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A review by literarylunatic
Five Minutes Longer by Victoria Sue
3.0
This one was an enjoyable read. It reminded me of Charlie Cochet's THIRDS series. Instead of shifters, however, most of Victoria Sue's HEROs (you'll get it when you read the book) are Enhanced (like the mutants in X-Men).
The main protagonist is Finn (I have a soft spot for this MC because of this name), a human aka a "regular" who wants to join the FBI so bad. Actually, he really just wants to get away from his abusive mother and brother. He gets set up to join the Human Enhanced Rescue Organization (HERO) where he is to be paired with an Enhanced. Since this is still the first book, he's the only regular in the team.
I like that Finn is a person who's determined to succeed. He has dyslexia and had been keeping it secret for fear that he would be rejected from trying out for the FBI because of it. It just proves, though, how strong he is -- he will persevere to learn a lot and know more just to fulfill his dreams.
Talon Valdez, the head of the HERO unit, is the typical broody alpha male. Although he calls himself an ass, I don't think he's that bad. Certainly, he's not a douche. Also, he takes it on himself to protect the team (especially those with more extreme abilities who are more in danger of getting shipped to a lab), which meant trying to get Finn kicked out of the unit -- supposedly. Instead, he admires Finn's dedication and helps him out because he wanted to give Finn a chance to succeed.
All in all, it's a pretty good story with a lot of very interesting characters. There are rarely any women here, which is a bit eyebrow-raising. (Are all Enhanced males though? I don't think a female one was every mentioned in the book.) But the action scenes were fun and I liked that the characters didn't ramble or become preachy, which can be common in a book that has an obvious theme centered on discrimination and national security.
I think it fell flat with the mystery or case they were trying to solve, though. It felt like the action scenes just jumped out of nowhere to keep the reader from getting bored, although the CLIMAX -- Well, that was a really, really nice scene. I did not expect that about one of the character's abilities. Plus, what happened to Finn will add a pretty interesting dynamic to his relationship with Talon in the next books.
The main protagonist is Finn (I have a soft spot for this MC because of this name), a human aka a "regular" who wants to join the FBI so bad. Actually, he really just wants to get away from his abusive mother and brother. He gets set up to join the Human Enhanced Rescue Organization (HERO) where he is to be paired with an Enhanced. Since this is still the first book, he's the only regular in the team.
I like that Finn is a person who's determined to succeed. He has dyslexia and had been keeping it secret for fear that he would be rejected from trying out for the FBI because of it. It just proves, though, how strong he is -- he will persevere to learn a lot and know more just to fulfill his dreams.
Talon Valdez, the head of the HERO unit, is the typical broody alpha male. Although he calls himself an ass, I don't think he's that bad. Certainly, he's not a douche. Also, he takes it on himself to protect the team (especially those with more extreme abilities who are more in danger of getting shipped to a lab), which meant trying to get Finn kicked out of the unit -- supposedly. Instead, he admires Finn's dedication and helps him out because he wanted to give Finn a chance to succeed.
All in all, it's a pretty good story with a lot of very interesting characters. There are rarely any women here, which is a bit eyebrow-raising. (Are all Enhanced males though? I don't think a female one was every mentioned in the book.) But the action scenes were fun and I liked that the characters didn't ramble or become preachy, which can be common in a book that has an obvious theme centered on discrimination and national security.
I think it fell flat with the mystery or case they were trying to solve, though. It felt like the action scenes just jumped out of nowhere to keep the reader from getting bored, although the CLIMAX -- Well, that was a really, really nice scene. I did not expect that about one of the character's abilities. Plus, what happened to Finn will add a pretty interesting dynamic to his relationship with Talon in the next books.