators to the book (Francesca, Rafa and Minna) - I didn't have trouble keeping track of who was who or anything, but people who aren't fans of multiple narrators might find this to be a negative. Really, though, the moments of confusion or keeping track of these things was minimal - I mostly just really enjoyed this book!
This is the second series I've read by Darling (LOVED her first one) and this one does not disappoint - I'm eager to see what Darling has in store in future books! Oh, and while this is a series, there's no cliffhanger - it could almost be a standalone except for the overall story arc that Darling has created - I thought that she did this perfectly - gave us resolution but a definite direction for future books. I give this installment 4/5 stars.
***Disclosure: This book was provided to me by NetGalley and the author in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***