"Not Your Villain" by C.B. Lee | Book Review

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 to 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.

I LOVE THIS SERIES!!!

After the first book, I was pretty sold on this series, but somehow Not Your Villain managed to make me love this even more. I love the world that C.B Lee has created and how she's expanding it in the sequel. While a lot of second books where the main characters discover a darker undercurrent,, sometimes lose the intrigue of the world. Luckily, that doesn't happen here!

The world retains everything I loved about it - cool superpowers, interesting dystopia - but discovering more dimensions to it just fills the world in more. Plus, the coolness of meta-humans in fact develops more since we delve a bit into the fact that Bells is the first known meta humans with no family history of power. I am so excited to see where that goes and I can just feel that it's going to become a bigger part of a series. And having Bells narrate this part of the story was genius!

I loved Jess as a narrator! She seriously made me want to get a shirt that says Master Mischief was right about the cheese even if no one would get it. But I think I might like Bells more. He was interesting, funny and stuck to his convictions fiercely. He was a likable and good main character with clear motivations and he was really well rounded as a character.

These books just make me so happy to read! No only are they fun and interesting with a great story, they're really inclusive. My favorite thing in a book is when characters mention being gay, bi, trans, or anything else and it isn't a big deal. This book even as a character who is questioning whether they are asexual or aromatic. While I can't speak to how the representation is as far as race, it's there and I'm sure other reviews speak more to it's accuracy so go check those out.

Rating: 5 stars