Oh my goodness, I was so excited to get approved for this book. I LOVED the first book in the series, Dreadnought, and just couldn't wait to get to this one. But you know how sometimes, you put off the things that you're excited about because you don't want them to end? That's what happened here. I think I was approved back in April? I don't know, I've had Sovereign sitting on my Kindle for months, and I didn't want it to end. But I'm so glad I finally read the book, because it was SO GOOD, just what I had hoped for and more.
There will be spoilers for Dreadnought in this review. You can read my review for that here.
Sovereign starts off nine months after Dreadnought ended. The books opens with Danny attending a biannual superhero conference in Antarctica as Dreadnought, where all hell breaks loose pretty quickly. A professor and researcher mentions something that Danny has been fearing for nine months, ever since Mistress Malice was defeated at Legion Tower - he mentioned the Nemesis. That starts a chain of events that are action-packed, that force our characters to grow, and that introduce us to new villains, new alliances, and wonderful, glorious characters.
3 Things I Loved
DANNY AND SARAH. Okay, if you read my first review, you'll see that I CALLED THIS I CALLED IT I CALLED IT I CALLED IT!!! I said back in January that I ship them so hard, and NOW IT'S CANON and I'm just so happy. I'm so happy! (And to the people who wrote in their reviews that this came out of nowhere ARE YOU KIDDING ME read Dreadnought again it did not come out of nowhere.)
Kinetiq. OH MAN Kinetiq was my favorite character addition in this book. They are genderqueer/nonbinary (I know those words don't mean the same thing, but I'm pretty sure they are described as both when we're introduced - I'll have to go back to the text and check.) and Danny is trying to get them a contract to help guard New Port from supervillains. And they are part of all the big adventures in this book! I just loved it.
Sovereign. Sovereign isn't the same type of pure evil that Mistress Malice was, but the greedy kind, which is more complex and a fun addition to the narrative. He was a good villain. This whole thing was a fun read.
Anything Problematic?
Since much of this is outside of my lane, I can't really comment on much. I didn't notice anything problematic. There is some potentially triggering dialogue from both Graywytch and Danny's parents, incredibly transphobic words that made me cringe when I read them. I know that trans people hear these things in their real lives, and that breaks my heart. If anyone knows of anything truly problematic in this book, please let me know.
Rating
A reminder of the rating scale:
Red = DNF, I hated everything
Orange = Ugh, no thank you
Yellow = I mean, I’ve read worse, but there were problems
Green = This was good, but not something I’d reread
Blue = Oh my gosh, everyone should be reading this book
Purple = This is the unicorn of books and I will be rereading it until the binding falls apart
It's no secret that I've loved this series, and I felt that this was a very worthy sequel. I know not everyone felt the same way about it, but I loved it. I know I didn't talk much about the plot in this review, but there's reason for that - once you're in this book, you're IN IT and it doesn't let you go and I wouldn't want to ruin that experience for anyone. But know that I loved it, that it's so good, and that I'm so happy it's out in the world for everyone to love. I'm giving Sovereign a BLUE rating. If you loved Dreadnought, you'll likely love Sovereign as well.
Thank you thank you THANK YOU to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I can't say enough how much I loved it, but the advanced copy did not affect my opinion at all. I have every intention of purchasing a copy for myself, and probably for others I know as gifts. I loved it so much.
Happy reading, everyone! Oh, and read diverse books. They're so worth it.
-A.