Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Hidden Powers
SERIES: Superordinary Society #1
AUTHOR: Tara Lain
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 269 Pages
RELEASE DATE: March 13, 2019
BLURB:
Jazz Vanessen is weird—and not just because he’s a werewolf. For most of his life, he’s felt different from his alpha male brothers and friends. Since he’s adopted, he can’t even blame it on family.
Now eighteen, Jazz meets his idol, the social activist Lysandra Mason, and her breathtaking nephew, Dash Mercury. When Dash is around, even stranger things start to happen, including Jazz falling hopelessly in lust. Not only is Jazz having visions, making people disappear, and somehow turning invisible, but somebody’s following him and threatening to reveal his pack’s secrets to the world.
Together with Dash and Jazz’s equally amazing friends—Carla, BeBop, Khadija, and Fatima—they discover the danger is even more lethal than they thought, and Jazz’s weirdness may save all their lives.
REVIEW:
There are several ways that you could choose to enjoy this book. Firstly, it can be read as the first story in a new series. I wouldn’t really call it a standalone, since Jazz and Dash still have much more story ahead of them, but though Jazz isn’t a new character to Tara Lain fans, meeting him for the first time in this book will still work.
However, I really think the best way to read this would be to read the Tales of the Harker Pack series first. It’s only three books long and Jazz first makes an appearance in the second book. . I originally read that series years ago, and didn’t remember all that had happened. I re-read the series after finishing this book and think I had a better understanding of why Jazz felt so indebted to the wolf packs. It added an extra level to my appreciation of Jazz’s dedication to his family and I was sympathetic of the fact that he would give up his happiness to protect his people, whereas usually “sacrificial” characters annoy the heck out of me.
This book certainly had a young adult vibe happening, new adult at the very least. I wouldn’t even label it as a romance, although Jazz does find himself a boyfriend along the way. Instead, this is a good old fashioned adventure with a Scooby-Gang of teens who call themselves the Superordinary Society. The relationships between all these characters were nicely fleshed out, although some of the kids remain more mysterious than others.
The author did a great job of writing this story as the first book of a series. The story itself was absolutely interesting but it was also about setting up an overarching plot and world or the whole Superordinary Society series. There were a lot of characters, or potential characters mentioned, but the author kept enough of these on the sidelines so as not to overwhelm the reader. Instead you’re teased with all the possibilities of future trouble that our heroes might have to face.
RATING: 
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