Black Widow: Forever Red by Margaret Stohl

Published October 13th 2015

Enter the world of the Avengers’ iconic master spy

Natasha Romanoff is one of the world’s most lethal assassins. Trained from a young age in the arts of death and deception, Natasha was given the title of Black Widow by Ivan Somodorov, her brutal teacher at the Red Room, Moscow’s infamous academy for operatives.

Ava Orlova is just trying to fit in as an average Brooklyn teenager, but her life has been anything but average.The daughter of a missing Russian quantum physicist, Ava was once subjected to a series of ruthless military experiments-until she was rescued by Black Widow and placed under S.H.I.E.L.D. protection. Ava has always longed to reconnect with her mysterious savior, but Black Widow isn’t really the big sister type.

Until now.

When children all over Eastern Europe begin to go missing, and rumors of smuggled Red Room tech light up the dark net, Natasha suspects her old teacher has returned-and that Ava Orlova might be the only one who can stop him. To defeat the madman who threatens their future, Natasha and Ava must unravel their pasts. Only then will they discover the truth about the dark-eyed boy with an hourglass tattoo who haunts Ava’s dreams. . . .

I’m a massive Marvel fan and I adore Black Widow so I was insanely curious to see what this book would entail.
It was exactly what I thought it was going to be. Great writing, even better characters but not emotionally engaging. I really enjoyed reading this book but I wasn’t glued to the pages. I liked the characters (okay, I loved Natasha) but I wasn’t surprised by any of the characters. Ava was really cool but I just didn’t love her. I can’t pin point why, I just didn’t fangirl over this book. I wasn’t expecting to but it would have been nice.
Maybe because the characters that I really loved (Natasha and Coulson) weren’t new to me. Between the Marvel movies and comic books, I know these characters fairly well. And I love them but I knew that I would. All the other characters didn’t really shine in any amazing, spectacular way.
Everything in this book was very Marvel. It was fun, witty, action packed. I loved it all but I loved everything I knew I was going to love. I wasn’t overwhelmed with excitement but I still really enjoyed reading this book. I had a great time and I’d read any other Marvel YA books that may or may not be released in the future.