The Miranda Contract by Ben Langdon

Blurb: Dan has been running away from his past his whole life but people do not forget a young super villain that easily and they definitely do not forgive. He finally finds some semblance of normality when he finds out his grand father, a supervillain has returned. Dan now must fight his own blood for his freedom because this time he does not have the option to run away. The Mad Russian is threatening everything he has spent years building, a normal life where most people do not care about who he is. His grand father wants Dan to accept his birth right and embrace his power. He will go to any lengths to achieve that goal even make his grandson fall in love with a reigning  pop star and then use her as a leverage against him.
Synopsis: Dan lives in a world where people with special powers exist, where super-villains make peoples lives miserable and super heroes fight them. Unfortunately, Dan used to belong to the former category. His grand father is The Mad Russian, the leader of all super-villains. His grand father was the only one Dan ever looked up to but the Mad Russian manipulated him and ended up losing him forever. Dan now leads a seemingly ordinary life but those close to him know he is far from ordinary. He has the ability to control electric energy around him but he wants to stay hidden far from worlds attention. Even though he has separated him self from everything evil he is still being judged for who he was but everything changes when the Mad Russian comes back and this time he wants Dan to become his heir.
Miranda is a super star who has come very far from her origins, so far that she does not even know who she is any more, she is on a world tour when her path intervenes with Dan's. she is caught in the crossfire between Dan and The Mad Russian.
As Dan and Miranda survive the Mad Russians attacks one at a time they find unexpected allies in each other. They work as a team in their journey to defeat Dan's grandfather and come across many foes and friends. But sometimes it is very hard to distinguish between the two. Will Dan be able to let go of his past and come forward as hero from this battle of wills?
Review:
*I was given a free copy of the book for an honest review*
The Miranda Contract is a book I fully expected to enjoy. To make reviewing easier I have decided to divide the book in to two parts:
The first half left me dizzy and confused as to what was actually going on. Somewhere near 25% of the book I realized the author was writing in a comic book style. The thing is comic books have drawings to help readers visualize the scenes and characters when you are writing about such characters you have to give a bit more info as to where they are coming from. The Mad Russian who is supposed to be a super-villain does not speak proper English. I get that he is a Russian but his English did not need to be so poor, he is a very old experienced mastermind after all. So why did I not stop? I am a huge sucker for super heroes and a good story line, that's why.
The second half was the saving grace of the book. The characters became more real and things start to make sense. The pace got faster and action a lot better. I just wish it had not taken 100 or more pages to get there. The detachment I felt in the beginning was gone by the end and I became invested in characters.
I really enjoyed Dan and Miranda's chemistry though there was scene where they were supposed to be fighting on street. I never found out what they were fighting over. I would have enjoyed more scenes between them where they snap at each other.
All in all its a book with great potential and with good editing it can become a lot better.Best of luck to Ben Langdon!
 Recommended  comic book and super hero fans.
                                                                Yours sincerely,
                                                                        Ashi