Reformed

Supervillain Rehabilitation Project, Book 1

By: H. L. Burke

Narrated by: Rena Gail

Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Once a villain, always a villain?

Optimistic and idealistic superhero Prism is determined to redeem her father’s legacy by rebooting his super villain rehabilitation program. To do so, she sets her sights on Fade, the relapsed super villain who was the reason the government canceled the original program in the first place. However, when she petitions for Fade to be released into her custody, she finds out things might not be as simple as she thought.

Convicted of an unforgivable crime, Fade received a choice: Surrender to trial and possible execution or endure a memory erasure so he could start fresh. Now with no recollection of his time before incarceration, Fade doubts he has the ability to be anything but the villain the public believes him to be.

A series of attacks by a mysterious power-swapping villain points back to Fade’s past and the crime that cost him his freedom and memory. With her father's legacy and her own reputation on the line, even Prism has to wonder: Can villain truly be reformed?

©2020 H. L. Burke (P)2020 Heidi Burke

Good story

Like the story but not the narrator. Will only be reading and not listening to the rest of the series.

Excellent superhero romance

I've read more than a few teen superhero books (and written a couple too), but it is such a relief to get a story about the adults in the room. The author sets up a solid world with potential for lots of future stories. The narrator is one of the best I've heard in a long while. If you like superhero tales, or romances, this is certainly worth your time.

Pretty much a perfect supers romance

I really liked this book. If you accept Supers, then everything else in here is perfect logical. Good villains and heros, good rolling action right from the start. Every scene is good.

Normally I can find something to nitpick, but this was gold all the way through.

Wonderful done. Highly recommended.

A Marvelesque cinematic experience.

Normally I talk about the story before the narrator, but Rena Gail stole the show here. This was truly a performance. She screamed and sobbed so emotionally that #chapter17 feels like an understatement. Seriously she puts all the emotion into this single narrator production. Is there an award for narration? because this girl deserves it.

Reformed is an exciting ride from beginning to end with an heart-rending pit of feels in the middle. (see above hashtag.) These are supers who feel like real people and the make you care about them so much it hurts.

Great STORY. LOVE IT

ANOTHER GREAT STORY BY H.L. BURKE.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT EXTREMELY WELL WRITTEN AND CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE.
THE STORY IS WELL WRITTEN AND EASY TO FOLLOW AND IT IS ACCEPTABLE FOR PEOPLE OF ALL AGES.
THE NARRATOR RENA GAIL IS GREAT AND EASY TO FOLLOW.

3.75 Interesting Take on Superhero Genre

*mild spoilers in discussion

Summary:

Prism wants to prove that Fade can be redeemed. Her plan is to turn villains into heroes once more. Her trial run is with the guy her father failed with.

Additional Comments:

- Writing 4/5 Stars: I’ve read other works by the author. She’s a very strong writer. Superheroes aren’t my favorite genre. I did have to take a 2-week break from the book because the first half was painfully slow.

- Plot Twists 4/5 Stars: Nice. One of the reasons I don’t like the superhero genre is a lack of a sense of danger. It’s hard to get a credible sense of danger when nearly every character is overpowered by design.

- World Building 4.5/5 Stars: Mostly cool twists on the superhero genre. The term SABLE annoyed me because it was literally everywhere, but that’s a relatively small complaint. Turned a wee bit scifi-y, but that’s fine.

- Cover and Title fit 3.5/5 Stars: The cover is okay. It says the right genre anyway.

- Villain 3/5 Stars: Predictable. Oh, it definitely works. But like a cozy mystery, there’s only so many suspects, and it has to be the one who everybody will have the hardest time believing could do any sort of wrong.

- Performance 4/5 Stars: Good balance of characters. Credible accents. The Scottish one was a tad hard to follow, but that’s because I had the speed jacked up.

- Romance element 2.5/5 Stars: The romance seemed haphazard, like the author was plugging along writing an excellent superhero book and then was like “crap, was gonna write a romance.”

Conclusion:

Interesting take on the superhero genre.

*I received a free copy of the audio. I have freely chosen to review. All thoughts are my own.

Engaging

I enjoyed this engaging, young adult book. It had minimal swearing. The plot developed nicely, and had some interesting twists and turns. This was well-narrated by Rena Gail. I dropped it one star due to two small plot points that didn’t make sense. received a free audiobook, with no obligation.