How am I supposed to wait until July to know what happens next?

Six months before the beginning of the story, dying alien ships arrived on Earth in unexplained circumstances. Where they appeared, people disappeared, while a handful of others were infected with nanites. With nanites come superpowers but not always the ability to control them. Deneve Wilder gets visions of the future and the nanites guide her to help out, sometimes to save lives. A vision of a woman being kidnapped leads her to Austin, Texas, and Jolie Betancourt, another human with powers. After something went horribly wrong, Jolie decided it was safer for everyone if she stayed on her own as much as possible. Deneve being sent to maybe save her doesn’t fit with her plan.

My main regret about this book is that it’s too short. I want more. I got carried away by the story from the start. The world it takes place in feels very familiar, which makes it even more unsettling. It’s our world, in a dystopian (more dystopian?) not-too-distant future. It only takes Kilaen a few sentences to convey the sense of danger, of uncertainty, of urgency Deneve feels, and later Jolie’s closed-off attitude, her reluctance to let Deneve in, both literally and figuratively.

I liked both women a lot and am looking forward to finding out more about them. It’s a very slow burn, with the promise of heat in later books, but the connection is already there, already deep beneath the awkwardness.

The author announced five books in the All These Gifts series, hopefully over two years so not too long to wait in between each. Book 2, Know It In The Dark, should be out in July (already available for preorder). If the next ones are as good as this one, this could easily become another favourite series for me. And I can totally picture it as a movie or as a TV show.

I couldn’t have hoped for more than beginning the year with a book I enjoy a lot and the prospect of more.

Get If I Were A Weapon @ amazon