Settling by Shelley Workinger

Settling is a sequel to Solid and picks up where the first one left off very well. Even though it’s been MONTHS since I read Solid, I immediately remembered who was who and who had done what and the author didn’t have to detail it all. That’s hard to do. Too often, I pick up a sequel and get play by play detail s of what happened in the previous book. Settling handled this really well.

Summary: A corrupt military doctor installed a special extra chromosome in pregnant women. Their children now have “super powers” and are gathered on a military base to find out more about themselves, their powers, and the whole deal behind it. There are “stealths” (Miranda and Clio), the kids who disappear. There are “stars” (Bliss), kids who literally glow so bright it knocks you senseless. There’s the” jocks” (Garrett)  who are amazingly athletic and fast. There are the “heavies” who seem to have an invisible wall around them (Alexis). And there’s Jack, Clio’s boyfriend whose super power seems to be his ability to observe.

This installment adds two new characters to the group, a girl jock (That’s a first) and a guy named Xavier who is a “heavy” of sorts, but draws people to him instead of pushing of them away..

And as these new kids enter the picture, so does a killer… Two people are stabbed.. and Clio is beginning to feel nervous about it all. On top of searching for the base killer and suspecting her friends, she discovers that she may be a heavy as well as a stealth AND she is sorta having feelings for an Officer… So where does that leave Jack?

Very good story with interesting characters. I actually even liked Miranda a bit this time. The only thing I didn’t like about it was the ending.  The conclusion, the whodunit revelation, didn’t work for me. It seemed to come out of nowhere and part of it didn’t make sense. I can’t say much here without revealing important information. However, one thing I did like about the ending is it brought up the fact that throughout the novel, Clio only talks about her immediate friends. She doesn’t seem to pay attention to anyone else on campus. The ending teaches her a lesson of sorts.  It also left me, the reader, hanging with one huge question: Are these people really her friends after all?

Four stars and I received this in ebook format from the author.