How to Date a Superhero (And Not Die Trying) is the debut novel from Cristina Fernandez. This young-adult romance novel comes out on August 2, 2022; the publisher Harper Collins provided me an early galley in exchange for an honest review.

First, kudos to the author for completing her first novel while still a college student herself. That is an amazing feat. It also helps being in the midst of her own collegiate years when writing about a college-aged heroine. It lends that authenticity to the setting.

I like the idea of a super-hero story that focuses on the significant others of the costumed champions. It is an angle that does not get as much focus; it has a wealth of potential for stories. However, when doing that you have to really make the normals engaging. I wish there was a bit more of that here. I felt that many of the characters came across as a bit flat and one-dimensional.

The other challenge when focusing on the normals is that all the super-hero action happens around them (for the most part). That means that the story ends up being more dialogue driven and not action driven. The super-hero genre thrives on that action element. Putting that in the background or provided via heresay means the characters need to be even more engaging to compensate for it. That was not what I found here.

Because the book is shooting at a YA (young adult) audience, all of that might be fine and expected. YA books tend to be more about relationships and dynamics between people anyway. They also tend to be more balanced when it comes to showing all kinds of relationships, even LGBTQ ones. As a man in his fifties, I'm very much outside of that target YA audience. Maybe it will work for younger readers in their teens and early 20's.

This was adorably cute. I identified way too much with Astrid and the whole concept of people who date superheroes and how that is navigated is a great plot theme. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

As someone who absolutely loves superheroes, I was very excited to read this book. It is a great concept, I just wish it was executed a little better. It’s a fun read and I definitely enjoyed it, but unfortunately it didn’t meet my expectations. This is a concept with so much potential that feels unmet in this book.

I read an early e-book edition of this one. I felt like the characters and their relationships weren’t fleshed out all that well. Like I’m still not seeing what makes Max a guy worth all of this hard work and life-risking. I do enjoy seeing a college student protagonist, and honestly the boy-girl dorm roommate situation was one I’d never seen, so that was an more interesting than. Astrid is at an interesting point in her life and you can see how it’s influencing her decisions. It’s an interesting world with superheroes, but it doesn’t feel fully fleshed out and believable to me. The superhero antics seem comically to silly and shallow.

For anyone who likes to read about superhero's, this is the book for you!
It is interesting to see the reality of dating a superhero and still maintaining your own sense of self.
I enjoyed how all the characters developed and matured.
Fun read.

In truth, I grew out of Teen/YA novels but the title was so clever and catchy I had to give it a try.

The story is great. A community of superhero significant others to help train and prepare you for the worse. A pre-med college student trying to balance it school, relationships, training, etc. kept my interest. It was original, well thought out, and practical. Despite sometimes wanting to knock sense into the characters I was excited to see what would happen next.

There were things I did not like about the book. Mainly the language. All of the swears were unnecessary in my opinion. And a lot for a Teen/YA book. They would fit better if the book was categorized as New Adult. But if this was a movie all the F bombs would make it Rated-R meaning no teen could see it.

But again original concept and well thought out story line were very well liked.

Thank you to the author, Net Galley, and publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this story. I thought it was cute and original. What would you do if you were a superheroes girl friend or boy friend. It would be helpful to have a class that helps you. What a fun read! I loved Astrid and David's friendship-best friends.

What a fun ride! A fun coming of age college superhero romance that had me laughing. Fans of superhero romance will eat this up and be ready for more.

This review is entirely my own. I absolutely loved the concept of this book. The arc has a few pacing issues and a really weird ending but overall a great original plot. If only we could all find our version or Max. Definitely loved the characters and wish I had seen more of the development as well in the main characters friendships.

This book was cute. I'm so glad it was set in college and not high school, and as a superhero fan who is kinda tired of the superhero world and remembering who has what powers yada yada yada it was great to read a book where all the superheroing was almost secondary.

As a girl who loved superheros, I got used to not seeing myself on screen as the hero. IF I was lucky there would be a love interest who might survive the movie, and as I aged I began to wonder a lot more about her. What is it like being the one waiting to be saved? Which is why I loved the premise of this book, I adored Eleanor and her stories and all she did to help.

While Astrid's story is understandable, and was presented really well and I loved her overall arc, she was also frustrating to read. I got so stressed on her behalf, and wished she had been less rigid, though that may have been the point.

Overall, a fun, sweet read.

This was light and cute. Personally I would've liked to see more depth and character development, but I can see this as being something a lot of our teen readers will enjoy. Happy to have this in our library.

It's okay being ordinary in an extraordinary world.

This was a cute a fun read and I enjoyed the superhero trope. The storyline was very 0riginal and unlike anything I have read before.

I LOVE stories center around college age protagonists. The struggles truly make it so real and relatable and that's what Cristina Fernandez provided on this novel.

Thanks to NetGalley for the free version of this book!
It took a minute to get into but once you do you don’t put it down.
The characters in this books were so cute but also so real. They seemed like actual college students just with a little bit of extra trouble.
I like seeing the superheroes partner side since we normally see the superhero side however I wish there was a bit more fight scenes.
Overall I loved the book and I stayed up way to late finishing it.

The more I read this book, the more I like it. It's a clever take on the whole Superhero trope. How does the significant others deal with superheroes and their jobs.

I struggled with whether I wanted to rate this one with three or four stars. I settled on three. It is not a bad read, but I didn't love it either. I enjoyed the premise of dating a superhero. However, I felt like I was reading a high school drama. It's an okay read when you're looking for something new and different.

This was cute.

Astrid is a sophomore in college, aiming to become a doctor. She is a ball of anxiety, rigid planning, and fear-driven, high-achieving perfectionism. She's a little bit too much of a caricature at first, but the more I read the more I was able to identify with her. She sometimes has panic attacks and freezes in social awkwardness, and sometimes snaps off bantery one-liners like it's her job.

Inconsistent characterization, or simply realism? You be the judge.

Her boyfriend is Max, a generally chill and sweet guy who also happens to be a superhero. Do we know anything else about Max? He likes Pokemon. That's all I can think of. I genuinely don't know what his major even is. But I know he loves Astrid, and is sweet, and a superhero.

A classic Mary Sue, or simply an ordinary bro doing his best? Who can truly say.

The story is simple: Astrid trying to balance the changes being a superhero's girlfriend has brought to her life with the rest of her intense, demanding goals. It's a coming-of-age story as much as it is a romance, and Astrid grapples with her trauma, her identity, and the WHY behind all her hard work. Astrid and Max kiss a lot, but they don't even have sex. Wholesome.

There is kind of an adventure and plot threaded in, and the "superhero girlfriend training camp" thing, but honestly it's not the main driver of the story.

Did I sometimes wish I was out on the streets with Max instead of once again in Astrid's dorm room as she color-coded her planner? Absolutely, but seeing the superhero story from this perspective was also interesting and I definitely had a good time. Anyone looking for an easy, fluffy read with a good balance of sweet and thoughtful should definitely give this a try.

I LOVED this unique look at dating a superhero. How to manage the complexities of college and pre med and also being in love with someone risking their life every day? It was cute and complex and unique and let me escape into Max and Astrid's world.

I will admit that sometimes i got a little lost in the speed as it felt like we had to work hard to keep up with everything that was happening. But overall it was a great read

This was an okay read for me. It didn’t live up to my expectations if I’m being honest. I found myself getting slightly annoyed with Astrid and her schedules lol. Character development is what lacked in this for me.

I enjoyed the premise of this book, but the characters were very all very one-dimensional and there wasn't a lot of character growth to be had. Astrid's schedules got particularly grating and tedious as the book went on, and for me, Astrid came across as non-neurotypical in a way that did not feel intentional and was more a caricature than anything else. There didn't seem to be any chemistry between her and Max to the point where I wondered if she was actually asexual (which would have been great to see if it were explored deftly enough).

All in all, a fun read, but not one I'll be recommending super widely.

Cristina Fernandez brings readers to a world of powered people, seen through the eyes of someone who is not. Astrid lives in a world where superheroes and villains are normal, and that’s fine, but she likes her life to be nice and orderly, scheduled out to every second, so her plans go out the window the same time her boyfriend crashes through it wearing spandex.

Astrid is a med student, and her life is a big ball of stress that really comes through in How to Date a Superhero. She’s got a lot going on. Unfortunately, that much stress in a protagonist makes it hard for readers to emotionally relate to them and through them to the rest of the characters. It leaves the reader feeling disconnected from it all, looking into the story instead of immersed in it. ¬¬Without that connection to the main character, the rest of the story fell a bit flat, with the emotional punches not hitting as they should. Like toward the end of the story when Astrid had a mental breakdown that seemed narratively intended to be about her boyfriend Max’s powers but felt like the effect of all that stress.

This break came after Astrid was snatched off the street and into the air by a villain with the power of flight. This is a normal occurrence to those who date superheroes, with some being kidnapped over fifty times by villains who almost seem to joke and play against the superheroes. The actual threat of these villains didn’t feel real, nor did the ‘villain’ of Astrid’s story seem real. Her nemesis was a younger med student who is quite advanced but takes offense to Astrid breaking the curve on a single test. He sabotages her cultures at her internship causing the professor—who blames her even though the lab has next to no security—to take her off the main work. While Astrid doesn’t know who her saboteur is, it’s so obvious to readers that it’s a bit of a letdown, like it’s not an important part of the story—and maybe it isn’t.

And then there’s Molly. Molly is another superhero’s girlfriend and is much more into it than Astrid is. She embraces the life of a hero’s significant other to the point where she loves getting kidnapped because having her boyfriend come rescue her is the ultimate proof of care. She actually pursued her boyfriend because she found out he was a superhero. Overall, Molly has some issues that could have been explored more.

How to Date a Superhero (and Not Die Trying) has a solid premise, but could have been much more.