The Never Hero (Chronicles Of Jonathan Tibbs #1)

The Never Hero
By: T. Ellery Hodges
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

( I received this book free from the author in exchange for my honest review )

Love, lots of love for this wonder.

Lately I've been reading a lot of books that have not lived up to their hype, or were misleading either in their book cover, synopsis or both. This book was everything I hoped for and more. The cover is near perfect and the synopsis doesn’t toss out fluff that leaves you confused while reading.

Jonathan, I have a crush on you. Though you did annoyed/piss me off at times; it’s okay I won't kick you out of bed for leaving crumbs.

Jonathan grew immensely throughout this read. It's not a sudden change, like you’d see in most of the same types of "super hero" genre; he’s shown to be very much human. Broken after waking up in his own blood and trying to deal with the aftermath, not know what actually happened, being scared of his own home, of not being alone. Those things are hardly ever seen in fiction. I liked this human aspect, it made me feel and connect with him on a different level then if, he simply got over it and just accepted that he's needed for the greater good.

The other selling point for me was that, when he had to fight, he wasn't good at it, horrible, pitiful actually, which made it all the better. Sure he had all that power, but he had no training on how to use it effectively. You can have all the power in the world, but it’s useless if you can't land a hit. This was Jonathan’s first fight; his brain is what saved him, barely and of course his alien new body. Being powerful, doesn’t make you super.

I loved all the side and sub-characters. They brought life and normality to the not so normal world. They helped Jonathan, tried to understand him, and they never stopped believing in him. Nor did any of them tell him to simply, get over it.

There was some romance kicking about, just enough for you romance lovers out there to get your fix, but not enough to smother the plot. Jonathan does get a lover, but that's towards the end of the book, and it's natural, no one is announcing their undying love, or gone Disney princess crazy. (insta-love people, those Disney princesses are famous for it. And this is coming from a huge fan, so I know that not all of them do it, just most. :p)

The only things that cause me to keep putting the book down, was that I felt that there was a bit too much filler in-between the first attack and the last. In the first bit of the book we're tossed into the action, a jump into the deep end and not knowing how to swim. I was hook and I couldn't put it down. But, after the first attack was over it tapered off, and the story was all about Johnathan training. I like that it was in there, and his understanding that he needed to be faster, stronger, better, but to me, it was dragged out a little too long. The whole middle of the book shouldn’t have been filler, even if it had lots of character and side-character building points. True, we got to see Jonathan’s true struggle with himself and his own insecurities, but most times the readers and fill in the blanks.

In all I highly recommend this book. It's unlike anything I have read, ever. I've falling into this world and I don't want to get out. I'm excited and impatient for the next installment. Take a chance on this out-of-the-box read, it gives a whole new meaning to the word "super hero" and the understand that, yes, he truly is the Never Hero.

I would like to thank T. Ellery Hodges for letting me read this fresh look at what it is to be a "Hero"

Happy Reading

-Emily