The James Logan Courier

By Jessica Stewart, Courier Editor-in-Chief

“He was watchful, always, for those who preyed on the helpless and vulnerable. Unknown, unseen, unwanted, he stalked the hunters in the steaming jungle that was the city. He moved unchallenged in the dark spaces, the blind alleys and violent streets. Like smoke, he drifted along towering rooftops and down into dank cellars.”

He is Nemesis, a masked vigilante with the power to blend into walls and take the criminals he hunts by surprise. What with all of the superhero movies that have been coming out over the last few years, this book is excellent because it shows yet another side of a superhero’s life without all of the special effects and glamour to mask it. I really enjoyed reading it and, surprisingly, have no complaints about it.
By day, Gage Guthrie is an ex-cop and multi-millionaire, but by night he is Nemesis, a vigilante extraordinaire. A bust gone wrong sent Gage into a coma and killed his partner. When Gage woke up, he had the power to fade into the background—literally. He uses this power to catch criminals and save the citizens of Urbana, like Deborah O’Roarke.

Deborah is an Assistant District Attorney who disagrees with Nemesis’s methods of stopping crime—even when he saves her from a potential rapist. Nevertheless, she cannot help but be attracted to Gage, and his alter-ego. As she gets to know both sides of him, she begins to fall in love, and it tears her apart because she is falling for two different men.

Gage cannot tell her about his other side because it would put her in danger, and she is already facing enough of that because she refuses to give up a drug laundering case that involves the same man who killed his partner so many years ago. He tries to resist her, but cannot help his desire, not only for her, but also for her safety.

As Deborah gets closer and closer to the answers she is seeking, both about Gage and her new case, she faces danger, along with the nosy press. She is soon forced to look deep inside herself and answer the most difficult question of her life: is she willing to put aside her and Gage’s differences in beliefs, or will she be forced to give up on their love?

I really enjoyed this book because it presented both sides of the story: the law versus the vigilante. Gage is never glorified, nor is his choice to use his powers for good. It is just a fact, an aspect of his personality, overshadowed by everything else. The whole story just seemed more realistic to me than a lot of the superhero movies that have been coming out lately. Of course, I also loved the romance, and the chemistry between Gage and Deborah jumps off the page. I definitely recommend this book to romance lovers.