Customer Reviews

Phenomenal Girl 5 (SHOMI)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

5 Tombstones!

Lainey Livingston has never really fit in. Orphaned as a child, she was placed in a foster home until her special powers earned her a place at The School. Being one of the youngest and kind of a nerd, she was picked on by the other kids. The one thing that got her through was her goal to become a member of the Elite Hands of Justice (EHJ) and now that dream is about to become a reality. Her final test will be to survive two years of training with the legend known as The Reincarnist.

Robert Elliott is the Reincarnist, a magic-user who has lived multiple lifetimes. When his current life ends, he is reincarnated as a 20 year old and begins again but his memories of past lives are vague. He keeps journals so that he does not lose track of who he has been and the people he has known. He refuses to return to active member status with the EHJ because they have become so focused on their celebrity status, they have lost site of the initial purpose of the organization; to protect the world from evil. He prefers to spend his time training the new recruits, hoping that maybe one day, one of them will restore the EHJ to its' true purpose.

When Lainey meets Robert, she is not prepared for the feelings that he awakens within her. Robert guards himself against emotional attachment for becoming involved with others always leads to heartache and disappointment for the ones he leaves behind when he is reborn. Neither of them are prepared for a love that will transcend time and become an integral part of a prophesy that predicts the destruction or salvation of the entire World.

A.J. Menden is truly a superhero in the world of writers. She has taken the concept of comic book heroes and created a contemporary world for them where they are dealing with the same problems that all of us ordinary mortals deal with on a daily basis. Her characters have to find a way to juggle heartbreak, love, betrayal and a myriad of other emotions and issues while still finding time to prevent chaos, death, and destruction on a daily basis. Lainey, while in no way perfect, is an absolutely perfect heroine in what promises to be a fast-paced and exciting series. If the books to follow are half as good as this one, I will be a very happy reader.

Reviewed at Bitten by Books Paranormal Fiction Review Site by Lori

When I think of a SHOMI book I want romance and action and, more importantly, a connection. I loved DRIVEN by Eve Kenin aka Eve Silver and COUNTDOWN by Michelle Maddox. Then there were some SHOMI books that I would rate at the bottom of the barrel. PG5 was OK, not bad...just not great.

Lainey Livingston has a gift and she is going to be trained by the Reincarnist, Robert Elliot. You'll see some action though not as much as I expected. And yes, there is a romance, but I just did not feel the connection. I don't want to give away too much in case you plan to read this book.

If you enjoy anime or like comic book types of stories this book may be your style. I guess my biggest complaint is I bought 'Tekgrrl' at the same time I bought PG5. 'Tekgrrl' is the follow-up to PG5. Because I didn't think too highly of this story it kept me from reading the next one. Usually I give each book I have a chance but not with this author; I donated 'Tkkgrrl' to the library.

I just finished reading Phenomenal Girl 5 by A. J. Menden, and it is the most fun I've had reading a book in a long time. It's a relatively short (300 pages), easy read. The pacing of the story is top-notch, the dialog believable, the characters well-drawn and interesting, and the world-building fun and fresh, even though it's not a totally original concept. The author mixed action with humor and romance and balanced it all extremely well.

I rarely give a book 5 stars. I gave 5 stars to this book because it was such a breath of fresh air, and I had FUN reading it.

STORY BRIEF:
Instead of Superman and Batman hiding their identities, this world has many super heroes seeking publicity, popularity and selling action figures. Lainey is strong and can fly. She has chosen the name Phenomenal Girl 5. The previous four didn't work out or died. There are different groups of super heroes who fight villains. Lainey was previously part of the Power Squad and recently was hired to work for the Elite Hands of Justice (EHJ), the most elite of the groups - her dream job. Unfortunately she is the new hire whose job it is to do paperwork, correspondence, and buy coffee for others. She'd prefer fighting villains. There are frequent minor villains causing trouble which makes work for the heroes. There is also a major villain planning apocalyptic harm.

Robert works on and off with the EHJ. He has magic abilities including his own repeat reincarnations. He's lived many lives. After each death he is reborn into the body of a 20 year old man. He retains his magic abilities and knowledge of spells but has no memory of people in his life. Lainey and Robert become attracted to each other.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
The action was flat. A lot of time was spent in "conversations" rather than seeing events happen. There was a gossipy office politics feel to the book. The Reincarnist spent a lot of time "studying" what the main villain might be doing and how to stop him. As a reader I wanted to see more of the villain, what he was planning and doing. Maybe the reason we don't see that is because the story is told in first person by Lainey. A major conflict between the couple was based on an "inaccurate assumption" and a lie. I didn't connect emotionally with anyone. I didn't feel anticipation during the story. It didn't work for me, but I think urban fantasy and comic book fans might like it more than I did. There are some love scenes which are referred to, not shown, in case that's important.

DATA:
Story length: 305 pages. Swearing language: mild, including religious swear words. Sexual content: none. Setting: current or future time in Megolopolis. Copyright: 2008. Genre: paranormal romance.

This book was fun and kept my attention for the most part. There was a bit of a tedious section here and there -- I seem to like books that lay out the info quickly and thoroughly and move on and on through the story. Still, the characters were just kitschy enough to enjoy and the story just quirky enough to keep my interest. I would say 3 1/2 stars to 4 and I can't do the halves, so 4 stars it is.

I loved the style and flow of this author. I really felt like I was in the shoes of the character in this plot. I never felt bored reading this story.

Phenomenal Girl 5, better known as Lainey, is living the superhero cadet dream. She has the traditional superpowers of flight, super strength, and feminine charms to match. On top of that, she just got accepted into the Elite Hands of Justice (EHJ for short - the in-universe equivalent of the Justice League of America) and is ready to join the "real" superheros that stop world-ending apocalypses as opposed to simpleton bank robbers!

...or so she thinks.

Lainey first has to get through an internship of sorts with the Reincarnist, a superhero that as the name implies, constantly dies and revives with various inconveniences like memory loss. Along the way, workplace romance blossoms, Lainey learns what superhero life is really about, and the resulting story becomes something along the lines of Stephanie Meyer watching the first few episodes of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles and then writing Twilight with superheroes instead of vampires.

Sounding like a crazy romance novel with no clue where it is going, eh? Well such is the main problem with Phenomenal Girl #5. Judging from a lot of average/negative reviews I've seen for this novel, readers are coming into the story expecting Phenomenal Girl #5 to be a superhero story with romantic elements. It is not. What we have here is a romance story with superhero elements. While the first quarter of the book promises to be an intriguing superhero story regarding mysterious villains and prophecies, that whole "love at first sight" cliche abruptly takes over with Lainey and the Reincarnist. While the mysterious villain plot slowly but surely gets off the ground resulting in a true super-heroic apocalypse story, superpowered romance fun is always at the forefront, leaving people who wanted to read a superhero story constantly shouting "get back to the action already!"

Rather unfortunate really, as although the main romance plot has some fun moments despite being somewhat contrived (if you thought the speed and convenience of the Bella/Edward romance in Twilight was silly, this book certainly takes it to the logical extreme) there are some really interesting subplots that are never fully developed. In this world superhero life is all about politics, with flashy displays of heroism and good publicity being more important than...say the actual core values of helping people in trouble. An ensemble of interesting superheroes are explored consisting of both close friends of Lainey and EHJ member alike, but outside of a few bullet point characteristics that you'd draw up in one fiction workshop sitting you do not learn much about most of them. Though considering this is but the first book in the series, and the sequel hooks the reader is left with, I have the feeling these subplots will find more development in future novels.

On the bright side, the major characters are well thought out and they show rich development as the novel advances along its quick pace. Lainey grows and matures well enough through the chaos and calamity that develops, but I have to give extra praise to The Reincarnist. Without spoiling anything, the things he goes through as the story progresses provides a very tricky writing challenge, and Menden navigates the character with flying colors.

In the end, Phenomenal Girl 5: The Elite Hands of Justice is a fantastic read for those who like a romance novel with a little bit of punch. If you know a Twilight-fan who does not mind a little bit of action and intrigue slightly beyond that of a Saturday morning cartoon mixed in with their romance, I would highly recommend this book. People who want strict superhero fiction and mystery should look elsewhere.

(An Ars Arcanum review.)

This was a free book that I recently got for my Kindle. I was between books and looking for something different to read and decided to give this one a try. This was a very entertaining book. It is definitely more PNR than Urban Fantasy. The focus of the book is more on the relationship between the two main characters, but it was well done. The main characters are all super heros and this was a different take on the urban fantasy premise but it was nice to read something different. At first I didn't think I would like the main character of Lainey but she quickly grew on me. She was an extremely likable character. I also really liked the Reincarnist and felt that he was a good love interest for Lainey. This was a fast read and I found that once I started it I just wanted to keep reading it. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for something light and entertaining to read. I plan to eventually read the next book in the series as well.

I'm not usually a big fan of romance novels, but they can be a bit of light fun. Unfortunately, there's very little of that in this book. The characters are inconsistent and shallow, the romantic and/or sexual tension seems false and forced, and overall it just reads as trite. The main characters spend an awful lot of time complimenting each other on how amazing they are for feats of mediocre deduction. Phenomenal Girl Five herself likes to whinge on how awful her life is as a busty, gorgeous, super-powered genius, which gets old really, really quickly.

Honestly, the only thing which brought this to two stars for me were the side characters. There are quite a few which seems tantalizingly interesting, though unfortunately very little time is spent on them. There seemed like the beginning to multiple good stories outside of the main couple, and I'm sorry I didn't get to find out more about them.

If I'm looking for drama and romance about superheroes, I think I'll go re-read my old comic books - those stories had some bite to them.