Reviewed by: Sue Eaton

TITLE: Reckless Impulse

SERIES: Villains of Vanguard #2

AUTHOR: Ryder O’Malley

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 318 pages

RELEASE DATE: March 14, 2024

BLURB:

You never know the shape revenge will take. But I do.

Prison is a blast. I get three meals a day, a warm bed, and a state-of-the-art gym. The guard’s hip-hugging uniforms don’t hurt either. I say good riddance to it all when I’m offered a chance to take this show on the road. Heroes aren’t getting the job done, so they’re recruiting villains with rugged good looks. But you blow up one ice cream truck, and suddenly they assign you a handler.

If I’m going to stay a free man, I need to stop a psycho from murdering half the city. Of course, the bad guy is attending a couple’s retreat for wealthy supers. If my babysitter is policing my every move, he’ll have to go undercover as my tech mogul husband. If I can survive a week without my cell phone, an overly enthusiastic yoga instructor, and a spouse complaining about love languages, maybe I can stop a massacre.

These heroes aren’t what they seem, but then again, neither am I.

REVIEW:

I really liked the Heroes of Vanguard but the Villains of Vanguard are where it’s at.  They are flawed characters, unapologetic for their actions and past crimes but they are such good fun.

Clint aka Varient, is a wonderful character, very happy go lucky, likes to blow things up and occasionally, kills people by accident, well they deserved it.  Out of prison he joins the other villains in therapy and doing assignments for La Toya.  When his assignment goes south, he is faced with going back to prison or having a handler to try and keep him on the straight and narrow.

I loved him so much, his shapeshifting abilities are off the charts, he can not only impersonate people, but he also studies them so has all their little tells and mannerisms off pat.  He can be a bird or animal, a blob, an alien, tentacles, horns if he can think it, he can become it.  He is so creative with his powers and the fight scenes are amazing as he bounces from one form to another.  Despite all his abilities and his tough guy exterior, he is sensitive and rarely shows his own form.  He wants to make friends but has no clue how to do that, never mind moving from a friend to a boyfriend.

I particularly loved his Arch Nemesis frenemy, it was so funny, and we might have all met a person like that and never once thought to dive beneath the nasty image they portray to the world, to the person that hides within.

The therapy sessions were so much fun as fact and lies got intertwined together, what was real, what was part of their cover, ups and downs as reality mixes with fiction.

Hank in many respects felt like a side character, he was lovely but very much a man behind the scenes which carried through into the undercover operation so difficult to get a feel of what he is like.  Little by little as the book progresses you find out more and his character is slowly pulled out by Clint.  I did like Hank, but Clint was so much larger than life that he eclipsed everyone else.  Hank is the steadying influence Clint needed and Clint helped Hank to see that a bit of chaos in your life can be a good thing.

A fantastic Super Villain romp with all the elements you need.  Looking forward to the final book in this series.

RATING:

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