Going Wild #1 by Lisa McMann

My name is Charlie, and I hated when my family moved from Chicago to a small town in Arizona. However, the biggest change had nothing to do with the move. I found a box addressed to me in the garage, and I thought I'd found a cool athletic band. You know, the ones that track your heartbeat and calories burned. I didn't notice anything strange until I attended soccer tryouts. The other girls said I was running super-fast, and it helped me score a goal. I was feeling great until I was kicked in my knee, and I was certain my leg was broken. It swelled up to a huge size and was all kinds of shades of purple and blue. Imagine my surprise when I woke up the next day, and my knee was back to normal. I didn't know what was going on with my body, and it terrified me. I couldn't control what my body was doing.

This book set the groundwork for the rest of the series. Most of the story described Charlie's efforts to survive middle school after manifesting some enhanced abilities from a mysterious bracelet. I expected her to become the super hero her friend expected, but she spent most of her time trying to figure out how to control the powers. They popped up unexpectedly and didn't always end positively. Consequently, most of the book felt less like a speculative fiction and more like a regular middle grade fiction where the main character just wanted to fit in. The bracelet saved a couple abilities for later, so this provided a little more suspense to the story. The mystery of the bracelet was introduced early on, but it wasn't explained until the last fourth of the book. I can't say I fully understood the premise of the problem, and some events were less "believable". The sequel will clearly address the conflict surrounding the bracelet head-on, as the antagonists made a late appearance in the plot. I'm curious to see where the story goes, so I've already reserved a copy of the sequel Predator Vs. Prey. Give the series a shot.