Bells Broussard, AKA Chameleon, is now the most wanted villain in the country. Despite fighting against the massive cover-up for inhumane experimentation, the Heroes League of Heroes make it nearly impossible to fight back. This makes college applications harder to fill out, and crushing on his best friend certainly doesn’t help.

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Why this book?: I loved the first book, Not Your Sidekick.

I would like to thank Interlude Press for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

After enjoying Not Your Sidekick so much, I was excited to get into Not Your Villain. I got an ARC and then never read it for some reason, so when I finally dove into it, I have to admit that the beginning of the book was helpful…at first. NYV starts you off before NYS started, going over Bells’s experiences in training with the Heroes League of Heroes. I found that interesting, but then the story started going over events that we already got in NYS. You didn’t get the full description of the events, but short overviews of Bells’s points of view. Like I said earlier, I was happy with this at first. But then 30% of the book went by, and we still hadn’t gotten past the events of NYS. This was kind of frustrating, because I wanted Bells’s part of the story, not a retelling of Jess’s.

After that first 30% though, we started getting into Bells’s story. But I still thought that part of the story didn’t match up with NYS. Bells’s story was a series of events that didn’t seem to connect well at all. Lee also tried to keep the kids in school for an extended period of time, and so we got school scenes that just seemed out of place. While I enjoyed each scene separately, some of them just didn’t mesh well with the rest of the story, while others were okay but didn’t add anything.

I loved the characters just as I did in the first one. I loved getting to know Bells more, especially because he was one of my favorite characters from the first. I felt a little weird about Bells pining after Emma the entire book, but I loved when she came out to him as questioning aro and/or ace. It felt so genuine, and I related so much to her confusion and worries. Jess and Abby were cute together in this one, and I liked how they were still featured even when the book wasn’t about them anymore.

Final Rating: ★★★☆☆

Overall?

It could be that my expectations were too high after the brilliance of Not Your Sidekick, but NYV just didn’t live up to what I was hoping for. The scenes were all over the place, and a large chunk of the beginning was focused on going over the scenes in NYS. While it was nice at first, it quickly became frustrating. I still loved the characters, despite my frustrations with the rest of the book.

Would I Recommend?

Despite NYV being slightly disappointing, my excitement for Not Your Backup has not waned at all. Like I’ve said multiple times, I still love the characters, and want to see where this series is going to take them. While I’m disappointed that my fav Bells’s story wasn’t as good as I was hoping, I’m still glad I finally read this part of the series.

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Additional Information:

Published: October 5th, 2017

Publisher: Duet Books

Page Count: 307

Genre: Science Fiction/Young Adult/Fantasy

Synopsis: via Goodreads

Bells Broussard thought he had it made when his superpowers manifested early. Being a shapeshifter is awesome. He can change his hair whenever he wants, and if putting on a binder for the day is too much, he’s got it covered. But that was before he became the country’s most-wanted villain.

After discovering a massive cover-up by the Heroes’ League of Heroes, Bells and his friends Jess, Emma, and Abby set off on a secret mission to find the Resistance. Meanwhile, power-hungry former hero Captain Orion is on the loose with a dangerous serum that renders meta-humans powerless, and a new militarized robotic threat emerges. Everyone is in danger. Between college applications and crushing on his best friend, will Bells have time to take down a corrupt government?

Sometimes, to do a hero’s job, you need to be a villain.

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