The Silver Hood (Superhero, #1) by Justin Richman

The Silver Hood by Justin Richman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is a very entertaining story of a regular guy who gains a superpower and uses it to fight crime and help his hometown.

Raised by his grandfather after the loss of his parents, Devin Shephard has lived in Decker City all his life. But the hometown he loves has been plagued by wave after wave of violence and crime, businesses are shuttering, and fearful residents are fleeing to safer towns. The police are critically understaffed, and the city is quickly headed to destruction.

Devin has worked hard for where he is in life. He’s now a successful financial manager at TruGuard Investments. He is looking forward to a comfortable future, hopefully, including Lara, his best friend, and the girl he’s secretly loved for years. One night, driving home after a hockey game in the city, Devin’s car is hit by another and ends up plummeting off the roadway and into the river. Unconscious, he is in the submerged vehicle until he’s rescued by emergency personnel. Miraculously, he survives being underwater for an estimated 20 minutes. But as he recovers, he discovers something in his brain was affected. He is now able to move objects with his mind!

Devin secretly decides to put his newfound powers to good use. After improving his fighting abilities and with his grandfather at his side, he dons a gray hoodie to hide his features and heads out into the city at night to wage his only personal war on the criminals destroying his beloved hometown.

The Silver Hood was an entertaining story of a regular guy gaining a superpower and using it to better his community. The book was easy-to-read and really held my interest as it offered a great back story for Devin and included a clean and sweet romance. I liked the nerdy Devin a lot, but my favorite character has to be his grandfather. I enjoyed their scenes together the most.

Love-interest Lara was a pleasant surprise. She’s sweet, attractive, and intelligent. I enjoyed their long friendship, and its slow transformation to something more, both characters worrying about ruining a perfectly good friendship should things not work out. Their coworker, Tommy, was funny but aggravating (in a fun way)! I could relate to both Lara and Devin’s ambivalent feelings about him.

As mentioned previously, there is a clean and sweet romance in the plot, but I wouldn’t label The Silver Hood as a “kissing book,” as they call it in The Princess Bride. However, there is drinking and drug use in the story if that is a consideration, especially for those wanting to share this with a younger reader. The book is classified as Sci-fi/Fantasy but also contains a good mystery. With its fun premise, likable characters, and fast-paced action, I recommend THE SILVER HOOD to readers that enjoy superhero stories.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving a review copy from the author through Reedsy Discovery.

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