Pre-Release Review of Hidden Powers by Tara Lain

Hidden Powers (Superordinary Society #1) by Tara Lain 3*
BLURB: Superordinary Society: Book One
Jazz Vanessen is weird—and not just because he’s a werewolf. For most of his life, he’s felt different from his alpha male brothers and friends. Since he’s adopted, he can’t even blame it on family.
Now eighteen, Jazz meets his idol, the social activist Lysandra Mason, and her breathtaking nephew, Dash Mercury. When Dash is around, even stranger things start to happen, including Jazz falling hopelessly in lust. Not only is Jazz having visions, making people disappear, and somehow turning invisible, but somebody’s following him and threatening to reveal his pack’s secrets to the world.
Together with Dash and Jazz’s equally amazing friends—Carla, BeBop, Khadija, and Fatima—they discover the danger is even more lethal than they thought, and Jazz’s weirdness may save all their lives.

My Review: I received a copy in exchange for an honest review. I usually 'squeeee' madly and give Tara Lain's books a 5* rating as she is a writer who's works I enjoy a lot. However this time I really couldn't do that.
Firstly, even though it's advertised as the first in a series, it is actually a continuation/spin off from the Harker Pack books. This means it would help enormously with knowing a lot of the characters you encounter if you've already read Harker Pack (which I highly recommend as a good series) but, if you haven't you could get lost in family dynamics etc. Secondly (for me) it was trying too hard to not be another Harry Potter book even though it uses that book in it's blurb. And finally I just felt that it was probably aimed at someone a lot younger and less cynical than I am, so I found a lot of it was not holding my interest in the way her other books have. If you like NA/YA/Teen Fantasy then by all means get this book. I think you would enjoy it more than this jaded 60 year old.
n.b. You have another ten days until you can get it and make up your own mind about it's merits because, apart from not being to my taste, it is a well written fantasy with lots of surprising 'beings' in it.