Heroine Worship (Heroine Complex #2)
by Sarah Kuhn
(superhero fantasy)
This is a really enjoyable installment in the Heroine Complex series. I liked this one more than the first book — probably because I sympathized with Aveda’s personality issues more than I did with Evie’s in book one. The demon attack part of the plot was really fun, and blended nicely with the personality conflict part of the plot. Nicely crafted book, and a great escape read.
There are a lot of fun quotes in this book. I’m annoyed at myself for not making a note of them as I was reading, because now that I’m going back to write my review, I can’t find them. (It also doesn’t help that I was reading at night in bed without any note-taking material with me. Lesson learned. Not that I’m likely to change my ways on this.)
Identify the problem, then identify the solution and work hard and be awesome and through sheer force of will, fix it.
Hell, don’t just fix it. Kick its ass.
While — unlike Annie / Aveda — I am neither a hurricane or a Forceful Bludgeon For Good, I have had some of her other personality quirks off and on throughout my life. I have been called an Ice Queen, and have had trouble letting my friends see the real me inside my calm unflappable persona. I make lots of assumptions about what other people will like or want — none quite so disastrous as the engagement party Aveda throws for Evie, but I’ve gotten myself into trouble with my “I know best” assumptions before, too. And I think that connection is a huge part of why I enjoyed this book so much. So much of Aveda’s personality resonates with me.
“It’s still too soon to be thinking about dresses, Annie,” Evie said. “I really don’t know if —”
“It’s not too soon if your wedding is in a month,” I said. “If we don’t get on this now, you’ll be walking down the aisle naked.”
I really appreciate that this is a superhero series where the super powers might be caused by paranormal elements, but most of each book revolves around real people and real problems. It’s fantasy, but so very relatable.
Goodreads Summary:
Aveda Jupiter is having an identity crisis.
When Evie gets engaged and drafts Aveda as her maid-of-honor, Aveda finally sees a chance to reclaim her sense of self and sets out on a single-minded mission to make sure Evie has the most epic wedding ever. But when a mysterious, unseen supernatural evil rises up and starts attacking brides-to-be, Aveda must summon both her superheroine and best friend mojo to take down the enemy and make sure Evie’s wedding goes off without a hitch—or see both her city and her most important friendship destroyed forever.
Rating: 4.5 stars
Representation: badass Asian superheroines
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