The Offspring series boasts its moments of novelty, and I enjoyed reading this story that follows fairly closely from the previous book, A Perfect Darkness. I wonder, though, if a reader who hasn't yet encountered the previous book might struggle with what's going on.

A few weeks have passed since the events of the first book, and the attention shifts from Amy and Lucas (two of the 'Offspring') to a young woman named Zoe Stoker. A tattoo artist with her own shop, she tries to live a quiet life despite a problem: when she gets emotional or angry, objects fall over or move. She knows she has some kind of telekinetic ability but tries to cover it up.

Zoe realizes that she is being watched, and thus begins a huge change in her life as it's turned upside down by a group of people known as the Offspring who, like her, have strange abilities. Rand Brandenburg, one of the Offspring, is just passing through, yet Zoe finds herself drawn to him. She knows that there's no future with Rand - he doesn't want any entanglements - but as they learn together about the situation of the Offspring and the enemy they face, the two may find that the ties binding them are stronger than they might have expected.

There's quite a lot of action in this book, although the pace occasionally flags a little. The characters from the previous book continue to develop, although I can't work out if Eric Aruda will ever be a 'hero' of a later book. I wasn't always convinced of the likelihood of their continual escapes, plus I got a bit confused about who was related to whom as their parents' stories are discovered, but overall this is a reasonable read. There are clearly other books to come in the series, so this story ends with many unfinished threads.