Talon Valdez knew when he transformed into an enhanced human, his life and his dreams were finished. Reviled, mistrusted, and often locked away, the enhanced were viewed as monsters, despised by the public, and never trusted to serve in the military or any law enforcement agency. Years later he gets a chance to set up a task force of enhanced to serve in the FBI, but with one proviso: each … each enhanced must partner with a regular human.
Finn Mayer dreamed of joining the FBI from the time he was fourteen and made every possible sacrifice to make it happen, including living with his selfish mother and bullying, homophobic brother and never having a boyfriend. But his undiagnosed dyslexia stopped his aspirations dead in their tracks. His last chance is to partner with Talon, an enhanced with deadly abilities who doesn’t trust regular humans with their secrets and wants Finn to fail.
Four weeks to prove himself to the team. Four weeks for the team to prove itself to the public. And when another group threatens their success-and their lives-four weeks for them to survive.
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I really did enjoy this book! My only complaint is Finn is a bit whiny, he should be stronger considering all he’s been through.
My Hereos
Excitement, action-packed, fraught with yummy tension and suspense, is this the latest box-office hit? No, it’s the Enhanced World by Victoria Sue! Finn, Talon, Gael, Vance and mysterious Eli, I LOVE them all and I know what I’m binge-reading this week. Amazing and incredible, I couldn’t put it down.
Audio Review:
Overall – 5
Performance – 5
Story – 5
Engaging, exciting, hot!!
I listened to this audiobook when it was first released but somehow forgot to leave a review; it’s time to fix that.
This was probably one of the first audiobooks I’d listened to by Nick J. Russo but now he’s become a favorite. He really did a fantastic job with this. Great voices and perfect pacing.
As for the book itself, I reviewed the ebook back in December 2016. Below I’ve posted bits from that review.
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Victoria Sue’s writing captivated me from the very first book of hers that I read. She writes in a variety of MM genres (contemporary, paranormal, MPREG, historical) and does all of them well.
With Five Minutes Longer she once again brings us her brand of action and adventure coupled with strong, yet tender, characters. The story is about an enhanced group of humans, who society doesn’t trust or understand. The enhanced humans have varying abilities (think X-Men). Their enhancements manifest themselves during adolescence and when this happens many of the children’s families reject them.
Talon Valdez is the team leader of a group of enhanced humans that have been selected to serve in the FBI. The catch? Each enhanced must partner with a regular human.
Finn Mayer wants nothing more than to join the FBI and leave his homophobic brother and selfish mother. He studied his butt off but never managed to achieve high marks in school due to undiagnosed dyslexia. But Finn has a gift for numbers and it’s this background that might make it possible for him to become an agent.
This was a very exciting story to read and it also managed to shred my emotions in places. Talon and his enhanced teammates have a lot to overcome and Finn has a lot to prove to the enhanced humans who want nothing to do with partnering with regular humans.
Talon and Finn both have secrets and their journey to be together has many obstacles to overcome but reading their story was worth every bit of angst-ridden moment.
This is an outstanding story and a definite re-read. It’s smart and full of action and a bit of bureaucratic angst- when the government is involved there is always angst- and family and hope. That’s super important because these guys all have different abilities, even the humans, and they never give up hope. Military suspense, government conspiracy, action, love? Dude, I am all in.
I would rate this 4.25 stars.
Over thirty years ago, children in the U.S. started developing scars under their left eyes; then they developed abilitites. Many of the population fear them and their families may abandon them, turning them over to the State. They are often discriminated against by private businesses. The government has made protections so they are not completely discriminated against, but enhanced humans are not trusted to do any sort of government work.
Talen Valdez, is the enhanced chosen to help form a task force for the FBI. He handpicks his team of enhanced, but is told each enhanced must partner with a human. Finn Mayer has dreamed of joining the FBI and has worked hard to make it, but undiagnosed dyslexia has stopped him. When he is picked to partner with Talon on the new task force, he has four weeks to prove this can be successful, but there are powerful people who want it to fail, including the FBI Deputy Director. Gael, Sawyer, Vance, and Eli make up the rest of the unit. So, five days into the job, the unit is official: H.E.R.O. Human Enhanced Rescue Organization. This is a chance to win hearts and minds, to show the public they aren’t monsters.
One of the main problems with this is the complete lack of training that everyone has except for Talon and Vance. There is also a series of exciting and entertaining events, that are highly coincidental and improbable. If I am willing to suspend disbelief for superpowers, why not the rest? Well, it turns out I am, because I got attached to all the characters. This book focuses on Talon and Finn, but Gael and Vance are fleshed -out enough for me to like them. There is also Drew, an FBI agent assigned to the same office and helping out. I even liked Adam, Finn’s best friend from school. I like the characters and the world building, so I am willing to just go with it and have fun.
Obviously, there are going to be inter-agency issues, as not all law enforcement is happy about enhanced being included, especially with the EnU, or Enhanced Unit, the cops’ special unit that carry tranqs in case an enhanced needs sedating quickly. There are undoubtedly still parts of the government and scientific commumity that wants them all as lab rats. Then, there are the politics. Isaac Dakota is an enhanced rights activist with his own agenda. Judge Benedict Cryer is running for office, on an anti-enhanced platform; he wants them possibly removed from their homes even against their parents’ wishes. There are people who want to exploit them and find ways to make money such as Alan Swann, the CEO of Swann Industries.
At the heart of this series is the children. Children with enhanced marks are disappearing, being mistreated, being locked up and hurt. They wake up one morning and their whole life changes, usually for the worse. They are scared and sometimes tragedies happen as they don’t know how to control their new powers. So, in between melodramatic romance and hot sex between our alpha males in tactical gear, there is their mission to show the world enhanced deserve to be treated humanely and included in society. When children are shown love, educated well, and taken care of, even when they are different, society is a much better place.
Independent reviewer for Divine Magazine, I was gifted the AUDIO file of this book.
Some 30 years ago, children began waking up with a mark on their faces and enhanced abilities: speed, strength, mental abilities. Talon, now given the job of setting up a human/enhanced task force within the FBI, was one of the first. He doesn’t want to work with normals on his team, but this task force is his, and the other enhanced team members, last chance at becoming a useful member of society, not just a mark on his face. Finn wanted to join the FBI forever, and worked hard to get to apply, but he is not accepted. Instead he gets a cryptic phone and flies to Florida, and finds himself face to face with several huge enhanced, one of whom makes Finn want that boyfriend he never had. They have four weeks to make this team work, do or, quite possibly, die.
Oooooo-eeeee! Loved this! Different, very different and different is always good in my book!
The guys on the team really don’t want Finn around, but know they gotta put up with him, at least for a little bit, but he grows on them, Talon especially but Talon fights that attraction all the bloody way, and when he finally gives up the fight?? Oh yes ma’am, that boy falls hard and he falls FAST! And when Finn gets caught in the cross fire at a bank robbery?? Talon goes all MAJOR Alpha-Male- Protect-What’s-Mine!
I loved that not everything is fully revealed about the guys abilities, I think there is quite a bit more to come!
Nick J Russo narrates and he does a sterling job! He’s a firm favourite of mine, and each and every time I listen to his work, it becomes my NEW favourite!
Russo’s voices are clear and distinctive, even in multi person conversations. He reading voice is deep and even and I had no trouble, not at all, keeping up.
He gets cross all of Finn’s emotions and his reactions to the guys, to Talon. His intense dislike of his brother and how his mum was with his dad. Russo gets across all of Talon’s fighting, and that boy fights hard, his feelings for Finn, and you get just how much Finn means to him, when he thinks Finn is lost.
This is book one, there appears to be an underlying story arc running through these books, and I look forward to watching that unfold, and to watching these guys fall, like dominoes, one by one.
Off to listen to book 2, which is a continuation of Finn and Talon’s story.
5 stars for the book
5 stars for the narration
5 stars overall
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
This is my first book by this author, and it will definitely not be the last I read from Victoria Sue.
I simply loved, loved, loved everything about this book, I just couldn’t get enough!
This book goes straight to My top 10 this year!…. Fucking brilliant!!!
THIS WAS AMAZING.
AHH I’m so glad I finally decided to give this series a go: I really needed something like this, addicting and action-packed, riddled with found family and romantic, yearning feelings and a cast of characters that were *chef’s kiss* it also had a TON of hurt/comfort, instant dislike turned to reluctant admiration to love, groveling and team dynamics (and FOUND FAMILY: it’s worth repeating).
It reminded me a bit of Charlie Cochet’s THIRDS series, in the way that it’s got those lovely team and found family vibes, an MC that is very Sloane-like (that is, that you’ll want to kick him for a good chunk of the book), law enforcement and a new species of humans with terrifying abilities and that get discriminated because of them. It was slightly darker though! So kudos for that too.
I loved both MCs. Finn was, quite possibily, the most lovely MC I’ve ever read about: he’s funny and has got quite a spine, always persistent and always trying to better himself, but he’s also innocent and soft and sweet and vulnerable and ugh, I wanted to protect him. I liked Talon quite a bit, but he was infuriating and acted like a complete dick at times: Finn didn’t deserve half of the stuff he had to deal with, so I was completely on board with all the groveling Talon had to do to make up for it (and I suspect, will still have to do in the next one). I understood his feelings though, the way he was scared of opening up and risking his team and his heart.
Speaking of the team: I freaking loved them. Gael and Vince, especially, since they were both such sweethearts and the way they acted with Finn? The shovel talk and “you idiot, don’t you dare hurt our little human” moments when they tried shielding him from Talon? PRICELESS. Gah, they were lovely.
I’m going to start book two right away: I need more of these characters, more Finn being an utter badass, much more hurt/comfort, and maybe a bit more groveling from Talon. And also (pretty please) I need to see his protective/possessive and jealous streak.
110% recommended!
I like a good paranormal romance and a strong characters no matter what their sexual preferences. I liked the book but felt the the plot becoming a bit repetitive with regard to Finn. I really liked the secondary characters and could see each with his own story.