(NOTE: Gail Welborn's review had been published in The Seattle Examiner, The Washington Examiner, The Cypress Times, and Christian News Northwest. ) 

Like many fourteen-year-olds, Cassidy Jones is shy and a bit insecure, her “entire goal…” to stay in the background, so as “not to attract attention.” And she did just that until…

She joins her news anchor father on what she thought would be a “boring” interview with Professor Serena Phillips, a brilliant geneticist who invents unusual secret formulas.

During the interview Cassidy sat off to the side on a rickety stool with nearby laboratory beakers merrily bubbling atop small burners, sending up wisps of smoke. Shortly after her father began the stool gave way without warning. Cassidy frantically clutched the counter, overturning beakers of “hot liquid” that then pooled and “instantaneously vaporized, forming a white cloud.”

At that moment Cassidy gasped for air and took a crucial breath then…blackness overtook her.

Thus begins Elise Stoke’s new fun-filled, action-packed, adventure series, perfect for teens and tweens summer reading, where a young girl’s senses are transformed overnight. Share the fun and hijinks as Cassidy learns how to master her newly fine-tuned senses, from enhanced hearing, sight and smell to incredible athletic prowess and speed that make her feel “like a racehorse at the starting gate.”

Cassidy, uncertain about what’s happening, keeps her altered state a secret until she meets Emery, the professor’s very cute, but mysterious, fifteen-year-old son. Where she learns the professor is missing and foul play’s afoot. Join this unbeatable duo as they team up and risk their lives to discover who kidnapped the professor, what the secret formula 10X is, who stole it and the cause of Cassidy’s enhanced powers.

Brimful of danger, secrets, a bit of romance and fun, this debut author’s entertaining plot and well-drawn characters not only is all it promises to be, but will leave readers looking for more.

I liked the characterization, the plot and the Seattle setting, but most of all I liked that the story didn’t deal with “dark” material. It’s devoid of magic, vampires, werewolves or other dark imaginings; it’s just a good, clean story, sort of like a modern day Nancy Drew or Hardy Boy’s mystery. Highly recommended!

Cassidy Jones was a normal, shy teenager. Normal until she accidentally breathed in the gas from a secret experiment conducted by a world-famous scientist (Dr. Phillips) called Formula X.  Now she can run faster than a race horse, she’s stronger than a rampaging rhino, has better sight than an eagle, she can leap higher than a jungle cat and can hear better than a deer! Cassidy doesn’t know what to do about her new super powers, but she decides she can’t tell anyone. When the famous scientist AND her Dad get kidnapped, Cassidy decides to use her new powers to save them, but when she can’t even control her own emotions, how is she going to control her new super powers?!? She finds a “friend” in the kidnapped Dr. Phillips’ son, Emery…but she’s not sure if she can trust him completely.

I totally enjoyed reading this book. Cassidy Jones rocks as a superhero! The book is written for older kids but there is no bad language or inappropriate things in the story so you can have younger kids read it too. A lot of books with a teen protagonist (that’s my new word now that I know what it means ) are not appropriate for kids my age, but this isn’t one of them. There is some fighting (she is a superhero after all) but nothing graphic (it’s actually kind of like comicy fights or like the Saturday Morning Cartoons fights). It was also cool how the hero is a girl because there are barely any girl superhero main characters. I really liked Cassidy Jones personality too. Emery was also a great character. He was really interesting to read about. It is a very action packed and detailed story that keeps you interested!

I give Cassidy Jones and the Secret Formula 5 out of 5 book worms!