Heroine Worship - Book Two of the Heroine Complex

The one book I never thought would have a sequel, but which I desperately wanted a sequel - well, it actually got a sequel!  Heroine Complex was a fantastic, fun read with a unique spin on the whole super hero genre and with two Asian women as the lead characters.  Aveda Jupiter (also known as Annie Chang to her friends) and Evie Tanaka are back - the only problem is, the demon problem in San Francisco has been cured, and the city no longer needs any super heroes to protect it.

So what's a girl to do?

This is where Heroine Worship picks up, as author Sarah Kuhn brings back Aveda and Evie, along with all of their friends, to face a new and possibly more frightening adventure - Evie's wedding to Nate!  Okay, based on the cover, this story is not quite the "adventure" that I was expecting.  Even the back of the book with its synopsis made it sound like it was going to have a big mystery and another big baddie on the loose in San Francisco.

Instead, Kuhn gives readers page after page of Aveda bemoaning the fact that San Francisco doesn't need her and whining about the fact that the city has come to love Evie and her fire-throwing power far more than they ever did her non-powered antics.  In fact, as the story progresses, it becomes apparent that this book (which, by the way, is told from Aveda's point of view, rather than Evie's like the first book) is one huge identity crisis as Aveda tries to come to terms with the idea that she is no longer the top dog and tries to figure out how to be a better friend to Evie, who is no longer her assistant, but also her friend and co-super hero.

The whining and self-doubt goes on and on ad nauseam, and quite frankly, I was about ready to put the book down after the first hundred pages or so, when there was nothing really interesting happening.  Sure, there were hints of a possible demon still hanging around the city, and yes, Kuhn provides a few scenes of character development with Aveda, Evie, Nate, Lucy, Bea, and Scott.  But the whole "no one like Aveda any more and everyone thinks she's an attention-starved diva" got a bit old when it was repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Then there was the fight at the wedding dress pavilion in the fashion market.  Okay, that caught a bit of my interest.  Then there was the crazed bride-to-be at the cake shop.  Definitely a pattern developing.  Then the mystery comes to light - just how is this demon controlling people - is it in the air?  Is it in the clothing?  Is it in the undergarments?  There are several viable suspects in the story, and by the second half of the book, I became hooked again, and I couldn't wait to tear through the pages to find out not only how Aveda and Evie were going to stop this new demon, but also who was the human counterpart helping it.  And I'll graciously admit - the person I had pegged as the human culprit was not the one.  So kudos to Kuhn for making the reveal a big surprise (and once it is revealed, the reader will see that the clues were there all along).

There's definitely romance in this one - Aveda does finally break down and admit her feelings for Scott.  The author throws in a couple of rather racy scenes of the two of them getting down and dirty, but it's not too blunt, thankfully.  And Kuhn provides more back story on Aveda (since this is her story, just as the first book was Evie's story).

So, while the book has a slow and rather ambivalent start, it definitely picks up after the half-way mark and makes it well worth the read.  As good as the first book - probably not.  But good enough that I'd buy a third one if Kuhn writes one?  Yes, definitely.

RATING: 7 demon-infested wedding gowns out of 10 for proving that super heroes do not need to be dark and gritty to still be good and enjoyable to read about.