Review: “If I Were A Weapon” by Skye Kilaen

Series: All These Gifts #1

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Steam: 🔥

Release Date: January 11th, 2022

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CW/TW: (on page) attempted kidnapping and physical assault, gun violence

See the future. Set things on fire. Fall in love? A superpowered sci-fi romance.

When dying alien ships materialized across the Earth, their nanite infection knocked Deneve Wilder out cold. She woke up with the ability to see the future. Determined to keep anyone from using her visions for evil, she took to the road. Giving up everything was a small price to pay for freedom.

The ship that hit Jolie Betancourt’s town gave her the power to set things on fire. It was safer to start over in a new city. Then one terrible mistake demonstrated far too clearly that for her, solitude is safer. For everyone.

So when Deneve shows up after a vision of Jolie being kidnapped, Jolie wants little to do with the frustratingly attractive drifter. Deneve’s surprised by how much she wants to thaw the pretty shopkeeper’s chilly attitude, but the idea of staying in one place sets off her alarm bells.

If they can’t evade whoever’s abducting people with powers, however, the growing connection they both feel in spite of themselves might be the least of their problems.

 

Skye Kilaen has a way of telling stories that I absolutely love. While the romance in this is minimal, it is the first of a series that will continue the story of the two main characters. Even without the romance being front and center, I was hooked onto this story!

Set in the near future after aliens appeared on Earth, there is a certain set of humans who have been infected with nanites from the alien ships. These nanites have given the hosts superpowers that are awesome and also put them in the crosshairs of law enforcement. While they don’t all band together, they continue to live their lives as normally as possible because it’s the only way to survive.

Deneve Wilder might have the ability to see the future, but the nanites in her body seem to control everything she does. While her powers help her in a bind, it is sometimes also very inconvenient and she definitely struggles to keep her head up more often than not. Plus, she’s homeless and travelling to a city she’s never been to find a woman who appeared in a vision so she can stop something bad from happening to her. For Jolie Betancourt these powers are an inconvenience, it’s already made her do something she’s not proud of and she’s working hard to keep her head down, run her stationery store and ignore all things powered or alien. Except when Deneve finds her and their paths cross, strange things start happening.

There’s only so much I can say about this book without giving everything away, so lemme just say that Skye’s built this incredible world filled with superpowered people and an unknown enemy force that will keep you on your toes. I enjoyed seeing Deneve and Jolie try to make sense of everything that’s happening around them without actually getting caught. Plus, there’s the whole part where Jolie doesn’t trust Deneve, so they butt heads a lot and argue about silly things while trying to stay alive.

If I Were a Weapon is low on heat, but high on action. In this first book, Skye sets the scene for what is to come by introducing a few supporting characters and giving us insight into our heroines before we get down into the nitty-gritties of it all. I, for one, am super stoked to see where this story goes, because everything about this first book had me at the edge of my seat!

Thanks to Skye Kilaen for generously providing me with an advance copy. I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.