Quick Study

Federal Paranormal Activities Agency #0·5

by Katherine Kim

Caroline Peters picked the wrong day to start skipping class.

When she woke up that morning, Caroline's biggest concern was passing her AP English test and dodging the mean girls who seemed to delight in picking on her. The one day she decided that enough was enough and skipped class, the usually deserted local history museum was invaded by a group of mercenary thieves who kidnap the only witness.

Now, Caroline's locked in a basement prison cell with a guy who looks like he got on the wrong side of a biker gang and says he's a government agent and claims that Caroline is actually the only human in the entire building. Elves and mages Caroline knew about, but Darien Webb says he's not an elf, either, but something potentially much more dangerous. He's badly injured and she's just a senior in high school, but they're each other's best hope for getting out in one piece.

Genres: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult, Fantasy

90 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 25, 2019

About the author

Katherine Kim is a lifelong lover of fantasy. She started early, being read Tolkien as bedtime stories, which honestly explains a lot. More recently she’s been drawn to more urban fantasy stories through both books and television, and reading continues to be a passion. She lives and writes in Tokyo, with her family, a number of miniature giant robots, and not nearly enough coffee...

Reviews

[Gypsy Madden · Rating 5 out of 5]

After an incident at school, Caroline hides in the small museum inside the City Hall. A group of thieves hold up the small museum, taking with them some relics, and Caroline. They throw her into a locked room with the hope of getting some ransom money for her. She finds she’s not alone in the locked room. Her fellow prisoner claims to work for a federal agency known as Federal Paranormal Activities Agency, and he’s a vampire. He tells her that the group that took them prisoner are elves, and that his agency won’t be coming for him because his agency sees him as a problem, so it’ll be up to the two of them to escape their captors.

I liked this story. It’s aimed at a young audience, with Caroline being a typical teenager. She’s awkward, and bullied by other students, but she’s also smart to know when people are lying to her and devises an escape plan, and she keeps an open mind, allowing her to accept the idea of Darien being a vampire and a good guy. And I loved that she was able to hold her own without being a cliched shoot-first black leather wearing tough chick. I liked Darien, too, who was a nice guy in a bad predicament, and relatively young, so still a rookie, and I liked his determination not to let prejudice of his species and other species ruin his job, and I loved that he had flaws to him, like his hero complex which seemed to get him into bad situations, and his problematic previous relationship that got him black balled with the entire agency, and that he was talkative. The plot is a fun one, though straight forward with the two of them locked up together with plenty of time to build the paranormal world around them. And I liked that there was chemistry between Darien and Caroline, though at this point it was just a nice blossoming friendship topped with Darien’s hero complex wanting to protect her. And I liked Point who had a lot of humor to him. The copy I obtained did have typos in it. Not a lot, but I noticed them every couple of pages. My largest quibble with the story was that the copy I had never really described what happened to Caroline that prompted her to seek refuge in the museum. All it mentioned what that something happened during gym and that the bully Monique was involved. I really have no idea what happened. I liked both Caroline and Darien enough that I’m eager to see further adventures of them working together, but I’m really not a fan of paranormal organizations -they’re just so cliché.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edit Please

I actually really enjoyed this novella, and look forward to reading more in the series. But I hope they have been edited better than this one. Some typos are ok but there are some major ones in this story. The kind that make you stumble and have to re-read to sort out. Messes with the flow of the otherwise really good storyline.
I found it easy to follow, funny humor, and good character development. For a fantasy story I found it to be believable. The main female character didn't behave annoyingly or over dramatically to the situations or information, like happens a lot in these stories. And I don't know if her and the main male character are leading to romance or not, but I hope so.. wink wink

[Ronnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Proofread needed

Actually entertaining but in the 50 of so pages there were multiple examples of missing letters (he instead of the) and missing or incorrect words. I'm generally not super critical about these things but it happened enough that it was a bit jarring, pulled me out of the story for a second. If the author gets someone to proofread, it would be 4 star. Am tempted to read the first book in the series (this is a prequel) but will have to decide if the errors are worth it.

[Thea Sanford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the premise of this story. The characters have a good back and forth, and it is a fast read. My only issue was the editing. Some lines remind me of a misheard voice-to-text message where the wrong word is used or missing- like "of corse we can do that" or "then the fell down" and an instance of "him" being used for multiple people in the same sentence, making it hard to understand. (Not exact examples, just the type of thing I remember from reading.)

[Helen M. Whitchurch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but good

Shows how differently same plot can be developed. This and Sunshine by McKinley both have girl locked up with a vampire by bad supernatural bad guys.
In Sunshine everyone knows about evil and scary vampires, in Quick Study only paranormal society knows about good guy (mostly) vampires.

[Melanie Ong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not cliche human female protagonist or male vampire lead

Good plot. Love the human character. Different and refreshing. Smart and sweet with sass. But not bitchy or broken or annoying. So tired of those cliches. Same with the vampire male lead. He was gentlemanly instead of typically overbearing. Took 1 star off for Some typos but it didn’t detract from the flow of the story.

[Janet Hendricks · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a Way to Meet a Guy!

Secret Agent Darien and high school senior Caroline meet under challenging circumstances...the robbery of an ancient artifact hidden in a dusty museum. It's an adventure Caroline never expected. I mean elves, trolls, vampires! What!? Great characters, engrossing storyline, danger and a new friendship begins. Enjoy!

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this story! It had a different take on almost all the mythical creatures mentioned and made them appear a great deal less unearthly. The story line was tight and believable and very easy to read. It is well worth your time and effort in reading.

[Melissa Horn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this prequel

I started reading Book 1 and then realized there had to be a prequel and I wanted to read it first. I like Caroline; she's young, but not stupid. The author's vampires are not traditional, which is all to the good. I'm looking forward to reading more.

[candel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it!

I'm kind of surprised - I'm not really into vampires. But this is clean. The writing is more developed than many YA types. The situation and the characters were interesting. The editing could be a little better - but I've seen much worse.

[Debra Lamey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story, imaginative and quite funny.

I totally enjoyed this story. It gave new information on supernatural characters, no eternal life for vampires and other bits of lore. I would recommend this story to anyone who likes this type of story.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit different

If you like fun and quirky this is a great read. A high schooler with common sense who knew. A different look at paranormals.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed!

I liked this book. I plan to read more of her work. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

[Michele Livesay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Action packed

I thoroughly enjoyed this introduction to the Federal Paranormal Activities series. I plan on reading them all as soon as possible.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paranormal Police

Good story. I really like the plot and characters. I would give it another star if the editing was better.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

[Sandra Lis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read

I like the fact that it was different than most paranormal books and fast paced. Nice quick read with only a few errors

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun read

This was a quick, fun read. The characters seem interesting, with lots of room to add new depth with subsequent stories.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read I'm glad Facebook recommended it to me. I'm looking forward to reading the next book but I am hopeful that the don't continue on.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lightweight but enjoyable enough that I went on to read a couple more in the series.

[Liza Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing series

Wow what an amazing start to a new series. I really enjoyed the story telling, intrigue, action and plots. I cannot wait to read the next book!

[aem · Rating 4 out of 5]

very enjoyable and entertaining. Not your typical take on mythical creatures.

[S Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun story. Very enjoyable. Just some grammar & punctuation problems.