Damn.

I was already writing the review in my head. Empowered 5 was more of the same in this charming, sexy series from Adam Warren. The title character, a superhero in a skin-tight supersuit with a penchant for revealing tears in her costume, is an endearing young woman who has a kind heart and great intentions, but blunders just enough to spend much of her time a captive of various supervillains. Even her teammates hold her in disdain, despite being saved by her a time or two.

But Warren's winning formula gets tired with overuse, and this book seemed at first to be little more than a retread of similar material in the past. Sure, we learn a little bit about some of her teammates and we get a cute view into Emp's (nee Elissa's) childhood. But the bondage games get old. We already know Ninjette has issues with her ninja clan and suppressed feelings for her best friend's beau. And that demon trapped on Emp's coffeetable, with its grandiose manner of speaking, gets irritating real fast, and Warren overuses it here.

And then the final sequence took things in a whole new direction. Things exploded, people died. And this was no longer the same old Empowered.

Wow.

I was thinking this might be my last book in the series, but now Warren has me eagerly awaiting the next. Hurry up!