EBook (maybe first in a series) where people gain superpowers after an alien falls to Earth, protagonist is a single mother

Question

Several years back (probably about early 2010), I got a bunch of superhero books in a promotion where the first book in the series was being offered for free on Amazon. One of them was Scott Bachmann's The Paragon of Animals, and I believe another was a superhero book set in Pittsburgh with a person who uses a powered exoskeleton from a military project, someone whose powers come from chemistry, and a guy made out of molten steel (which I now recall is the Steel City Superheroes series, specifically the first book, The Catalyst). Superheroes are precipitated by a male-looking alien who crashes to Earth, and is functionally invulnerable, super-strong, etc.

One of the first people to run into him is a single mother whose car hits him, nearly killing her. I don't remember if he saves her or the powers kicking in saves her, but she winds up super-strong, and gets recruited by the government, in part to find and stop people who are misusing their powers. I remember an early case involved her being the stalking horse to draw out a rapist with superspeed. Later on, the facility she's with gets attacked. All I remember distinctly of the situation is that people are being killed in the darkness and there are alien beasts roaming the halls.

I don't think that the alien was supposed to be benign, but that the crash left him less than malevolent, more a force of nature as he acts as he wishes and very little can slow him down.

I'm trying to look through my list of books on my Kindle, but there are a lot of them, and I don't recall what the cover looked like.

Answer 1

Ah, I found it! MJ Caan's Earth First, first book of the series of the same name:

Single mother Maura Riley longs to escape the confines of the abusive relationship in which she feels trapped. On one fateful day, she finds herself in a head on collision with a mysterious being not of our world. Rather than death, she finds herself re-born; blessed with amazing super human abilities. Abilities that give her the power to fight back and reclaim her life; but at a cost that may be more than she can tolerate. She soon finds herself in the midst of a battle between various shadow factions of our government and the forces that have suddenly given rise to Earth’s First true superheroes. Faced with enemies from our world and beyond, Maura must harness the awesome power she possesses in order to protect those most dear to her, and to stop those who would see her locked away in a lab forever.

I don't have a clever explanation. I sorted my purchases on Amazon's website, then searched for The Paragon of Animals and started browsing through the adjacent books. FWIW, the Pittsburgh-based book was LE Barbant's The Catalyst, the first book of the Steel City Superheroes series.