Within the first few pages I could tell I was going to enjoy Sovereign even more than the first in the series: Dreadnought, always the true mark of a good sequel in my opinion. (Also stay tuned until the end for a giveaway announcement!)
Summary
After the disastrous attack on New Port in Dreadnought, Danny, our main character who is transformed overnight into both a superhero and a girl, has been protecting the city on her own. With days and nights full of bad guys and bruises, her life seems pretty full. But this doesn’t even take her personal life into consideration. She is in court trying to emancipate herself, trying to salvage her friendship with Calamity, and still figuring out her new powers. She’s being attacked on all sides. And with a new supervillain, even more nefarious than before, on the playing field, they will use all their powers against her to take her down.
Review
I am so pleased I was approved for the sequel to Dreadnought because everything I enjoyed in the first, was amplified in the second. Daniels brings a nuanced complexity to everything in this book: Danny’s powers, her relationships, and her own identity. Right from the get go, Danny is under more pressure than ever before and she’s beginning to crack. Who can blame her? Suddenly thrown into this superhero world she had immense challenges and incredible opposition.
However, in this book, Danny faces off against enemies of all shapes and sizes, one of them being herself. This is by far my absolute favorite part of the book, staying with me even days after finishing. When overnight we gain the powers to fulfill all our fantasies, good and bad, it becomes a struggle. The challenge to remain a white cape, and not succumb to punishing those who hurt us and escape justice is monumental. With this comes responsibility, loneliness, fame, and loss. Danny’s narrative voice is genuine, funny, and heart-warming. It makes us empathize with her and allows us a first-row seat into these growing pains. Her transformation through this process makes the entire novel more complicated, more adult feeling, than the first as Daniels explores very real issues of power, corruption, and justice.
New friends!
This time around, Danny has a few friends to help her, who are super cool and diverse. We still had our Calamity, even more complicated after the first book, and Kinetiq (a non-binary cape). My only complaint with these is that we don’t see them enough! I want more of them, especially Kinetiq and Codex. Their interactions are some of my favorite.
(Also I cannot get over how cool a superhero convention would be! Like that just makes my inner self so happy. It would be flat out amazing).
I really appreciated how twisty this plot was. While I thought the first was pretty cunning, I think that Daniels outdoes herself with this one. Not only are our supervillains humorous and dangerous, but the events in Danny’s life are important to the plot and her character. Additionally, the ending is really great and I wonder if there’s a third book in the making.
Overall,
Sovereign teaches us, among many things, that we can sometimes be our own worst enemy. We may fight a lot of battles in our lives, and it is important to hold onto what is true about us. There is a great propensity within all of us to become twisted into a black cape, minus the super powers of course, and our normal challenges of fear, insecurity, and anger can be dangerous forces to be reckoned with. But we define ourselves by our actions in the face of this black hole that threatens to whisper in our ear. In these moments, is when a true war begins, and one that becomes imperative to decide if we succumb or stand up to the darkness, for good, and ourselves.
Disclaimer: I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley.
Giveaway Teaser
I was contacted by the publisher, Diversion Books, and am able to give away 3 Copies of the book (US only) and am going to be posting this exciting giveaway on release day, July 25, 2017! Just to prepare yourself you can find the Amazon and Goodreads listings. Make sure you are subscribed below, so you are kept up to date!
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