Lila Morgan, who wants one uninterrupted date with her girlfriend, Tru, must clap back against her oppressive employer and outwit a ruthless crime boss in The Assassin's Guide to Dating, the splashy, superpowered sequel to the YA thriller The Assassin's Guide to Babysitting by Natalie C. Parker.
Underhill is an underground organization responsible for keeping individuals with superpowers ("talents") in line. Two months ago, a bombshell (a person with explosive powers) tried to destroy Underhill--and nearly succeeded. Now, all of the organization's bombshells must wear a trackable pulse monitor to make sure they don't get "volatile." Under this "police-state" surveillance, bombshell Lila, her sister, Sage, and her talented friends--Tru, a bastion (invincibility), Amethyst, a wingtip (super-speed), and Embry, a strongarm (super-strength)--investigate a new threat: Anderson Flynn, Kingpin of the West, is perilously keen on finding Logan Dire, Tru's father. Lila knows Tru is Flynn's best chance of luring Logan out of hiding. To protect her, Lila will have to let loose the bombshell ability straining within, but doing so would justify the fear that has been weaponized against her.
Parker ups the tempo of her exhilarating series through a remarkably clever and selfless teen whose combustible superpower thrums within her. Interspersed flashbacks of Lila's past "explosions" smartly demonstrate how living according to "the whims and fears of others" led her to distrust herself and avoid taking up space. This setup lets readers root for Lila's loving romance with Tru and ache for them when their dates are crashed by bounties or battles. This unrelenting wallop of a sequel brings in new enemies, a dearly loved assassin dad, and lots of superpowered ass-kicking. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer