Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew Up the Moon

Please Don't Tell My Parents #2

by Richard Roberts

True, coming back to school after a month spent fighting - and defeating - adult superheroes is a bit of a comedown for the Inscrutable Machine. When offered the chance to skip school in the most dramatic way possible, Penelope Akk can’t resist. With the help of a giant spider and mysterious red goo, she builds a spaceship and flies to Jupiter.

Mutant goats.
Secret human colonies.
A war between three alien races with humanity as the prize.
Robot overlords and evil plots.

Penny and her friends find all this and more on Jupiter’s moons, but what they don’t find are any heroes to save the day.

Fortunately, they have an angry eleven year old and a whole lot of mad science…

Genres: Superheroes, Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Middle Grade, Fiction

347 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 29, 2015

About the author

I've been writing for a long, long time. A long, long, long time. Do you remember when dirt was invented? I was using it to scratch out stories. Getting published was harder, but now I'm hooked up with Curiosity Quills and I have real books in paper, and you should buy some!

As a writer my fascination has always been children's literature, especially children's lit that is also adult lit. For some reason, this means that instead I write gothic light romance for fun, and very dark and tragic young adult books for passion. I love seeing the world through the eyes of strange people, and I believe that happy endings must be earned the hard way. There's a reason my friends started calling me Frankensteinbeck.

I could talk about how great my writing is until I turn blue, but I should let an expert do that for me. Check out the Kirkus Review for Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Teeth!

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-rev...

Reviews

[Yzabel Ginsberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I got a copy from the publisher, as part of the review tour, in exchange for an honest review.)

I read the first installment of this series, Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain, last year, and thought it was a pretty good novel. So, of course, I couldn't pass up on the invitation to read the second one.

I found it weaker, though I still liked it. It contains a lot of good ideas and concepts, and it's perfect if looking for a wild adventure in space, with alien technology and bio-weapons, lost space stations hidden on asteroids, and a steampunkish flavour to boot. Those parts were highly amusing, in terms of Weird Science, and Penny's power developed in a way that clearly forced her to rethink a few things and decide whether she wanted to go (too) far or stop while it was still time. Archimedes, for instance, was both fascinating and creepy in its uses and in the possibilities it introduced.

Remmy's character, too, was an interesting counterpoint to Penny: two girls with similar powers, with a basis for strong friendship, but also for jealousy and competition. I could see where Remmy came from, why she reacted the way she did, out of stubborness more than anything else, probably... but then, she's also only eleven. I'd certainly like to see her appear again later in the series, if only for a chance to see how that relationship could develop if given more time and more distance.

On the other hand, the fast-paced plot sometimes left me dangling, as I wondered "wait, when did this character walk into the room?" or "why aren't they paying more attention to the fct that [character X] has basically done a huge mistake?" It made me feel like the story carried the characters where they needed to be, but not always with a clear reason.

Two things I regret:
- The somewhat lackluster presence of Claire and Ray. Their antics are funny, and they make good sidekicks. However, at the end of the first novel, we had been given more to see about Ray, in particular, and I had hoped this arc, among others, would be explored. However, apart from playing sidekicks, those two didn't really get much development.

- The very feeble involvement of Penny's parents and other adults (although I laughed at the Audit's interpretation of the situation, because... it did make sense, in a "I'm a parent who cannot imagine my daughter is evil, so I'll unconsciously find another solution"). In the first book, I really liked the "please don't tell my parents..." concept, and how the Inscrutable Machine had to go to various ends to hide their identity, make people think they weren't Penelope, Claire and Ray. Here, since most of the story unfolds in space, the pressure of not being discovered was much less a problem (even though Penny's realisation at the end—how to make a Hero appear—gives me good hopes for the next installment's potential plot).

In general, it is still a pleasant story to read, though its predecessor will remain higher on my list.

[Malcolm McCrimmon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short version: Not one of Roberts' better books, but a fun and imaginative read nevertheless.

Long version: This book feels like the result of Roberts getting really excited about going ~*INTO SPACE*~ and then not being sure what to do once he got there--which is pretty much what happened to his protagonist. One of the things I loved most about the first book in this series was Penny's incredible agency. Even more than her superpower, it was her determination to make the most of whatever life threw at her and turn it to her advantage that kept Penny and her friends on top (not to mention made them great supervillains!) Unfortunately, that agency seems to be largely missing in the sequel, where Penny and her minions are railroaded from one chance encounter to the next with little more motivation than "this is what has to happen next for the plot." Unfortunately, lack of agency is death for solid characterization, which is one of Roberts' greatest strengths. Even the side characters suffer: Claire has a tiny, shallow arc and Ray doesn't change at all, other familiar faces with established characters and personalities are absent, and the new characters we meet are flat and predictable. The one exception is Remmy, a determined and intelligent 11-year-old with mad science powers wildly different from Penny's, but just as impressive. The most interesting part of the book was the relationship between Penny and Remmy--and unfortunately, it was the part that suffered the most from the plot's incessant railroading. Instead of a compelling, complex conflict between two personalities that are practically forces of nature, I was forced to watch two seemingly intelligent and in-control characters make stupid mistakes, lose control of their emotions at random, and jump to wild conclusions for no reason. I believe this is what TvTropes calls "the idiot ball." Yes, I was disappointed, Remmy and Penny both deserved better treatment.

All that said, Roberts remains one of the most imaginative and compelling writers around. Yes, the characters suffered for the sake of the plot, but it was such a *cool* plot I was almost willing to forgive it. They go to space, for crying out loud! I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that Penny does, in fact, blow up a moon! Despite my disappointments, I still had a lot of fun reading it, and I am looking forward to the inevitable third volume. Here's hoping it will see Penny taking charge and kicking butt again, instead of getting shoved around helplessly by forces beyond her control (e.g. the author).

[Coyora Dokusho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read 2 times

12/16/14

I am stalking this book with rabid fervor....

12/20/14

Publishing pushed back into January. NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!! NuUuUuUuUuUuU!!! ;_; Nooooooooooooo!!!

Okay let's go add it to 2015 lists. Because people need to buy it, so I can get more of my fix.

1/3/15

Sooooo, for those of you *not* aware I can be just a tad bit obsessive... just a TAD bit.... Yeah I spammed the hell out of the 2015 lists... but only where it made sense!!!! WAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHA!!!

1/29/2015

Well! I passed out after work and woke at at 11pm 1/28/2015 AND IT WAS AVAILABLE. I read it for a while and then passed out at 3am-ish due to the EXCRUTIATING PAIN of my stupid monthly biological cycle. Then I woke up and went to work. And now I finished reading it!!

It was great!! But I didn't like it as much as the first one? I feel like the story lost momentum somehow... Very possible though, that my state of agony-fueled rage could have influenced my reading experience. Will re-read in a time of greater sanity. Also feeling low and unworthy of great books right now and super stressed, so yeah there's that dynamic as well.

02/07/2016

It's funny how your state of mind influences how you react to everything. Actually liked the book quite as much as the first one this time around!! I think I just love Penny so much it's hard on me emotionally when she goes through STUFF.

[Eric Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

It wasn't terrible, but it is a step down from the first book. The first book had an actual storyline. This book is more a collection of things that happen, and not so much a cohesive story. It sort of goes off the rails early on, and never really gets back on. It's definitely a little more silly than the first book, and not in the good kind of way. I also found the new characters to be rather annoying. It's generally harmless, but it seems to have fallen into the "it's for kids, who cares if it's crap" trap that a lot of authors seem to find themselves in with mid-grade and YA books. Overall, there just didn't seem to be any reason for this book to exist. It was kind of a pointless addition to the series. Nothing really happens, nothing is really resolved, and it seems almost like it's taking place in an entirely different series from the first book. Also, the space setting is kinda boring and, I thought, out of place.

[Wayland Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a long time fan of superheroes and pretty much everything to do with them. I've been reading comics since the mid 1980's, review all the hero-based tv shows and movies, and have published novels and short stories in the genre. I'd say I'm a hero geek and something of an expert.

This series is marketed as YA, and I get it, but it's quite enjoyable for adult readers as well, or at least this one. There's some fantastic world building, largely in passing references to the wider scope of heroes and villains. I'm very entertained by the way this world is coming together and I'd love to read about some of the rest of the events taking place out there.

These books focus on three children, the offspring of various heroes, who are trying to make a name for themselves but keep being mistaken for supervillains. The premise is the tiniest bit stretched, but the author makes it work. Bad Penny is a mad scientist who can't control her ability; E-Claire radiates cuteness the way her mother vamps sexiness; and Reviled has enhanced strength and durability.

The three have become known as The Inscrutable Machine, and are having fun with minor villainy until they decide to "reform," and become the heroes they all want to be anyway. They've made an ally, or at least a somewhat friendly contact, in Spider, a powerful underworld figure whose reach extends further than they'd expect. Very far, evidently, as Spider approaches them with a unique opportunity to visit outer space.

Once they are out there, they find out how little they know about life beyond Earth. Multiple alien races have been fighting, and there's several different outposts of surprising kinds in the asteroid belt and among the moons of Jupiter, as well as a surprising amount of displaced humans with some odd, steampunk style tech. The Machine has to vanquish some of the aliens, broker some kind of peace, save the humans, and get back before their parents realize something's up.

It's a fun read with the continuing adventures of some entertaining characters. Recommended for fans of things superheoish. Superheroic?

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sequel to Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain is as fun and loaded with tropes as the first book, but the plot was a bit circuitous, and with our three heroes, Penny Akk (aka "Bad Penny"), Ray ("Re-viled") and Claire ("E-Claire") spending almost the entire book in space, it becomes a zany middle school space adventure more than the comic bookish supervillain story of the first book.

Penny, Ray, and Claire are still hanging out together and indulging in occasional bits of junior high school supervillainy while supposedly waiting for their opportunity to "go straight" and set their reputations right. It's becoming increasingly clear that they sort of like being villains, though, and along with dire hints about the true nature of Penny's Mad Science! powers, it may be that they are destined to never quite be the heroes they dreamed of being when they first became supers.

The author goes to greater lengths this time to explain how their super-genius parents could somehow remain unaware that Penny, Ray, and Claire are the villainous Inscrutable Machine. Just how many teenage supervillains are there in Los Angeles, anyway? Apparently quite a few!

The three of them are summoned to the lair of Spider, the very polite supervillain mastermind from the previous book, who also happens to be a giant spider. Spider wants to send them into space to retrieve an alien artifact. She doesn't have trouble convincing them to do it because Penny, Ray, and Claire are teenagers and hey, space adventure!

What they find out in space is a bunch of colonies on the moons of Jupiter, inhabited by humans who settled there a hundred years ago or so, thanks to Victorian mad science and Edwardian supervillains. The Jovian moons have also apparently been the site of incursions by several alien races, including the nasty, gooey, mind-controlling masters of biotech known as the Puppeteers, and the race known only as the Conquerors. Penny, it turns out, has an affinity for both Puppeteer and Conqueror technology, which proves to be quite disturbing.

There are a lot of characters in this book, a lot of factions, and our three protagonists get jerked every which way trying to figure out which side they should be on at any given moment. There are a lot of superhero fights, including the showdown with a younger version of Penny who can kludge together impressive techno-artifacts from any old junk lying around. There are of course betrayals and battles with aliens and lots of monologuing.

This was a fun book, but not as fun as the first book. It would still be a good (if somewhat long) read for any YA reader, but it seemed as if the author wanted to go off into an entirely new setting rather than sticking in the venue he'd created in the first book. He has expanded his superhero mythos a bit, but at the expense of developing the central characters and their home territory. It's kind of like if you introduced the X-Men in issue number one, and in issue #2 promptly had them fly off to meet aliens before we're grounded in who their friends and foes are back on Earth.

Will certainly read the next book in the series, because Penny Akk and her friends remain fun and very genre-savvy, but there is much more potential here and I hope there is more character development and signs of long-term plotting, as opposed to merely writing each book as an episodic adventure, which is what this one felt like.

3.5 stars, which I am rounding down to 3 for disappointed expectations.

[A Voracious Reader (a.k.a. Carol) · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Book source ~ A review copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

The Inscrutable Machine has been living on a high, taking on and defeating adult superheroes, but it’s time to go back to school. How boring. Penelope, Ray and Claire have caught the itch and now they need more daring do to, well, do. When an opportunity drops into their laps they don’t need very much persuading to run off straight into another adventure. Only this time they aren’t fighting on Earth. They’re fighting in outer space.

I loved the first book, Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Super Villain. It was quirky, fast-paced and fun. However, this second book failed to wow me. The Inscrutable Machine keep saying they want to be Heroes, not Villains, but I don’t see much in their actions to tell me that’s what they truly want. They love being known as the villains. And while I know they aren’t even in high school yet, they are really immature. Immature combined with super powers is not a good thing. And Penny’s parents are supposed to be super smart. How have they not twigged to the fact that the Inscrutable Machine is made up of Penny and her friends?

Another problem I had with this story is the whole plot of going to outer space. I was confused from the moment they left Earth until they got back. I understood nothing about what went on for about ¾ of the book. Colonies that we’ve heard nothing about. Weird mutant goats. Alien races and their war that I couldn’t separate or keep straight. Robots. And what exactly was that red gooey stuff? Besides being gross. There was just too much going on in this book. I couldn’t keep it straight or keep up with what was happening. There’s also some kind of Super Villain/Super Hero history that isn’t explained yet it’s written into the book as if everyone should know it. I was disappointed in the story, but I do love the cover.

[Laura Cunha · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://leiturasdelaura.blogspot.com/...

Depois de ter me apaixonado pelo primeiro livro da série, eu fiquei doida quando o segundo volume entrou em promoção na Amazon, e menos de um mês depois eu já tinha lido a continuação de "Por favor não conte para os meus pais que eu sou uma supervilã".

E não fiquei desapontada! "Por favor não conte para os meus pais que explodi a lua" é quase tão bom quanto o livro original. A história continua super fofa e os personagens são sensacionais, o único "problema" é que não tem o mesmo frescor do primeiro livro, talvez porque o enredo não é tão bom quanto o do primeiro livro, mas continua valendo a leitura. Além disso, a escrita de Richard Roberts não é lá nenhuma Brastemp, como eu já disse na resenha anterior, mas as ideias são tão boas e divertidas que isso simplesmente não é importante.

Dessa vez a história se passa no espaço, onde a grande líder dos vilões manda a gangue "The Inscrutable Machine" cumprir uma missão, que obviamente sai do controle, e depois de uma quantidade absurda de confusões, encontros com humanos que vivem há décadas no espaço e mais alguns superheróis improváveis, uma certa lua acaba sendo explodida. Não era bem o que a personagem principal, Penny, queria, mas permite um gancho que promete muito para um próximo livro para a série. Espero que seja o último, odiaria ver uma ideia tão legal quanto essa ser estragada porque o autor resolveu esticar a história pra ganhar dinheiro.

Confesso que estou doida para esse livro sair em português, porque vou comprar para todas as meninas da família, é bom demais ver personagens femininas como a Bad Penny sendo trabalhadas para crianças, trazendo modelos diferentes de meninas como personagens principais. Penny não é uma princesinha, e não é nada indefesa, pelo contrário, é uma supervilã de primeira categoria, e se não bastasse é a líder da gangue! A gangue em si, "The Inscrutable Machine" é composta por mais uma menina, Claire, e apenas um menino, Ray, que apesar de ser o personagem super-forte do grupo, deve o seu poder a um soro feito por Penny, então, bem, já é fora do padrão. E tem outras personagens femininas fortes e interessantes, o que é muito legal.

[David Caldwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Penny and her friends are back in this second volume of the series. This time they are heading to the moons of Jupiter to do a little investigating for Spider. They find themselves in the middle of a giant conflict with multiple sides.

This installment of the series has most of the good things that were in the first book. Great characters, plenty of action and humor,and mad science galore are all there. But there are a couple of small problems. The first is that there are a lot of characters and things introduced in this book. In fact, there was so much that some things and people didn't seem to get much more than a look here and then forgotten about. There were a lot of sides in the conflict going on around Jupiter. I wasn't sure how some of them were really that different or why they were working against or with another faction at times. Remmy, especially, seemed to flit between opposing groups. As a personal opinion, I did not care that much for the mad bio-science. One of my favorite things was Harvey looking like a certain invisible rabbit of the same name. So while I still really liked this story, I din not like it as much as the first one.

[Matthew Rubenstein · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, so second time through, I get it -- but still, why? Why space why aliens, why bio? Such a great first book, and this book starts so promisingly too, the first third or so, and then the third book, we're back to school, and everything's a great story; why this diversion? Like, I get that it's to set up the fourth, and mainly fifth book but it's a fantasy universe, there's so many other explanations, we didn't need the whole biological thing. And don't get me wrong, there's a lot of great introspection that goes on up there, a lot of great lines and character growth, especially for Ray, but -- I don't know, maybe I'm just annoyed because more time in space means less time on Earth.

[Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

felt like the author started with a desired title and worked backwards to a story that got there. at most one of the new characters introduced is given a chance to become compelling (the rest are barely on the screen, can only be heard indirectly, cardboardy, or mind controlled most of the time). much of the cleverness of kids keeping up with adults from the first book is just gone. bleh. having the POV character black out on a regular basis for her mad science has also worn thin at this point.

i'll give the next book a go, but i won't be in quite such a hurry to get it read whenever it comes out.

[Rickus Bookshelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice book. Full review over here: https://rickusbookshelf.wordpress.com...

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bad Penny and the rest of the Implacable Machine are bored out of their minds. Going back to school after a break full of super villainy and fighting heroes both their own age and grown up will do that. So of course they jump at the chance to visit Jupiter and see things no human has before. No human except the ones who already live there. With a homemade space ship and the help of a giant spider the Implacable Machine will see everything from alien invaders to robot overlords and the colonies trapped between them. With any luck, they’ll be able to help the rebels and their new friend get their homes back and be on their way towards heroism.

Please Don’t Tell My Parents I Blew Up The Moon follows Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Super Villain pretty directly with the Implacable Machine trying to settle back into day to day school lives. It’s got a really strong start there, giving the reader a taste of how dull things are after Penny and company have gone toe to toe with some of the best of the best but then have to go back to being just kids. It gives the reader one of a number of good reasons why the team is so ready to take up Spider’s offer to see what lies beyond the asteroid belt first hand. But it also pulls back a little to anchor things back in the reality of the setting, which is good because the book goes way out there.

This one feels a lot slower than the previous book, largely due to the necessity of doing all the world building for the Puppeteers and the Jupiter colonies and, and, and. This is unfortunate because it slows the book down just enough that it makes it easy to put down. There are all these places being introduced and their rules and culture and it leads to things feeling a little flat. The Puppeteers are scary aliens that can take over people and force them to do whatever. One of the colonies is very steam punk flavored and people are constantly being told what to do by the automatons that functionally rule the place. It feels sketched out but not quite filled in.

There’s a similar problem with some of the characterization. The new friend character bounces between being totally cool with Penny’s powers and how they work and then freaked out about it and jealous over how her brothers and everyone else react to Penny’s power. It’s like a switch flips when Roberts felt the situation demanded it. It doesn’t tend to feel like it fits, like there should have been more build for it and more awareness on Penny’s part. The final boss of the novel has a similar issue, though I can’t really go into that without spoilers.

There are parts that are a ton of fun, especially early on before they reach the Jupiter colonies. The whole bit surrounding the Red Herring being built is a lot of fun. Plus the little bits of Penny and company in class and their classmates’ reactions to Penny’s power manifesting make for a couple of nice notes that what she’s got going on is out of the ordinary. I’m also interested in seeing how the workings of her power continue to develop, given the way Mourning Dove reacts to it and how much it seems to be capable of when given free reign. I’m really excited to see more of all that as the series continues.

As and over all thing, I enjoyed Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Super Villain more than Please Don’t Tell My Parents I Blew Up The Moon. While both needed world building it flowed much better for me in the first book, likely due to being set in our world but with supers. I would have liked to see more put into the new characters introduced, but I feel like at least a couple of them are going to show up again later, so it seems pretty reasonable that they would get more development then. Please Don’t Tell My Parents I Blew Up The Moon is nowhere near a bad book though and I am very much looking forward to reading the next one, so it gets a three out of five.

Publisher provided a copy of the novel for honest review.

[Douglas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a really enjoyable book with some REALLY STOOOPID story choices. Primarily the main character, Penny, is an evil genius super villain, except she's not really totally completely evil. Penny, 14, ends up in conflict with a 12 year genius mechanic and IN THE MIDDLE OF A BATTLE TO SAVE ALL HUMANITY FROM EVIL ALIENS, Penny is immediately behind the 12 year-old's armor suit and decides she (Penny) CAN'T TEMPORARILY DISABLE THAT ARMOR BECAUSE OF HOW IT WILL UPSET THE 12 YEAR-OLD EVEN THOUGH THE EXISTENCE AND FREEDOM OF ALL HUMANITY DEPENDS ON PENNY DOING SO (so far as Penny knows at that time).

I can only assume the author is writing for a younger audience and is committed to the belief that a consistently intelligent main character would be off-putting to them for some reason. What's worse is none of this needed to happen- Penny wasn't actively trying to get behind the 12 year-old, the author just had that happen by chance.

The reason the stupid bits annoy me so much is because otherwise this is a really good book. So good that up until that battlefield scene I overlooked all the other stupid stuff, like the main character agreeing to go on a space adventure without first asking how Spider (the villain who recruits her for this mission) was going to cover her absence with her parents and school. The mission has two parts and was prompted by a mysterious signal from Jupiter of apparent human origins. Part 1 Penny and co. are to investigate the asteroid belt to make certain Spider's asteroid mining isn't threatened. They discover a hospital set up in the asteroid belt by a bunch of supers who went there in circa 1910 but had since been taken over by body-snatcher type aliens. They also find a portal back to earth. Do they investigate the portal to see where it comes out on earth? No. Do they investigate to see if the aliens have a toe-hold on earth? No. THEY IMMEDIATELY BLOW UP THE PORTAL, NEARLY KILLING THEMSELVES AND, SINCE THE OTHER END IS ON EARTH, POTENTIALLY DESTROYING THE EARTH AS WELL.

Part 2 Penny and Co. head out to Jupiter to investigate the signal. They discover another group of supers for whom we are never given a clear history (I GUESS THE AUTHOR COULDN'T SPARE 5 MINUTES TO WRITE THE TWO LINES IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN TO DO SO). All we really know is a last wave of "immigrants" came circa 1940 because one old guy tells his story about coming to Jupiter to escape Hitler.

Penny & Co. also encounter someone who claims to be working with the Jovians, some sort of alien species trapped in Jupiter's atmosphere. Do Penny & Co., WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE INVESTIGATING JUPITER, ask about the Jovian at all? No. Does it turn out that the Jovians are of interest to the Penny & Co.? I'll just let you guess about that.

Bottom line: If this author didn't feel compelled to undercut his own work this would have been an excellent book. As written, Penny, the evil genius who isn't really evil is also clearly not even of average intelligence for a large portion of this book.

[Panda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read with quite a few interesting ideas and a cool setting. Sadly the execution left a few things to be desired.

I found book to be fun though it suffered from YA syndrome. In this one the team goes TO SPACE and finds a steampunk colony complete with Victorian era aesthetics.

The spaceship is a catfish -don't question it!- and they make a quick stop at Cronenberg's R US to pick up a few side characters that we shelve for awhile.

Of Steampunk land were we learn about the whole colony and how it works. Something happens and we get even more characters.

Then the characters that were shelved come into play and yes you can see where I'm going with this. Too much is happening and it seems unrealistic to put everything on the kids shoulders while the adults literally twirl their thumbs through out.

Claire and Ray were playing second fiddle to the guest characters with the book reminding you of how awesome they are they every now and then... you know, instead of them actually just being awesome like they were in book 1.

The book is fun and action packed but flawed with glaring mistakes happening and characters suddenly turning up that I didn't know where there to begin with. Remmy is so forced it's actually sad and I wanted to chock the narrator every time she went for the chipmunk voice.

It is also far removed from an already established setting that even with the super high stakes involved it felt like there were none at all... I have no idea how you manage that. Either way I still had fun and will be grabbing the next book.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book in the series is absolutely addicting, funny, entertaining, and enjoyable. This book ticks all of the same boxes, but does so to a lesser extent.

The book starts off as a continuation of the first one, but then things take a turn: our heroes go somewhere they never were before (hint in the title (which is slightly incorrect, btw)). From there, the story switches to what seem like multiple short arcs, which build up on each other, and even though they are entertaining, are not as good as in the first book.

Nevertheless, even if our characters live less interesting lives (space doesn't necessarily make everything better), they are still great characters on their own, and would make the book an enjoyable experience, even with a bad story.

Definitely read it if you read the first one (which you should if you like young adult fiction).

PS: I am sad that Penny didn't get to keep Remmy as a friend. :'( What good is going to space if you don't even get to make new friends...

[Bonnie Dale Keck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kindle Unlimited

My roommate who reads comics and all thinks this set is 4 or even better, no idea why, bad role model to say the least for the young adults presumably written for, yet situations and attitudes are so not right for that age group or older.

I Did NOT Give That Spider Superhuman Intelligence! (Please Don't Tell My Parents Book 4) {more like .5/prequel} {Amazon shows it as book 4, so Amazon shows 2 book 4's}
Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain 1
Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew Up the Moon 2
Please Don't Tell My Parents I've Got Henchmen 3
Please Don't Tell My Parents I Have A Nemesis 4

[James Tomasino · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a let down. After the surprise awesome of the first book in this series the tale took an exciting turn as the kids head out into outer space. Except, that is exactly the problem. The dynamic that made this interesting was that of late-middle school kids hiding their villainy from super hero parents, dodging school responsibilities, and getting home in time for curfew. Now with an excuse covering their absence they're galavanting around in space ships with alien technology, planetary wars, and other scary dangers. There's no more kid dynamic at play. There's really not even a secret identity component. Without that it just felt flat.

[Chase · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first book. It’s simply because Richard Roberts confused me with his writing choices this time. The book is a 4 out of 5 stars otherwise.

Spoiler free: There would be confusing contextual shifts that made me feel I somehow skipped a paragraph. I had to re-read several pages to fully imagine what he was trying to describe, and it felt like even after re-reading that some things just weren't said and I had to kludge the story together, hoping for more information later to fill me in. It was still enjoyable, but this book lost a star despite my best effort at improving my reading comprehension.

[Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'll admit I got two thirds of the way through it and gave up. Some interesting ideas but the whole space thing was such a huge waste of time. After the pretty good first book this one just takes the pacing and character arcs and dumps everything to the side so they can go to space. It doesn't add anything and nothing useful happens. I read the first book in one sitting and gave up on this one after several days. Read the first book, I hear the third is okay but please skip this book unless you really like space and meandering plot lines.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the first Don’t Tell My Parents book, but this one just wasn’t very good. It often droned on and on needlessly. Sometimes the descriptions of the Puppeteers and Meat Puppets were rather graphic and disgusting (they gave my ten-year-old nightmares). I mostly found myself bored while reading Please Don’t Tell My Parents I Blew Up the Moon and hoping the end would hurry up. It was just such a disappointment after the first book. I don’t recommend reading it.

[Ty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable read :)

This was an enjoyable read, however much some of the characters frustrated me. Frustration was not due to bad character design or anything, it's just some of the characters are plain stupid in the head. It fits though. This story continues the series quite well and I recommend it if you enjoyed the first book. Read it!

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad book. When it got really techy and sounding like instructions I have a sigh and powered through it but overall the story was pretty good. Didn't kind the absolute ridiculousness of it. It was actually kind of cute at times. I'd still continue the series.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished 2/23/18. This was an adorable continuation of penny, her gang and her antics. Loved some parts of it, especially when I couldn’t predict how it was going to be. Can’t wait for the next one. Still trying to figure out Vera and what mourning dove said.

[Scott Wozniak · Rating 5 out of 5]

A grand adventure for the growing supervillains/heroes. This time they went into space. The characters grew, we learned more about the world of the story (some juicy mysteries revealed) and the ending was more poignant than I expected and I'm looking forward to the next book.

[Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

What was the plot?

This was a slog. I enjoyed the first book but there was way too much going on here. And some of the writing was in need of a good editor. People, even teenagers, don't talk like that.

[Nav · Rating 4 out of 5]

The space thing came a bit out of left field and the misunderstanding about her secret identity and villain status continues to be a bit of a strained contrivance, but I still really, really liked this.

[James Ingraham · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of fun. I don't like some elements, and it was longer than it really needed to be. The characters are the real draw. I did the audio book version, which was excellent.

[Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. This one just didn't work for me. Too much world building; too few likable characters.

[Discfan2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part of the book was great, chinatown, etc. When they jump out to the moon and suddenly Penny doesn't have to worry about staying hidden, it loses some of the thrill.