Superhero Syndrome

Solstice Survivors, Book 1

De: Caryn Larrinaga

Narrado por: Ruby Hankey

Tess McBray was dying. The solstice syndrome had no cure, and she resigned herself to an early grave. But just when she gave up on survival, all her symptoms mysteriously disappeared.

All but one symptom, anyway. Something is wrong with Tess’ hands. They absorb any material they touch, and her skin turns to wood, steel, or concrete. It doesn’t take this comic book obsessed 21-year-old long to figure out what’s going on: Somehow, she’s developed super powers. And she’s not the only one; across the country, people are coming forward and sharing their gifts with the world. In her own city, where the police are battling a human trafficking operation, a masked vigilante called The Fox is saving lives and stopping criminals.

Tess doesn’t know where she fits into this new, super-powered world. But when people around her start disappearing, she can’t just sit on the sidelines. Teaming up with The Fox to create the world’s first superhero duo might be the only way to rid her city of evil and save the people she loves most.

©2017 Caryn Larrinaga (P)2019 Caryn Larrinaga

Unique, powerful, fun

This was a very different take on the super hero genre, and a TON of fun while also giving some powerful messages.

I found the identity of The Fox a bit predictable, but as fun as this book was it was easy to ignore this.

Both the story and the performance easily sucked me in and left me wanting more. I hope the series continues and plan to check out all the future books in the series.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

Fantastic Sassy Read

I absolutely loved this book! This story will tug at your heart and satisfy you desire for adventure.

Tess is such a complex and badass character. The author is a master at making you feel so strongly for ever aspect of this story. I really hope there's another book coming because I'd love to find out where these superheros are going!

Fun superhero book with a comic book lover lead

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Caryn Larrinaga. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Superhero Syndrome is a fun read/listen taking a weak and sickly main character and turning her into something quite awesome.

Tess loves comic books and superheroes, but she is very ill and knows she will not be around much longer. Until something happens and mysteriously her fever goes away and she's found some new powers! This comic book obsessed girl accepts her superpowers but tries to hide them. 

Until, someone she loves is in danger. I enjoyed how dark and interwoven the superpowers were with the evil doings of the villains. The story got dark quickly with the missing girls and finally, the disappearance hits close to home. Tess has to learn to be brave and use her powers to help save the missing girls.

I gotta say though the comic-book obsessed girl should have been a little faster to figure out who The Fox is. I have read enough of these type of books to know who the secret identity was going to be, so Tess should have guessed too. But otherwise, the book was great.

I enjoyed the audio narration quite a bit. The voice was pleasant and I would definitely want to listen to her again.  

Highly entertaining and addictive!

Tess is terribly ill. Like many other people, she has caught what the press began to call the solstice syndrome. Many are dying, and Tess is almost terminal, but on a night during a meteor shower, not only she gets cured but she also gains superpowers. After learning to master her new skills, she joins forces with the Fox, in an attempt to end a human trafficking network that has kidnapped her sister.

This was an excellent YA superhero novel! Written in first person, I quickly connected with Tess, and although her situation was something new to me, and I did not understand all her actions, it was easy enough to relate to her. I embarked on this adventure without any preconception or prejudice, and I have to to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. There are several twists and surprises along the way, and I just wanted to fight with the cool kids: Tess and the Fox.

Tess is the most developed of all the characters, but as this is the first book in a row series, I believe we will get the backstories of secondary characters soon enough.

Ruby Hankey did an excellent job voicing Tess and the rest of the characters. Her interpretation skills and compelling tone kept my attention at all times. There were subtle differences in voices and styles, which made following dialogs a breeze. Her male voices were subtle and credible.

It was an easy listen, very entertaining and addictive. I am definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Carryn Larrinaga. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Excellent narration!

I loved this very inventive story but I must start with the narration. Hankey has an incredible voice with incredible delivery and she made this story come alive! I was hooked from the first intonation.

The story had a slow build-up to the superhero part but I was okay with that. (Again, great narration.) Tess is the main character and instead of dying from an incurable disease, she was exposed to a meteor and life began. Her superpower was one I had not seen before and listening to her struggle with her discovery and then how to control it was well-written and performed. I must confess that Tess was a bit hard to take at times but again, narration.

The bad guys got dealt with and all ended well. The next book will be next level!

Great Opener for New Super Heros

Intro to getting a feel for new characters is important and achieved.
Looking forward to new adventures and evolution of stories that hold us to it's narration. Ruby Hankey is perfect.

Not what I was expecting.

I believe the story was well written, though I did feel like a few things were not adequately explained. I assume we will learn about those later as the series progresses. The book took a couple of turns I was not expecting, diving into topics that I don’t often see written about in this genre. I feel like it did a good job of describing those, and all of the characters actions seemed logical.
Narration was done well, and though at times volume would peak it was not too distracting. It only happened three or four times during the novel, Maybe something to do with compression.
I received this audiobook at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this review. That being said, I’m not certain if I will continue the series. however I do feel like this was a worthwhile read! If the foreshadowing is doing what I think it is, the series may turn into something I would deeply enjoy!

Old subject, new dressing

This was a pretty cool read, and I liked that Tess's superpower wasn't something I had expected. A sequel would be nice!

"Origin" story with great characters and narration

“Superhero Syndrome (Solstice Survivors #1)” is not lesfic, but is a very enjoyable interpretation of the superhero/supervillain origin genre.

The author did a wonderful job defining characters as believable people, with many of the positive and negative attributes on exhibit IRL: fear, friendship, love, hate, lust, forgiveness, cruelty, greed, goodness…and many other emotions and behaviors. I was reminded of early Fantastic Four or Spiderman stories, where ordinary people gain extraordinary abilities and learn to adapt to their changed lives.

It’s fun being alongside MC Tess as she finds that her death is suddenly not imminent, and as she finds that something is..different. As Tess returns to her hometown, she learns more of the sister she loves, the brother-in-law she despises, the parents who abandoned her, and she makes new friends.

Descriptions of her daily life are very well written. We learn of Tess’ love of trains, and we can feel the wrongness in the run down section of town that she now calls home. There’s lots of humor throughout the story; imagine having a superpower that allows your hands to become blue office furniture upholstery! Also, imagine your sister creating an online dating profile for “Sexy Tessy” and using an old childhood photo…including braces! While Tess and other characters are hetero, this is a very PG story, nothing graphic occurs.

Tess is very likable, as are many of the side characters. Though Tess is a nerd who loves comic books and sketching, she’s socially aware enough to know a bad date when she’s on one, and is willing to make an effort to ask out someone she connects with.

Once she becomes something of a sidekick to superhero “The Fox”, we get a very entertaining crime/mystery action story involving sex trafficking. I won’t say much more about that because you’ll enjoy the story without spoilers.

The story ends with a new costume and superheroine name for Tess, and she and “The Fox” are flying (via plane) to Chicago for a first-ever meetup with other new supers. I can’t wait for the next episode!

This is the first audiobook I’ve listened to narrated by Ruby Hankey, and I really enjoyed her performance. She voiced Tess, her inner monologues, and other characters wonderfully, and I very much look forward to listening to her perform other audiobooks!

If you’ve read this far, you may have guessed that I really enjoyed this audiobook, and I recommend “Superhero Syndrome” with 5*.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

My rating and my review was not in anyway affected by my having been provided a review copy.

stunning

i absolutely loved this story. The creative aspect of how people got powers, the perspective and background of Tess. the side characters abed overall plot were really well done. but i have to say. the narrator took this audiobook to a whole new level. absolutely amazing.


i recieved this as a free copy, but my opinions are my own