Hidden Powers by Tara Lain

Jazz Vanessen is weird—and not just because he’s a werewolf. For most of his life, he’s felt different from his alpha male brothers and friends. Since he’s adopted, he can’t even blame it on family.

Now eighteen, Jazz meets his idol, the social activist Lysandra Mason, and her breathtaking nephew, Dash Mercury. When Dash is around, even stranger things start to happen, including Jazz falling hopelessly in lust. Not only is Jazz having visions, making people disappear, and somehow turning invisible, but somebody’s following him and threatening to reveal his pack’s secrets to the world.

Together with Dash and Jazz’s equally amazing friends—Carla, BeBop, Khadija, and Fatima—they discover the danger is even more lethal than they thought, and Jazz’s weirdness may save all their lives.

Book 1
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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Sarah – ☆☆☆☆☆
In the first book in a spinoff from the Harker Pack books, Tara Lain introduces a whole new supernatural world and four kick-ass heroes and heroines. The Superordinary Society is a mix of extraordinary young humans and supernatural characters with a range of skills and backgrounds. The four join forces during their internship at Vanessen Industries and quickly become inseparable. The hero of this first book is the youngest Vanessen, Jazz. As threats mount against him, Jazz’s friends rally to protect him from his enemies.

This book brings together several urban fantasy genres while still feeling fresh and original. Think Harry Potter meets the League of Justice meets Twilight – with a little bit of Wonder Woman mythology thrown into the mix. It sounds a bit strange but it’s a fun, exciting story and I loved the characters and their adventures.

This first book belongs to Jazz, and he is a wonderfully complicated character. Much of the story revolves around Jazz finding his place as an adult within his adopted family and his pack. It’s also about the powers that set him apart from his werewolf family and the new sense of identity he finds with his friends in New York. While this is an action story, it’s also a story about Jazz growing up and growing into himself.

This book is marketed as a romance which is slightly frustrating. There is are a few steamy scenes and the very beginnings of a romance (one that has the potential to be amazing) but this is much more a story about friendship, family, and adulting.

The one thing that seriously annoyed me about this book is the lack of mention in the blurb or on any sales/social media site that this is a spinoff from the Harker Pack books. I haven’t read the first series, so I spent the first few chapters where the focus is on the Harker Pack scrambling to catch up. I hate it when authors and publishers don’t explicitly link spinoffs to original series. I will say that this book quickly becomes much more than a shifter story and it is Jazz’s friends, not his family, who take the starring roles in this book. New readers will understand 60% of this book and by the end they will be able to piece together the remaining 40%.

Aside from the spinoff frustration, I really loved the story and I’m eagerly anticipating the next book in the series. I want more from all of the Superordinary Society – and I’m especially keen to know more of Khadija and Fatima’s sisterhood.

TARA LAIN writes the Beautiful Boys of Romance in LGBT romance novels that star her unique, charismatic heroes. Her best-selling novels have garnered awards for Best Series, Best Contemporary Romance, Best Erotic Romance, Best Ménage, Best LGBT Romance, and Best Gay Characters, and Tara has been named Best Writer of the Year in the LRC Awards. Readers often call her books “sweet,” even with all that hawt sex, because Tara believes in love and her books deliver on happily-ever-after. In her other job, Tara owns an advertising and public relations firm. Her love of creating book titles comes from years of manifesting ad headlines for everything from analytical instruments to semiconductors. She does workshops on both author promotion and writing craft. She lives with her soulmate husband and her soulmate dog (who’s a little jealous of all those cat pictures Tara posts on FB) in Laguna Niguel, California, near the seaside towns where she sets a lot of her books. Passionate about diversity, justice, and new experiences, Tara says that on her tombstone, it will say “Yes!”

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Hidden Powers (Superordinary Society #1) by Tara Lain to read and review.