Magical and tense and thrilling. This is everything you could possibly want from the genre. I highly recommend this book.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy of latent. this was pretty cute, romance, ya, magic schools and big problems.

SUMMARY TIME: All the girls at school hate Laila a boyfriend stealing man eater and Niecy is out to prove just how evil she is with the help of her friends. However things aren't what they seem and to be able to stop the evil going on in the school she might just have to work with the person she hates most.

This book really surprised me and I was not expecting to love it so much. It;s a fun adventure that mixes Edgar Cantero's Meddling Kids with Pretty Little Liars and Jennifers Body to create a super fun adventure you'll love.

The main thing that struck me about this book was how diverse it is. We have the whole gamut of LGBTQIA+ representation from trans leads to bisexual characters. I lvoe how this is presented throughout the book and it really made me enjoy it.

Finally I have to talk about the magic system in this book. Theyb use traditional magic and withcy stuff as well as mandalas which I thought was super unique. In fact everyone respects the magic so much which I aboslutely loved and the fact our lead has to grow her magic rather than just walk in is such a good idea.

Overall I loved this book it's a really fun read that would be perfect to read by the beach!

i loveeee this cover!!!

I enjoyed reading Latent! To be honest, I had forgotten what the book was about when I started reading it, so I went in completely blind. If you're a fan of fantasy novels, I highly recommend approaching this book in the same way.

Latent follows the story of Eunice "Niecy" Banks, a junior at Sibley High School who discovers that her classmate, Laila Collins, has a mysterious power over the boys she dates. As Niecy delves deeper into the situation with the help of her grandmother's old journals, she realizes that only she has the power to stop Laila's destructive influence.

Initially, the blurb led the reader to believe that the story would be similar to the movie Jennifer's Body, but with a succubus instead of a demon. However, this was not the case. The novel is decidedly YA and lacks the expected tension and urgency. Additionally, the characters were underdeveloped and felt one-dimensional, with the exception of Laila. The reader may have enjoyed the book more if it was entirely from Laila's perspective. In the end, it was an average read.

Despite this, I will definitely be reading more of Chandra Selene's novels, as I thoroughly enjoyed her writing style and storytelling in Latent.

When Niecy's boyfriend Daniel is suddenly getting cozy with Laila, the new girl at school, without even breaking up with her, Niecy is anything but joyful. Turns out Laila has been stealing boyfriends all school year, and once she leaves them, they're in bad condition. Worse than would be normal for a break up, so Niecy and her friends team up to investigate what's up with Laila, which might even be bordering on paranormal.
Caution, spoilers ahead:

I did appreaciate the queer rep and the general friendships between the girls. Nonetheless, I felt a few things were lacking a bit. I wish the author had explored more of the relationships between the girls, explained more about the witchcraft legacy (and the witch grandma in genreal!) and the magic system of this world. Niecy's reaction to finding out about (her) magic was very casual in my eyes. The writing was enjoyable in general, but a bit cliché at times (breaths released that people didn't know they were holding ...) I think the idea for this novel could have been explored on a bigger scale. I was left with a lot of questions.

I loved the supernatural elements in the book, the characters were what I was looking for in this type of book. I was invested in what was going on in this story and was hooked from the beginning. Chandra Selene has a great writing style that I was looking for and the characters were well-written. It left me wanting more and I'm glad I got to read this.

"Grace shook her head. “I thought of that too. That’s why I didn’t text you last night. I waited until I could confirm everything was real. I found pictures of that Jonathan guy, the older looking version of him, on the website of the design company he works for, and some other photos and mentions of him. He does special effects for movies, so he’s pretty public and easy to find.”

Love the Cover!

Eunice “Niecy” Banks, a junior at Sibley High School, noticed something unusual was happening with Laila Collins and the boys she dated. It's as if Laila had some kind of magical powers. The boys would become progressively obsessed with Laila the longer they dated. Not only that, but it seemed like she was slowly draining their life force away. With the help of her grandmother's old journals, Niecy knew she was the only one with the magical powers to stop her.

From the blurb, I thought I would be getting something along the lines of Jennifer's Body. Instead of a demon, we would be dealing with a succubus. I was wrong. There's no succubus here.

The novel felt and read very YA. More YA than I was expecting. I found the story and characters unconvincing. Where's the tension and sense of urgency? The characters were underdeveloped and felt a bit one-dimensional, except for Laila. Laila was the only character I enjoyed reading about. I wouldn't have minded if the entire story was from Laila's POV. I ended up skimming the last 20% of the novel.

Overall, an okay read.

***Thank you to NetGalley, Chandra Selene, and Evernight Publishing for graciously sending me the ARC to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.***