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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
Somehow this series keeps getting MORE delightful! Which is why I’m so glad the adventures will be continuing!
Baby sister Bea comes into her own in this third HEROINE book, and it’s as exciting a ride as ever. What I really love, though, is how Kuhn imbues her books simultaneously with great humor and real, raw emotion. Thar takes real skill. There’s a light-heartedness to it, but also a genuine recognition of the mental and emotional struggles so many young women face while navigating through life. And then she amps it all up with superpowers, demonic forces, and rampaging architectural features.
Absolutely wonderful. Read it!
Baby sister Bea comes into her own in this third HEROINE book, and it’s as exciting a ride as ever. What I really love, though, is how Kuhn imbues her books simultaneously with great humor and real, raw emotion. Thar takes real skill. There’s a light-heartedness to it, but also a genuine recognition of the mental and emotional struggles so many young women face while navigating through life. And then she amps it all up with superpowers, demonic forces, and rampaging architectural features.
Absolutely wonderful. Read it!
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief
These series is still super-cute and fun. I’m glad I finally tracked down the third one. The blend of superhero/magical girl and general lightheartedness just makes for a good start to 2019.
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Set a few years after the other two books, this one features Beatrice "Bea" Tanaka, Evie's little sister as the heroine. Not really entirely sure what she wants to do with her life, except join Evie and Aveda as a superheroine, Bea is working part time in a bookstore/coffee shop and tinkering with improving gadgets for the superheroes. When she's not trying to convince her sister and Aveda to let her join their team, she hangs out with her best friends, Sam and Leah. Bea has the ability to emotionally project, which has so far proven really useful in getting bookstore patrons to behave civilly, but her sister seems to see her as too impulsive and irresponsible to really join Team Aveda.
As people are going missing, and new forces appear to be threatening the city, strange messages are being left for Bea. She's determined to prove her worth and show Evie and Aveda that she's a valuable asset. Once she really gets going, is she leaning a bit too far towards the super-villain end of the spectrum to get the job done, though?
As people are going missing, and new forces appear to be threatening the city, strange messages are being left for Bea. She's determined to prove her worth and show Evie and Aveda that she's a valuable asset. Once she really gets going, is she leaning a bit too far towards the super-villain end of the spectrum to get the job done, though?
I've seen these books recommended in a number of places and by so many different people. Fun and adventurous urban fantasy novels with a diverse cast, where every single book is centred solidly on the relationship between women. Complex, different and interestingly flawed women, none of whom are perfect and need to work to be accepted by and occasionally forgiven for making dumb mistakes. There are "good" girls and "mean" girls. There are actual biological families and found ones.
Aveda, or Annie Chang, is Chinese. Evie and Beatrice are half Japanese. Aveda and Evie grew up watching superhero movies starring Michelle Yeoh and the importance of representation for Asian women is absolutely addressed, in all three novels. There are straight characters, as well as bisexual and lesbian ones. Some of the women have a lot of sexual experience, others barely any. Each of the three books features a different woman as the main protagonist, each with a different love interest, but more importantly, a number of personal and emotional issues to work through and conquer.
I very much enjoyed all three books, but [b:Heroine Complex|27209443|Heroine Complex (Heroine Complex, #1)|Sarah Kuhn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1460482959s/27209443.jpg|47250933] was my favourite, mainly because both Aveda/Annie and Bea were more hard work as protagonists. It seems book 3 was written in large part at The Ripped Bodice in LA, which is why the bookstore Bea works in is so inspired by it (and her best friend Leah is not only named for one of the proprietresses, but Fitzwilliams Waffles, their bookshop dog, is the model for Leah's dog Pancake).
I had not realised until I checked out [a:Sarah Kuhn|612167|Sarah Kuhn|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1449618010p2/612167.jpg]'s blog after finishing the trilogy that she has a new contract for another three books and a novella set in this universe. I'm not sure whether it will concern the same characters or a whole new set of awesome superheroines, but based on this trilogy, I will absolutely be eagerly waiting for more.
As people are going missing, and new forces appear to be threatening the city, strange messages are being left for Bea. She's determined to prove her worth and show Evie and Aveda that she's a valuable asset. Once she really gets going, is she leaning a bit too far towards the super-villain end of the spectrum to get the job done, though?
As people are going missing, and new forces appear to be threatening the city, strange messages are being left for Bea. She's determined to prove her worth and show Evie and Aveda that she's a valuable asset. Once she really gets going, is she leaning a bit too far towards the super-villain end of the spectrum to get the job done, though?
I've seen these books recommended in a number of places and by so many different people. Fun and adventurous urban fantasy novels with a diverse cast, where every single book is centred solidly on the relationship between women. Complex, different and interestingly flawed women, none of whom are perfect and need to work to be accepted by and occasionally forgiven for making dumb mistakes. There are "good" girls and "mean" girls. There are actual biological families and found ones.
Aveda, or Annie Chang, is Chinese. Evie and Beatrice are half Japanese. Aveda and Evie grew up watching superhero movies starring Michelle Yeoh and the importance of representation for Asian women is absolutely addressed, in all three novels. There are straight characters, as well as bisexual and lesbian ones. Some of the women have a lot of sexual experience, others barely any. Each of the three books features a different woman as the main protagonist, each with a different love interest, but more importantly, a number of personal and emotional issues to work through and conquer.
I very much enjoyed all three books, but [b:Heroine Complex|27209443|Heroine Complex (Heroine Complex, #1)|Sarah Kuhn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1460482959s/27209443.jpg|47250933] was my favourite, mainly because both Aveda/Annie and Bea were more hard work as protagonists. It seems book 3 was written in large part at The Ripped Bodice in LA, which is why the bookstore Bea works in is so inspired by it (and her best friend Leah is not only named for one of the proprietresses, but Fitzwilliams Waffles, their bookshop dog, is the model for Leah's dog Pancake).
I had not realised until I checked out [a:Sarah Kuhn|612167|Sarah Kuhn|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1449618010p2/612167.jpg]'s blog after finishing the trilogy that she has a new contract for another three books and a novella set in this universe. I'm not sure whether it will concern the same characters or a whole new set of awesome superheroines, but based on this trilogy, I will absolutely be eagerly waiting for more.
The weakest of the three novels imo. This one has the least romance of the three, often fading to black during romantic moments or skipping them entirely and mentioning that they happened later. The emotional plot points are repetitive—Bea and Evie have the same fight over and over, while Aveda's strange in the background and the boys are barely entities.
The plot isn't too bad, though I very much called the twist. Bonus points for the sideship for Leah and the resulting character growth for Bea.
The plot isn't too bad, though I very much called the twist. Bonus points for the sideship for Leah and the resulting character growth for Bea.
I really liked this series and found this an intensely disappointing end to it. The first two remain great fun.
This is the third book in the Heroine Complex series, centered on three female Asian superheroes in San Francisco. While you could perhaps read this book as a standalone, don’t. Go back and read the first two – they are excellent!
It’s been a few years since the last book, and Bea is now in her twenties. After repeatedly being denied a chance to join her sister Evie and her best friend Aveda’s super hero team, Bea’s pulled away from most of the daily grind of HQ and now works at a book shop. After helping Evie and Aveda end a particularly odd demon attack, Bea is finally allowed to be a superhero-in-training, with Aveda as her self-appointed mentor. But being a superhero isn’t everything she’s dreamed it would be, and she starts fearing that Evie’s criticism of her – that she flits around to whatever’s shiny, abandoning whatever she’s currently doing – has more merit than she wants to admit. The demon attacks this time seem different, and Bea soon becomes convinced that their mother, supposedly dead for a decade, is alive and trapped in a demon dimension.
Bea and Evie’s relationship is complicated. After their mom’s death, their dad left, leaving twenty-something Evie to raise tween Bea by herself while also going through graduate school. Evie – partly because of her emotion-fuelled fire powers and partly because she was too busy with school, work, and Bea – never had the full-on breakdown Bea had, going from queen bee to goth, with only her friend Sam staying by her side, mostly because he was the only one who didn’t seem to pity her. When Bea suddenly starts receiving Otherworldy messages from her mom, she’s convinced it’s the way to fix things – the empty hole that she’s felt has been missing in herself, and everything that’s gone wrong between her and Evie.
I think one of my main issues with the book is that it rubs places I’m especially raw – I lost my mom when I was around the same age as Bea. She strikes me as very young and very self-centered at the start of the book. It’s kinda weird, because it was what I was really worried about with Aveda’s novel, but I found her a lot more sympathetic from the get-go than Bea. She’s also ridiculously impulsive and gets bored quickly, dropping her new interests (and relationships) as quickly as she picks them up. What I loved about her, though, is her hopefulness, her habit of making posterboards covered in glitter to convince Evie of things, and the obvious love she has for her friends and family. To me, this book felt darker than the first two. Though it’s still chock full of humor (alas, though, no cupcake demons), much of it focuses on pretty heavy topics, like the fraught relationship between the sisters, which Bea attributes to their mom’s death. On top of that, Bea’s superhero power – being able to influence the feelings of people around her – has had a sudden and unexpected upgrade. Now, she can implant thoughts into other people’s heads, Jedi-style – and with that comes even more ethical concerns. Bea doesn’t always make the best choices, which was extremely relatable for me. What child – even an adult child – wouldn’t do anything within their power to get their mom back?
As always, the secondary characters were excellent, and many of them (Shruti, Rose, etc) were ones we’d seen before. While I liked Bea’s love interest, for me at least, the romance seemed more secondary to the main plot than it had been in previous books. I still enjoyed it thoroughly, as well as the peaks we got of the couples from the previous books. Though the villain is pretty predictable, the plot is inventive and just delightful.
Overall, I’m delighted that, at the end of this trilogy, it’s circled back around to one of the defining conflicts of the first book – Evie and Bea’s relationship. I was so pleased to find out that there will be more books in the series, and I’ll definitely be picking them up!
I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
It’s been a few years since the last book, and Bea is now in her twenties. After repeatedly being denied a chance to join her sister Evie and her best friend Aveda’s super hero team, Bea’s pulled away from most of the daily grind of HQ and now works at a book shop. After helping Evie and Aveda end a particularly odd demon attack, Bea is finally allowed to be a superhero-in-training, with Aveda as her self-appointed mentor. But being a superhero isn’t everything she’s dreamed it would be, and she starts fearing that Evie’s criticism of her – that she flits around to whatever’s shiny, abandoning whatever she’s currently doing – has more merit than she wants to admit. The demon attacks this time seem different, and Bea soon becomes convinced that their mother, supposedly dead for a decade, is alive and trapped in a demon dimension.
“I’d just proved myself as a badass superheroine and totally slayed some giant stone monsters, hadn’t I? What was a little family drama compared to that?”
Bea and Evie’s relationship is complicated. After their mom’s death, their dad left, leaving twenty-something Evie to raise tween Bea by herself while also going through graduate school. Evie – partly because of her emotion-fuelled fire powers and partly because she was too busy with school, work, and Bea – never had the full-on breakdown Bea had, going from queen bee to goth, with only her friend Sam staying by her side, mostly because he was the only one who didn’t seem to pity her. When Bea suddenly starts receiving Otherworldy messages from her mom, she’s convinced it’s the way to fix things – the empty hole that she’s felt has been missing in herself, and everything that’s gone wrong between her and Evie.
“You said you were dumb enough to have hope. Bea, I … I don’t think that’s dumb. I love that so many times, you choose hope. Even when it’s not the obvious choice, even when the odds are stacked against it. I love that you can find that hope.”
I think one of my main issues with the book is that it rubs places I’m especially raw – I lost my mom when I was around the same age as Bea. She strikes me as very young and very self-centered at the start of the book. It’s kinda weird, because it was what I was really worried about with Aveda’s novel, but I found her a lot more sympathetic from the get-go than Bea. She’s also ridiculously impulsive and gets bored quickly, dropping her new interests (and relationships) as quickly as she picks them up. What I loved about her, though, is her hopefulness, her habit of making posterboards covered in glitter to convince Evie of things, and the obvious love she has for her friends and family. To me, this book felt darker than the first two. Though it’s still chock full of humor (alas, though, no cupcake demons), much of it focuses on pretty heavy topics, like the fraught relationship between the sisters, which Bea attributes to their mom’s death. On top of that, Bea’s superhero power – being able to influence the feelings of people around her – has had a sudden and unexpected upgrade. Now, she can implant thoughts into other people’s heads, Jedi-style – and with that comes even more ethical concerns. Bea doesn’t always make the best choices, which was extremely relatable for me. What child – even an adult child – wouldn’t do anything within their power to get their mom back?
As always, the secondary characters were excellent, and many of them (Shruti, Rose, etc) were ones we’d seen before. While I liked Bea’s love interest, for me at least, the romance seemed more secondary to the main plot than it had been in previous books. I still enjoyed it thoroughly, as well as the peaks we got of the couples from the previous books. Though the villain is pretty predictable, the plot is inventive and just delightful.
Overall, I’m delighted that, at the end of this trilogy, it’s circled back around to one of the defining conflicts of the first book – Evie and Bea’s relationship. I was so pleased to find out that there will be more books in the series, and I’ll definitely be picking them up!
I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
I LOVE this series!!! Heroine Complex is one of my top 5 favorite books! While Heroine Complex is hands down my favorite book in the series, I love Heroine’s Journey too! Plus look at those covers! They are so pretty!! I just can’t even!
The main character Bea is awesome! She is incredibly flawed and has a lot of issues, but you get to watch her learn and come into her own. She is blinded by her desires at times and fiercely loyal to her friends at others. She has to learn to balance her desires with her friendships and make some tough decisions on what is most important to her. Its very real and at times heartbreaking, but that makes it all the more believable!
Plus on top of Bea being awesome the setting is super cool too! Who doesn’t love female superheros in present day San Francisco? There are some super cool fight scenes and Bea’s power is definitely unique! Its fun to see how it develops and, because of its nature, there is a lot of gray area on when it is acceptable for her to use it.
This is such a good book and I loved to see Bea grow up from the misguided teenager she was in Heroine Complex! I would recommend this series to everyone! On a side note, I didn’t love Heroine Worship but if you are reading the series it is worth it to finish it in order to get to Heroine’s Journey! Sarah Kuhn is one of my favorite authors and I can’t wait to see what she has in store next!
The main character Bea is awesome! She is incredibly flawed and has a lot of issues, but you get to watch her learn and come into her own. She is blinded by her desires at times and fiercely loyal to her friends at others. She has to learn to balance her desires with her friendships and make some tough decisions on what is most important to her. Its very real and at times heartbreaking, but that makes it all the more believable!
Plus on top of Bea being awesome the setting is super cool too! Who doesn’t love female superheros in present day San Francisco? There are some super cool fight scenes and Bea’s power is definitely unique! Its fun to see how it develops and, because of its nature, there is a lot of gray area on when it is acceptable for her to use it.
This is such a good book and I loved to see Bea grow up from the misguided teenager she was in Heroine Complex! I would recommend this series to everyone! On a side note, I didn’t love Heroine Worship but if you are reading the series it is worth it to finish it in order to get to Heroine’s Journey! Sarah Kuhn is one of my favorite authors and I can’t wait to see what she has in store next!
I loved the first two, but was never very interested in Bea. I really didn't like her at all in this book, but that would have been okay if I'd had a lot more Evie and Aveda but there was only a little bit. there was more Nate and Maisie which was sad for me. Bea's selfish, shortsighted, clueless behavior could have been okay if I feel like she was learning from it, but she spends 2/3rds of the book making the same painful mistakes over and over and would even narrate how she knew better.
Drove. Me. Crazy. I hate that.
At least Aveda was trying not to make the same mistakes when she messed up in her book, but Bea is almost willfully oblivious. It also made the mystery hard to deal with because she was such an unreliable narrator. Her revelation at the end feels rushed and unearned, and I don't buy it. I thought I'd like Sam but he's given nothing to do but be a doormat to Bea's tantrums. I wanted him to push back at her more but he doesn't. Their lovestory doesn't feel as deep as Scott and Aveda's (which has a similar setup but much deeper complexity).
I did really like the Leah though, and the arc with Nicole was really good (if a little painfully obvious).
In the afterword Sarah Kuhn writes that this was a hard book to write and I can see it. I feel like there's a really cool story in this book, but it sort of went astray and I'm not sure exactly how or where. I'm sure she felt equally frustrated during the process.
Drove. Me. Crazy. I hate that.
At least Aveda was trying not to make the same mistakes when she messed up in her book, but Bea is almost willfully oblivious. It also made the mystery hard to deal with because she was such an unreliable narrator. Her revelation at the end feels rushed and unearned, and I don't buy it. I thought I'd like Sam but he's given nothing to do but be a doormat to Bea's tantrums. I wanted him to push back at her more but he doesn't. Their lovestory doesn't feel as deep as Scott and Aveda's (which has a similar setup but much deeper complexity).
I did really like the Leah though, and the arc with Nicole was really good (if a little painfully obvious).
In the afterword Sarah Kuhn writes that this was a hard book to write and I can see it. I feel like there's a really cool story in this book, but it sort of went astray and I'm not sure exactly how or where. I'm sure she felt equally frustrated during the process.