Haunted Heroine - Book Four of the Heroine Complex

When Sarah Kuhn began this series, it was the story of Evie Tanaka and how she came to terms with becoming a superhero.  When the second book came out (which was a surprise, since I didn't realize this was going to be a series when I bought the first one!), Kuhn shared the story of Aveda Jupiter, Evie's best friend and crime-fighting partner.  Then, when the third book came out (which, needless to say, had me over-the-moon excited), Kuhn gave us the chance to get to know Evie's kid sister, Bea Tanaka, as she faced some of her own demons.  Now, as we settle in to Kuhn's fourth book in this wonderful series, Team Tanaka/Jupiter faces a whole bunch of new unknowns from both the present and the past!

Haunted Heroine brings Evie back to a college life she thought she left behind years ago.  But when she gets invited to visit the college she dropped out of so many years ago, Aveda sees this as the break Evie needs from everything going on in her life - in particular, her pregnancy!  With the tension growing between Evie and Nate (her husband and father to her child), Evie agrees, even though she is curious as to why she got invited back to a college from which she did not graduate.  Before she gets the chance to find out, though, a ghost attacks a student, and Evie steps in to save the day!  The provost of the college then reveals to Evie and Aveda that this is not the first supernatural attack on campus, and knowing of their recent triumphs against the demons popping up all over San Francisco, she asks the two of them to go undercover to protect the students and perhaps find the source of the supernatural attacks.  An opportunity to live out the college days they never had, plus solve a supernatural mystery?  How could they pass this up?!

I have to give Kuhn credit - each of her books is fresh and unique.  Even though the characters and some of the underlying plotlines are ongoing, each book manages to have not only its own individual story, but also its own "feel," for lack of a better word.  From self-discovery in the first book, to realization in the second book, to recovery in the third book, now we get some plain, good old-fashioned supernatural mystery fun.  Who are the ghosts haunted the halls of Morgan College?  Why are the haunting the school?  And what has caused them to go from merely roaming the halls to actually interacting with the students, sometimes in the most aggressive of ways?  Are they truly ghosts, or could they be demons that have somehow found a new portal across the bay from San Francisco?  Aveda can't wait to find out, but Evie is more concerned about how she is going to deal with the fact she must face the professor that she had a teacher/student affair with all those years ago - a man who made her feel less than what she was while taking advantage of her the whole time.

Kuhn introduces a whole new world of characters at Morgan College - Julie, Pippa, Shelby, Tess, Jocelyn, Victoria, Miriam, Lenora, Richard, Gloria, not to mention Madeline, Clementine, and the perky little bartender at the college party!  Each and every one of them breathe so much life into the story, it's not hard at all to get caught up in the drama that is their lives.  The problem is, each of them is harboring secrets - things they don't want others to know.  And as Evie and Aveda (or Eliza and Angelica, Teachers' Assistants, as they are known to the students at the college) dig deeper into what is going on at the school, they find that all of those secrets lead to some very deadly plans and a few unexpected surprises for both our superhero pair and the reader!

Now, I'm going to say up front there was one aspect of the book that annoyed me a little bit - not going to go into detail, but let's just say that it felt a bit like pandering to some current events in the real world today (and at times, it caused a bit of confusion to me as the reader).  However, that small tidbit certainly did not take away any of my enjoyment of the story.  Kuhn has a superb way of making her characters real - their dialogue, their actions, their responses and feelings - they all weave together to make believable characters that you can easily identify with in a very unbelievable world that you only wish you could live in!

And the only reason I'm still so excited after having finished this fourth Heroine novel is because I've already seen on Amazon that a fifth book is on its way!  Already counting the days...

RATING:  8 cups of supernaturally spiked punch out of 10 for giving us a superhero soap opera with a fun supernatural mystery to spice things up!