3 Things:

Great for fans of Marvel and Black Widow.

Focuses on possible new heroes.

Gives some slight background to Natasha Romanoff. 

Margaret Stohl brings readers into the world of the famous Russian spy Natasha Romanoff from the Marvel Universe. This superhero story begins with Romanoff saving a young girl named Ava Orlova from a building in which Romanoff’s former trainer and now arch enemy set up base. Packed full of action, excitement, and even a bit of romance between two side characters, this book provides Marvel fans with something new.

Similar to watching a superhero movie, action was the main point. Besides the action, very little substance could be found in the novel. The characters, unfortunately, fell flat in comparison to the hectic plot, as if they became an afterthought in their own story. Despite being about 400 pages, the entirety of the plot seems to happen in a quick span of a few days. The romance seemed wholly unnecessary. I mainly picked up the book because I expected to gain more information about the agent’s past and expected no cliche love story. That was not the case, as the story was riddled with a romance. Romanoff feels like a side character in her own story in comparison to the other two younger characters, Ava Orlov and Alex Manor.

We do get some slight views of her past through a device known as the Quantum Entanglement, which is the main purpose of the adventure. This entanglement is one between the minds of Ava Orlova and Romanoff. The young girl gets small glimpses of the agent’s past and gets some of her skills, including learning how to go undercover, fight, and scan an environment for enemies.

Some highlights included the point of view change between all three of the characters, providing variety throughout the novel with perspectives of each. This book also contained an interesting LODD (Line of Duty Death) interview happening at the start of each new chapter. These breaks included an interview of Romanoff by what can be assumed to be the head of the Department of Defense. These pieces provided foreshadowing throughout the entirety of the book, and informed the reader of a death of a character. Speculations continue through almost the entire novel of which one it is.

Overall, this book provided a fun, adventurous read, and serves its purpose of being an action novel. While many Marvel fans sit in wait of a movie for Natasha Romanoff like many of the other Avengers received, this is something

to simply tide them over. My mixed feelings on the characters and plot aside, this book does not feel worth the time I spent on it. Natasha Romanoff as a character has an interesting plotline all on her own and it did not seem to be portrayed in her own book.

There will be a sequel to Black Widow: Forever Red set to come out in October of this year. Titled Black Widow: Red Vengeance, Ava Orlova will once again partnered up with Natasha. It seems like another action novel, and I do not believe I will purchase this next installment. Despite the small amount of enjoyment I felt throughout reading, I am not willing to continue reading this series at this point.

The novel can be purchased online here.

This author can be reached on Twitter at @julz_lozano19

For my last book review, read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
[rwp-review id=”0″]