[REVIEW] Phenomenal Girl 5 – A. J. Menden

A. J. Menden
Phenomenal Girl 5 (Elite Hands of Justice, Book 1)
Dorchester SHOMI (US: 28th October 2008)
Cover art by Judy York
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The Dragon’s murder victims are stacking up in Megolopolis, and this is Elite Hands of Justice trainee Lainey Livingston’s chance to break a major case, thus finally proving that she – Phenomenal Girl 5 – is a worthy enough superhero to join EHJ. The travel sickness from teleportation will pass, and the spells she’s learning will add another weapon to her trade. But standing in Lainey’s way from making the promotional leap is the reclusive Reincarnist, Robert Eliot, who’s both training and tempting her. How can she investigate when he’s hiding details of the crimes? Would working full-time for EHJ break her and Robert’s budding relationship?

The first half of this book is exceptionally well done. Lainey’s not perfect, though she is rather vain about her chest. Robert speaks without contractions, but Lainey calls him on it. A major spoiler puts emotions through the wringer, but as the characters’ personal lives improve, they became somewhat…annoying. I was fine with Lainey until she started playing seductress. Then we meet more of the EHJ and learn that they’re more celebrities than superheroes, doing more ad campaigns than investigation and heroics. This in itself is not a bad read, but it’s frustrating when an apocalypse is nigh and no one seems to be working the case. Lainey recognises this, but then does the same thing and spends more time with her lover. I preferred the unrequited love to the out-in-the-open relationship – there’s a stage in which most scenes end with fade-to-black shagging, and I had trouble refraining from yelling, “Get back to the freaking plot!” But this is a romance novel, not a thriller. I am not the target audience.

Maybe you can tell a lot about someone by their choice of coffee, but when Lainey goes around and collects everyone’s order…that was kind of tedious. Okay, the over-the-top EHJ heroes have grandiose beverages, whilst the down-to-earth people stick with espresso – readers could’ve figured that out on our own. That scene could’ve been cut.

Then there’s the multiple past, present and perhaps future relationships which they openly gossip about. Phenomenal Girl 5 works much better when it’s serious, not light, but I’m very picky about humour 😉 Still, it’s a new-to-me spin on superheroes, and Book 2 in the series – Tekgrrl – should go down a treat.