Revival (The Varient Series #1) by Jena Leigh

Possessing the uncanny ability to fry a television set from twenty paces can really wreck a girl’s social life.

If you’re looking for proof, just ask sixteen-year-old Alexandra Parker. After catching her boyfriend in the arms of the prettiest girl in school, she made the journey from social elite to social pariah in a haze of electricity and exploding electronics. But finding herself at the bottom of Bay View High’s social hierarchy was nothing compared to the shock of discovering who—and what—she really is.

After being zapped out of a burning bookstore by the mysterious Declan—a hero nearly as handsome as he is infuriating—Alex finds herself under the protection of the powerful Grayson family. It’s through them that she learns the truth: that the world she’s always known is nothing like it appears to be... and that she has far more in common with them than she might want to believe.

Now, on the run from a fire-wielding hit man and a secretive government organization, Alex must navigate a strange and treacherous new world filled with superhuman mutants known as Variants. As she begins to unravel the many secrets of her family’s past, she uncovers the real reason for her parents’ death twelve years earlier—and finds out that the threat to her family, and to everyone she cares about, is still dangerously real.

My Review

   I have really been on a paranormal kick lately.  I have been lucky because most of the books that I have been reading have all been good.  This book just happened to be one that ended up being amazing.

   Alex is your typical all-American teen.  Pretty, popular but still grounded and very sweet.  When she was very little she lost her parents in a tragic accident and has been raised by her Aunt Cecilia, who is just like a mother to her.  Life is wonderful until the day of a bizarre accident.  With the way the high school rumor mill runs, she soon is labeled as the crazy girl and finds herself an outcast, with only one friend to her name.  Just when things seem like they can’t get worse a crazy man shows up and tries to kill her with fire that he can shoot out of his hands.  But things like that don’t happen in real life, right?!  Suddenly Alex is thrown in to a world she never dreamed was possible, some people do have strange powers and where her own role is more than she could ever begin to imagine.

   I must say that I completely fell in love with Alex.  She is such an amazingly sweet girl. Even when things her only concern is for those she loves.  She is also very feisty.  This comes in very handy once she meets Declan.  He is the stereo-typical bad boy and uses sarcasm as self-defense.  Alex does not put up with his crap at all and eventually, of course, we get to see that Declan is actually a very amazing guy.

   The plot wasn’t all that unique.  Think X-Men meets teen romance.  That being said, I still really enjoyed this book.  While it did follow a pretty predictable path the story still had enough twists to keep it fresh and interesting.  The only thing that I didn’t like was that it ended.  I now need to read the next book to find out what ends up happening to Alex and her friends.

   One of the best things about this book is that it is a clean read.  I love that there are still authors out there that understand you don’t need foul language, sex, or extreme violence to make a book great.  There was nothing in this book that I found even remotely questionable, which is probably a lot of the reason why I loved it so much.

  I encourage every fan of a good paranormal story to read this book.  With action, romance and kick butt teens with special powers, why wouldn’t you love it?!

Parent's Guide:  There is some mild swearing and it is a love story.  I would give it a rating of PG.