Lilly wants nothing more than to be a superhero; to save lives, right wrongs, and bring justice to the bad guys. But she's a Norm, meaning she wants to take on powerful villains with no powers. Her best friend and roommate Rose tries to talk sense but Lilly is undeterred, ending up in seep trouble rose may have to save her from.

The idea of a school for superheroes and villains is cool but with this story being so short, I feel like it didn't have much of a chance to be explored. However, Lilly and Rose are a cute couple and the concept is interesting. Young adults looking for a quicky lesbian superhero story have a cute, clean read here but it flies by too quick for its own good. 3 out of 5.

This was a short story that actually left me wanting to know more.

It’s aesthetic of the story and the writing is not quite fitting for the cover, but I still really liked it.

That cover is without question BEAUTIFUL. It shows one of the main characters, Lilly.

But I seem to have a hard time really liking characters who seem ‘too genuinley good’. Lilly wants nothing more than to help people, even if it means following the really stupid plan of posing as a hero - in a world where there are actual superpowered heroes who STUDY how to be a hero for years -, even tho she doesn’t have any powers. And no, she doesn’t have any fighting skills to make up for it, just her good will. Which is admirable, but not smart.

But the thing is, what made this story so good for me, was the other main character, Rosey.

She’s posing as this normal girl who only wears white and pink and baby blue and does cosplay and spends all her free time in the library - and then you meet her with the villains she secretly belongs to and SCARES them to death and outsmarts and outwits them all. And find out that being a villain is her family business.

And I love every aspect of this. And my mind is running wild on what more you could do with a character like hers.

I want to know how her childhood was as the daughter of villains, who might accidently poison the other kids in kindergarden if she slips. I want to see how their classes at University actually work. I want to see the villain students pulling off an attack on the supers like the one Rosey presented to her ‘study group’. I want to see her parents and siblings meeting her goody-two-shoes girlfriend. Hell, I want to see her as grumpy teen doing an so-called ‘internship’ with her dad where she comes along with him as he’s robbing a bank.

And then this quote:
"Why couldn't you have been a hero?"
"Because I'm not one. My loyalty is to myself, to those I care about."

YES. I love it, because that is such a slytherin thing to say.

So yes, that was triggering my imagination, so that’s nice.

All in all, the story surely isn’t without its flaws, and I didn’t like all aspects of the ending. But it’s good to read, it’s a very cool idea and it created a world and characters with a lot of potential.

Although I thought this sounded cute, what really sold me was that cover – a Muslim superhero was something I definitely wanted to read. Alas, I’m still waiting to read it, because this was nothing like I was hoping.

Firstly, these characters don’t read anything like fourth year university students. There’s a lot of swearing, but other than that, all the characters involved are really immature. Lilly is the worst of the lot. If she was actually twelve, I could understand her level of naivety, but she isn’t, so it was just annoying. Pairing the hijab her parents sent her with a Templar Knight tunic is… I think it was supposed to be funny, but it just summed Lilly up for me. She’s been living away from home for four years, but somehow remains incredibly childish and her view of everything is completely black and white. The idea of trying to become a Super without any plan as to how she’d go up against people with actual powers was disappointing. I at least hoped she’d have some sort of alchemy skills, but nothing.

Then again, this world is not at all well described. The idea is great and all, but there’s a distinct lack of detail. Are Villains really so awful, because it seems like a load of shallow entertainment considering the fact they get scored. In which case, what is Lilly defending everyone against, exactly? There’s a mention of a kid whose arm got broken in the crossfire between Supers and Villains, but again, no detail about how or what happened, or whether it was the Villains or Supers – or both – to blame. And what do they really do for the world? It seems like not a lot, which seems entirely pointless.

So, sadly, I didn’t enjoy this. If it had been set in a boarding school or with Lilly having just left home or something, I think it would have worked better for all the characters. More explanation about the world and how Supers and Villains fit into it would also have been nice. As it is, this was an interesting idea with a beautiful cover that sadly didn’t live up to my expectations.