The Urban Boys: Discovery of the Five Senses by K.N. Smith

The Urban Boys: Discovery of the Five Senses is an action-adventure story about five teen boys who are mysteriously exposed to a foreign energy source that gives them extremely heightened senses. Sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell become hypersensitive gifts that forever change the world. The story chronicles their effortless interrelations and later exposes the testing of their deep bonds. It introduces the reader to an array of supporting characters who alter the boys’ lives forever. The Urban Boys offers young and mature readers central themes of loyalty, responsibility, honesty, fear, and triumph, which become artfully integrated with cinematic-level action and high drama. The story twists, turns, and grinds through elements of science-fiction and action-adventure in a diverse, exciting, edge-of-your-seat narrative!

Overview: The story’s small town of Danville Heights, a carefully crafted universe, contrasts with the dark, gloomy town of Sandry Lake, where evil abounds. Upon the boys’ mysterious incident with the energy source, they’re instinctively called to Sandry Lake to root out evil. Their senses guide them each time. However, secrecy about their mission, furious battles with evil thugs, extreme fatigue, and stress and pressure soon overwhelm the boys, but they must find a way to embrace their fate. A lurking, Dark Stranger seems to know their plight, and a strikingly beautiful, fearless girl lends way to heightened confusion. Shocking details about these two characters, and the evil antagonist, the dreaded Druth, twist and grind the story even further. Despite tension and fierce battles, will the boys hold it together long enough to fulfill their destiny?

Intriguing, intelligent, and full of action, The Urban Boys: Discovery of the Five Senses offers a memorable, emotion-packed, thrilling ride for young and mature readers alike!

I wanted to like this story. The idea was very interesting, but the execution did not work for me as a reader. The pacing was quick, and the reading was easy. But it felt as if I was missing something or there were pieces of the story that were not transitioned well. I did not feel the author explained the powers well. If they were, the explanation was placed too late.

The characters in this story are supposed to be high school boys. I kept having to remind myself of this because the characters at some points reminded me of middle school boys who want to prove themselves. As a reader, I unfortunately did not connect with any of them. There is potential for these characters, but I think they need to be flushed out better.

I did like the dark stranger and the woman. It seems like the author took more time flushing them out. The antagonist of the story is alright. He seems more like a bully than an actual villain. I hope all these characters will be more flushed in book two.

The story occurs in the modern world. The typical suburbs and neighborly feeling came across well in the story. But with this in mind, I was confused why no blocks or suburbs around Sandry Lake noticed any changes, even though it happened quickly.

There was a good story here. I think it just needs a few more run throughs to flush everything out. It felt like there was too much going on in such a short book. When I was reading, I felt like there were so various jumps and felt like I missed something.

But do not let this stop you from trying to read this. There are plenty of people who enjoyed this book. If you like young adult paranormal books, then I recommend this book to you.

*I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, and this is my honest opinion.

I give this book a 2/5