I’ve always been a super hero fan and spend most summers at the movies, getting lost in films. In books, I have always felt that good super hero tales are hard to find. And with the near death of science fiction tales of men transformed by spider bites into super natural fighters or who use science to fight villains are very rare. It has been a real treat to experience Ava Gray’s series, which deals with a group who know just what it feels like to find themselves the possessors of unusual powers.

They were nothing but test subjects to the “people” of the Foundation but these test subjects had bite. Each with their own genetically altered special ability – transmuting energy, healing, siren voices that make men obey their every command, an ability to become part of the Internet itself – all enslaved to the people who created them. Every day is a fight just to reclaim who they are, to hold on to what little dignity and humanity is left to them. Gillie and Taye are two such test subjects, highly prized for their tremendous abilities. Their “cooperation” has enabled them to earn some limited privileges, like the right to talk to other subjects for an hour or so a day. Together, they hatch a plan to escape.

Gillie is a strong young woman who has been through hell. She has been a captive of The Foundation for years and has had the misfortune to attract the attention of a powerful member. It is clear he wants her, it is equally clear she has a limited time to get out from under his clutches before things get even more dangerous for her. Her ability to heal doesn’t make her a powerful ally in the escape, but she is a key player in the planning and execution. The escape doesn’t just mean freedom for her though; it also means more time to be with Taye. Getting to know him has only increased her desire to know him even better. Yet now, just when they are free to get closer, it feels as though he is pulling even further away. It doesn’t help that the foundation is hot on their trail and a new player – Mockingbird, a Foundation Creation like themselves – has entered the field. Is her friend or foe?

Taye is certain he is no good for Gillie. She is sweetness and light; even her gift is one of aide rather than attack. He is the opposite – danger and darkness rolled into one nasty package with little memory and waning control. He doesn’t want Gillie around when everything goes south. Yet he can’t leave her on her own, defenseless in a world in which she has never been allowed to live. Can he make a deal with the devil and trust Mockingbird to help them? Or is he just exchanging one form of slavery for another? Does he have the strength to lose love in order to save it?

The romance in this novel is a sensual one, with both parties desiring the other deeply. But their desire is wrapped in earnest emotion; each cares for the other, each is determined to sacrifice whatever they can for the other’s safety and happiness. It is rich and layered. The only fly in the ointment is Tayes’s insistence on treating the young and innocent Gillie like a love-sick child. Given all she has been through and all she accomplishes, it is clear she is not the sweet young thing he insists on seeing her as, and this drags some on their relationship. There were moments when I wanted to give him a big kick in the back seat and tell him to get over himself.

Another small drag on the book was the tremendous amount of action. Because we were tying up ends (this feels very much like it is the last book in the series), a lot of different characters visited as they finished off their portion of the story line. It was well done, but a tad overwhelming to the love story all the same. In exchange for that we got to hang with some pretty cool characters like Tanager, so there were pluses.

The skin series is both complex and simple. The world the author writes has many different players, with many differing abilities. She is also a shades of gray person – relatively few of the characters are all bad or all good. Most fall in the mid-range, like real humans. So the relationships can be complicated, with the action impossible to predict because you never quite know who will do what, when. But she also does a good job of focusing, of keeping her primary characters primary and not getting us lost in back story or secondary tales. The writing is good, with the characterizations especially well written.

This is a good addition to the series. I would recommend it to any fans of science fiction romance.