The top of the book cover shows a woman wearing an all black, tight fitting superhero outfit. She is kicking a pink cupcake that has teeth. More cupcakes with teeth are behind her. The center of the book cover has a bright yellow, thick, diagonal line. It says "Heroine Complex" (the book's title) in purple font. Below the title, there is a woman who is wearing a blue unzipped hoodie, and a t-short with a cartoon duck on it. She holds up one of her hands - which has a fireball floating just above it.

Heroine Complex starts with Aveda Jupiter, a super heroine, battling against demonic cupcakes inside a bakery. Her sidekick, Evelyn Tanaka, is somewhere behind the bakery counter, using her phone to record Aveda’s battle for her fans.

The two of them have been close friends since kindergarten. They were the only two Asian American kids in the class. One day, the class picked on the food that Evie’s mother sent with her for lunch. Annie (Aveda Jupiter’s real name) stood up for Evie. They became fast friends.

Evie doesn’t really mind being Aveda Jupiter’s sidekick. Unfortunately, she has more on her plate than recording Aveda Jupiter’s adventures. Evie has a teenage younger sister, Bea. After their mother died, and their father abandoned them, Evie became Bea’s “parent”. It wasn’t going very well.

Things become even more difficult after Annie breaks her ankle. She does not want her fans to see her on crutches, but has a bunch of upcoming events she needs to attend. Scott, a friend of both Annie and Evie, provides a temporary solution. He can give Evie a “glamour” that would make her look exactly like Aveda Jupiter. Evie agrees to it, but it makes her really uncomfortable. Little did Evie know that there were so many events that Aveda Jupiter needed to be at!

The story takes place in San Francisco. At some point in the past, a demon portal opened up. The demons immediately imprinted on whatever they saw first, and terrorized the town. People who were near the portal got some form of special power. Most of those powers were weak or somewhat useless. Evie, however, gained the ability to create fire – and she doesn’t want it.

The story includes a group of friends who, in one capacity or another, work for Aveda Jupiter. When Evie goes out pretending to be Aveda Jupiter, things start changing. She starts to realize that Annie can be really pretentious and demanding at times. She starts to gain confidence in herself – and eventually, her fire ability. Evie also becomes attracted to one of the guys in the group of friends, which makes her see him differently than before.

I’m leaving a lot about this wonderful, goofy, super heroine story out so as not to give away too much. Overall, I found this book, which comes to the reader largely through Evie’s inner voice, to be delightful and fun. It also includes some really good sex scenes!

This book is the start of a series that continues with Heroine Worship and Heroine’s Journey.

Heroine Complex – by Sarah Kuhn, is a post written by Jen Thorpe on Book of Jen and is not allowed to be copied to other sites.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *