I laughed so hard that I started crying while reading this. It was just the humorous book I needed to get me out of my reading slump. After the events of Flash Fire, Nick’s dreams of becoming an Extraordinary have finally come true. In the final installment of TJ Klune’s Extraordinaries series, Heat Wave, Nick must juggle his training as Guardian, his growing relationship with Seth (#PyroStormIsBae), and the bane of all high schoolers’ existence: preparing for college. Oh, and did I mention the burden of all superheroes: saving the day (and not looking like a total goof while doing it)?

you will cry laughing

As per usual, Nick is hilarious. I’ve always empathized with his hectic narration style and zany personality, given my own struggles with ADHD. I’ve also suffered from second-hand embarrassment on Nick’s behalf probably a million times, given how much his family and friends love to embarrass him (“Nicky, no! Nicky, YES!”) He has a habit of bouncing around like a ball in a pinball machine, but as much as they love to embarrass him his friends and family help calm him down when needed (and remind him that having ADHD is not a death sentence).

Every character adds something to the story, and it’s quite a diverse cast. On the surface, Heat Wave is a story about superheroes. In contrast to some of the more popular mainstream movies, heroes come in all shapes and sizes in Nova City (instead of looking like magazine cover models). You’ve got the middle-aged mom, the drag queen, the bow-tie bespectacled nerd…There are also those supporting the “Extraordinaries” (akin to the ‘man in the chair role’) and you’ve got a whole range of characters in that role as well. I’ve gotta say, out of all the superhero stories I’ve read (both published in traditional format and fanfiction), Team Lighthouse is one of the best teams (and team names) ever.

all the feels with the relationships

There are so many heartwarming relationships in this book (both platonic and romantic), and it makes my heart happy to see it. Both straight and queer relationships deserve representation in books. While Seth and Nick’s relationship is undoubtedly at the forefront of the story, there’s also the love between Gibby and Jazz, and the relationship between Seth’s aunt and uncle. There are also familial relationships between Seth and his aunt and uncle (there’s a heart-melting adorable moment between Seth and his uncle early on in the book), and Nick and his dad. Nick and his dad’s relationship was by far the most amusing, and Aaron Bell is now on my top ten book dads of all time list.

Micheal Lesley delivered an uproariously funny performance for the audiobook narration and masterfully brought the many layers of Nick’s personality to life. Heat Wave is a perfect ending to the Extraordinaries trilogy (though I certainly wouldn’t say no to a spin-off featuring Gibby and Jazz). While this book is classified as a young adult novel, I do want to note there is a BUCKET load of sexual innuendos. Young readers who are not ready for that might want to hold off on reading this.

in conclusion

Altogether, if a series filled with amazing storytelling, lovable characters, and top-notch storytelling sounds like something you’d enjoy, then I highly suggest you check out this series – you won’t regret it!

TJ Klune is a master of all. Heat Wave is the third installment of the Extraordinaries and I am here for it.
Though this is young adult, I love this series.
TJ Klune is an automatic read for me no matter the genre or subject.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

This was the perfect ending to this series. It was funny, heartfelt, tense, and all around wonderful. The epilogue was also perfection.

"Nicky, no."
"NICKY, YESSSSSS!!!"

Nick Bell is the narrator none of us knew we needed. I absolutely loved being back with Nick and seeing what shenanigans he gets up to with Seth, Jazz, and Gibby, not to mention his father. Nick's relationship with his dad is #goals - I mean can you imagine looking at your parent with a straight face after you blared gay porn in the car while you were inside?! The openness these two have (or are forced to have) about relationships and sex is healthy and positive for today's teens to see.

The fact that we have a main character who has ADHD and manages to live a fairly normal life (ok, so he's a superhero) is one that hasn't slipped past me. It seems for years ADHD has been something that is looked down on so to see this main character have ADHD and own it? Yes, please. Give us more of this.

This book in audio form is *chef's kiss* the.best.
Forever re-reading this series just so I can spend more time with Nick.

WAIT HOW HAVE I NOT SENT FEEDBACK FOR THIS.

I absolutely devoured this book, just as I did with the previous two in the series. TJ Klune's humor and heart is on full display in this trilogy, and I love Nick and Seth so much. They are my children. Jazz and Gibby, too. This little group made me feel more platonic love from the page than I even knew possible. Klune is always so incredible at creating supporting characters, and Jazz and Gibby are no exception (along with their parents). Each character's voice is so distinct, I just love them all.

I don't want to say I called the "twist," because I think Klune was very obviously foreshadowing it in earlier books, but it was still absolutely fascinating to watch it play out.

The romance, the action, the found family, the heroics... I love this trilogy so damn much, and I love these characters.

I guess the one good thing about forgetting to review this for this long is that I am now thinking about it again and I will be going to reread them now.

"In the third installment and conclusion to this fun Extraordinary 's series Nick, along with his friends and family team up to keep the people of Nova City safe.

The beginning of this book was a bit slow and dragged. Though this plot line started out nebulous and confusing, what unfolds was a scary twist. Many might not like this crazy development, but I felt it ultimately played out nicely, forcing the gang and their wonderful parents, friends, and family to really band together to fight Simon Burke’s evil maniacal agenda. At the halfway point the tempo of the book picked up and the flow was much better. The end of the book flew past with a very satisfying conclusion. As always Klune had me laughing out loud at different points. I love Nick's stream-of-conscious ramblings. I also enjoyed that a book about superheroes was able to discuss such serious issues of loss, queer pride, social justice, and found family. "

This series has been so good. I love a superhero moment and this book was amazing! It can be cringey at times and a little uncomfortable to read but overall I found it was more sweet and fun.

I started reading HEAT WAVE some time last summer and got stuck about a third into the book when I ran into elements of mind control. This is primarily a personal preference, but I have to admit that mind control is one of the things I'd rather not read about.

The first two books of THE EXTRAORDINARIES trilogy were such a fun and wild ride as we follow Nick, Seth, Gibby, and Jazz along their adventure. I love these precious babies! If you also love fierce, disaster queer teens, you'd especially love the epilogue of this series like I did.

In HEAT WAVE, I feel like the plot itself has less nuance and more magic—in an ex machina kind of way—than its predecessors. While we did get a nice grand finale and resolution, everything fell a little flat for me. It didn't help that they had a great plan that wasn't revealed when they were actively talking about it, especially with the book being in Nick's point of view, it felt especially odd for the whole thing to be glossed over just to retain the shock factor later on when they execute the plan. Another gripe I had was something also present in FLASH FIRE, which is the repeated occurrence of cissexist languages about anatomy, albeit unintentional. It didn't feel very on brand of them as the whole story is not only just about superheroes but also filled with queer joy.

However, if you're here for the ride of messy superqueeroes, this series does not disappoint!

[content warnings: mind control / manipulation, on-page oral sex between two consenting minors, blood, cissexism, forced mediation, police brutality, racism, kidnapping, conversion therapy (for Extraordinaries), fire, child abuse, murder, drowning (past), misgendering (by minor character, called out by other minor character), discussions about sex, impersonation]

* I received a digital review copy from Tor Teen via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

TJ Klune is always an automatic buy author for me and when I got my hands on an early copy of Heat Wave, I was absolutely elated! As always, TJ Klune's writing is magical and beautiful and his characterization is candid and life like. I can't wait to read the next book in this series!

great end to a series. compelling and adventure filled the whole way through.Still love Nick and Seth's relationship so much

You absolutely can NOT go wrong with TJ Klune.
His YA series The Extraordinaries has been an incredbly fun ride and I was really looking forward to the conclusion in Heat Wave.

This book delivered on wrapping up every open bit of plot and giving all of our main characters their HEA. It was playful, fun, goofy at times and all-in-all a really entertaining read that is perfect for younger audiences and Klune fans.

This trilogy has definitely been a ride and one that I have enjoyed! Nick, Seth and this whole crew definitely have a forever place in my heart. I really loved seeing Nick and Seth grow up and grow together and how the relationships develop in this series. I also truly love TJ's flare for the dramatic and how he can tie it all up in the end! Overall a fantastic conclusion and series.

TJ Klune never fails to capture your heart with the romance, magic, and breathtaking ability to weave a story. The plot comes to life off the page - which is known for every book by him - and explores what happens when everything changes. This serves as an amazing finale and serves up a satisfying conclusion that will have you on the edge of your seat to see what happens next.

undecided on rating

Never in my life have I ever been so conflicted on a review. When The Extraordinaries came out, I was in love. TJ Klune is honestly one of the funniest writers on the planet. Truly, I had such a joyous experience reading the first book. The second was still great, not as good. That ending was truly something special. My jaw was on the off floor and I was in a daze hours after reading it. But this book was confusing as heck.

I thought the action would pick up immediately after the sequel. But it did not. And for spoiler reasons, I won't go into detail. But let me just say, I didn't like it. It was obvious from the moment it started what was what and what was happening. And while I may not be the target audience for this book, I still just didn't care for that "big crazy twist" It just felt silly.

And while I enjoyed the banter, some of it felt too invasive. I am all for parents embarrassing their children, It's life, it's realistic, it happens to everyone. But Nick's dad just crossed too many boundaries for me. It wasn't funny. It was frustrating. I honestly think if this was my parent, I would run away and never look back.

And the final cherry on top, let's talk about the police situation again. I covered a bit of this in my first and second review. But I just wanted to add that, I hated that the final goal of the bad guy was the make the police bigger and more powerful. That felt incredibly tone deaf. Given the criticism from the first and second book regarding Nick's dad and his abuse of power, that felt icky.

Klune has so many other amazing books. I would highly recommend any of his other books before this one.

*** Note. giving this book a neutral 3 star rating since I am undecided on what to properly rate this book.

A perfect conclusion to one of my favorite trilogies ever! This book brought me so much joy, if you haven’t picked up this series, do it now!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

DNF
I only managed to make it about 10% through this ebook.
I really enjoyed the first book Extraordinaries, and I liked the second book Flash Fire, but Heat Wave just hasn't appealed to me in the same way. I think I am still processing the twist ending in Flash Fire with certain characters making a return, and I am trying to reconcile those feelings with the reasons it happened that way.
The raging teenage hormones that started this novel were suppose to be light-handed humor before the more serious events happened, but it came off too crass and eye-rolling for me.

I didn’t realize this was the third book in a series. I haven’t read the others and it’s taking me forever to get to them.
UPDATE: couldn’t get into the first one. Read 60%. Felt whiney and didn’t connect to the character. #dnf My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

T J Klune does it again!!! He writes with such amazing empathy and it is so fun to read his books. The characters are so well developed and I enjoyed seeing how it all played out

O.M.G. I didn’t think T.J. Klune could top Flash Fire, but they did and I am beyond words.

First I do not think I have ever laughed so hard during an entire book and that includes books written by “comedians”. I was walking Miss Isabella and laughing out loud and bending over wheezing at times because I couldn’t catch my breath because seriously Nick’s brain. (smh)

The premise is amazing and on point. I didn’t see it coming. I kept trying to figure out the how and yeah I still didn’t. When an author can keep everything fresh and keep you guessing you know the book, never mind this series, is a winner.

Nick’s brain…I don’t even know what to say. I once again will probably be giving the “Dad of the Year” award to Aaron Bell just for his safe sex talks alone. O.M.G. I cannot say that enough because if I didn’t wear a diaper I would have been peeing my pants. Kudos to Klune for dealing frankly with sex education in a love story. I am always saying that it can be done and once again I have proof!!!

As for the secondary cast, seriously who can pick a fave? The Dad Squad is the best - I really want to see the costume pictures. I love the core crew.

There isn’t anything I do not love about Heat Wave other than I waited so long to read it.