Rating: ★★★ + .5 | Release Date: 7/05/16 | Paranormal Romance | 378 Pages | DAW Books
When demon portals appear in San Francisco Aveda Jupiter (aka 26-year-old Annie Chang) becomes the city’s resident superheroine. But when a broken ankle takes Aveda out of the game she turns to Evie Tanaka, her reluctant assistant, and longtime best friend, to take the Aveda Jupiter mantle.
I’m going to steal a line from the SBTB review of this book; Heroine Complex jumps off with Aveda Jupiter fighting a horde of rabid cupcake demons so, Kuhn lets know right away the levels of quirk you are getting into when you start this book. I’m not a hardcore paranormal person so I liked the lighter, sillier touch to the world building and Kuhn’s humor-tinged first-person narration was highly readable.
That said, the actual plot was muddled and left me with more question than answers and the romance between Evie and Nate, Aveda’s resident hulking demonologist, was lackluster. I like more relationship building in my romance and Evie and Nate go from not liking each other for years to falling in love with no real catalyst.
I can see why a lot of people like this series, it has a lot of fun action pieces but also takes time to dig into meatier mental health issues like anxiety and setting boundaries.
