Rising Shadow by Jaquelyn Wheeler

Rising Shadow by Jacquelyn Wheeler
(Author Page)

From Around the World Tours
Already released with book two Merger already out.

Ashlyn  Woods just transferred to one of the most beautiful campuses on the  west coast, where she can't wait to start her life over as a normal  college student. But her plans take an unexpected turn when she  discovers that she is a Soterian: a person who develops amazing powers  when the balance of good and evil shifts too far in evil's favor.

Soon she and the other Soterians are studying martial arts and learning  to use their powers to prevent California from being plunged into chaos.  But they quickly discover that they're up against a much more dangerous  enemy than they anticipated.

And when Ashlyn meets Kai, a devastatingly gorgeous guitar player, she realizes she must sacrifice more than she ever imagined.

To be honest when I started reading this book I rolled my eyes a little. Superheros that loose their powers, but gain them back? Eh. A girl that falls in love with a gorgeous guitar player? Done. The writing was good, and the characters were intriguing enough to get interested in and pull me through the book. Sadly, I was disappointed by this novel in that the good writing was all I could say about it. Yes, the main character, Ashlyn, was fun to read, and kept me interested. Her snarky humor was fun, and just the kind of humor that makes me laugh more often then not. Her low sense of self is, again, normal in these kinds of books, and getting to the point of cliche.

The introduction confused me a bit when it starts four months in the future, in one of the most mundane of moments...traffic, and then moves back to before Ashlyn learns about her superpowers. I kept wondering between Ashlyn's loser boyfriend and going to a new college how the hell her superpowers played into the story. The story wasn't boring and it wasn't slow to read.Somehow a book about superheros just didn't work out for me, and I'm not sure why. The book was well written, it moved at a moderate pace, and the main character and her love interest weren't bad characters. The book just didn't work for me.

Like always check out the book for yourself. This is one of those reviews were I can't say I hated it and I can't say I loved it.