Cover Image: Hero Complex

Hero Complex

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

The book is pretty solid as a whole, I enjoyed the characters and world was really interesting but there's just something about the writing style that didn't click for me.

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I unfortunately rlly couldn't get into this book and ended up having to DNF it, which is a great shame as I had been very excited for it.

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This story felt exactly like coming home from a long day at the office, preparing the ingredients for your favorite meal, setting them up in the oven, going to take a warm bath... and forgetting all about the food until all you can rescue is the ashes of your 5 stars cuisine meal. I should've liked this but all it did was disappoint, I wish I had read this when I was younger and my expectations lower.

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This was a really fast read. It feels like it is going to start slow, but it suddenly springs into action in a way that I did not expect. The middle moves slower, but during that time the characters are growing, so it feels necessary and purposeful. There is a slow burn romance that is quite sweet. The ending isn't what I was expecting, but it was actually what I didn't realize I was hoping for. It feels like there could be more stories in this world, but the ending is complete enough that I am fine if this is a standalone too. I like the characters. I like that we get multiple POVs. I feel like I needed a little more from or about the villain. She didn't feel developed enough compared to the growth the other characters get to have. Overall, I did enjoy the dual villain role that existed between the main villain and her number 2.

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i wanted an easy book to read and this one is one of those I enjoyed this book and the humor between the characters in very natural and something you would see between friends. The author was very creative, and how she developed special features and the heroes. would love to see more from this author in the future

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Probably one of the worst books I’ve ever read. 0 plot. 0 interesting characters. So boring. And also mildly gross

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I didn’t know I would love this as much as I did. It’s Sci-fi, romance and a superhero novel all rolled into one! It was so entertaining and with the cast of characters and all the nuances and quirks of all of them. Great book!

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I downloaded the book a while ago, but there were some issues with my Kindle. I proceeded to download to Netgalley Shelf App. Could not open the file there either / download it at first and now it has expired :( Sorry :(

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DNF could not connect to the writing style. The dialogue did not sound like things people would actually say and I had to force myself to continue reading each time I picked it up.

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The story was interesting and I liked the idea of the nanobot armor, but the writing was almost painful to read. Especially the relationship between Bronte and Athena. It felt forced and happened way too quick. I honestly felt awkward to be there reading it. I will be honest, I couldn't finish the book.

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dnf @ 30%


I was very excited for this read, but it took me a while to get out of the first chapter and when I finally managed to get through the reading, I discovered that it was definitely not for me. I thought the beginning was extremely confusing, it seemed like a continuation of some other book, because the situation was only played out there. The writing didn't win me over either, I thought it was pretty average. Thanks to NetGalley and the author for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review!

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I an unable to review this title, as it was archived before I had a chance to download and read it. This feedback is only to stop this title from adversely affecting my net galley feedback rate. If in the future I have the opportunity to read this title, I will post a proper review here.

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this was not what i was expecting but i enjoyed it nonetheless

based on the synopsis i thought we were going to get an enemies to lovers type of situation and also a group of criminals like six of crows but none of that actually happened. what we did get was a group of people that were kind of morally gray (but not really) who were trying to save the day and the romance was more of a friends to lovers.

i won't shut up about how much i love friends to lovers but this romance wasn't it for me. it's definitely instalove and i cannot deal with that. the characters were thinking the word "love" after knowing each other for 24hrs and that's insane, plus they didn't really click. i liked both of them individually but their pairing was just off.

even though, it wasn't the epic story i was hoping for i still had a fun time reading this book. like i said, i liked the characters (besides the romance) and there were a lot of situations were i was laughing and completely invested on where the story was going.

if you decide to pick up this book, keep in mind that is mostly just a fun and quick read which is great if you've been reading a lot of books with more complex plots like i had.

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The book ended up being a bummer. Being a fan of superhero stories, I was excited to read this one, and the MC's name being similar to Emily Brontë didn't hurt, either. But despite my expectations, the book slowed to a halt in the middle. The beginning and the end are fantastic, of course. The book also has all the unique content required to make a superhero story, but most of the plot seems dragged on for miles while having no real impact. It might be because my expectations were too high to reach after reading Thoma’s previous book reviews, but this book lacked a lot, mostly in terms of unnecessary plot elongation.

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Athena Papadakis’s first day at her new job certainly takes a turn when she’s kidnapped by a woman made of steel, a man whose face has been fused to a computer and the doctor who was keeping them as healthy as possible, all running away from basilisk-like creatures.

I love superheroes and origin stories can be fun yet even though I usually enjoy Jesse J. Thoma’s books very much, this one didn’t work for me the way previous ones did. It read like a comic book, which in itself is far from bad, but without the drawings it felt incomplete.

The villains are very villainy, the MCs are nice and they have good chemistry. Spero – the computer guy – is an interesting character but my favourite is Galen, the doctor who hears everyone’s emotions. She’s snarky and petty and she kept me entertained.

If you’ve never read Thoma’s books, I’d recommend starting with the Serenity Prayer novels or Seneca Falls, which I didn’t review but remember liking years ago.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for providing me with this ARC in return of an honest review.
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I was very excited to read an origin story of a sapphic protagonist and started reading this with my partner since they are also a fan of superhero stories. They tapped out after chapter 3 and I was almost convinced to do the same but I do not like to leave reviews on books I have not finished and since I wanted to leave a review, I fought my way through this novel.
Summary: Good idea, bad execution
Worst offender: Writing and pacing
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Besides the premise and the ending, there is not anything I can say I liked.
The writing is underdeveloped, repetitive and feels clumsy at times. It reminded me of those bad Wattpad fanfictions. It could have profited from a lot of rewriting and thorough editing. There is a lot of vague language which kills worldbuilding and realism. You want me to believe that the main characters are adult nurses and scientists but the words used to describe things are “medical supplies”, “important data” and “electronics”??? Tell me what medical supplies are needed, what makes the data important and what kind of electronics are missing. And even the made-up things like “zeptobots” are never explained in any detail. There is a definite lack of research and in a time where we are overexposed to superhero media, not adding detail to your story makes the world unbelievable and the characters look stupid.
The characters are shallow and superficial but worse than that often inconsistent and annoying. They act in non-sensical ways and feel like they should be aged down to teenagers because otherwise their way of thinking and talking clash with their supposed character traits and background stories. The dialogue between characters was so embarrassing at times, I had to put my phone down and go do something else to shake off what I had just read actual adults say to and do around each other. The villain felt cartoon-ish and I had a hard time understanding the overall character motivations, despite that last chapter of hers and I did enjoy that. I really disliked most of the main characters because of these things but also some questionable, off-hand comments that rubbed me the wrong way.
The romantic relationship was instant-love and there was no build-up or growth. I don’t know why these two characters feel more than shallow attraction to each other because it was never shown or told. They do not know each other.
The pacing is something I saw other reviewers mention as well. There was action at the beginning and then during most of the story there was nothing happening. We didn’t even really learn anything new about the major plot hooks or the villain. We also get minimal – if any – character and relationship development. It picks back up towards the end but that means this book could’ve been around 150 pages shorter ( - my digital version had around 250 pages).
I also think that this story might have benefited from being published as a comic or graphic novel perhaps? The images would have helped with – for a lack of a better phrase – painting a better picture and selling the “younger” feel of the story. It would maybe also do well as a children’s cartoon series.
Overall, I would have rather spent my time with something more worthwhile. This was not it for me.

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This book had a very misleading blurb, so I feel compelled to get this point straight: this is not, as I had thought, Megamind with some lesbian romance. In fact I would say this is not really a romance — I would agree with other reviewers it is closer to an origin story of some superhero comics universe, and I’m not sure the existing blurb does a great service to the book in terms of attracting the right crowd. Shelved on more adventure centered shelves I feel it could be more at home.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy — I feel like it was a fun enough read but very confusing until you let go of romance novel structure expectations.

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Superheroes and a romance with women? Count me in.

This book really does start out with a lot of action and then slows down a little too much for me, the plot almost kind of meandering a little even though it seems the romance feels incredibly fast, with very little clear of what they really liked about one another to get serious about their feelings.

I do like however the detail this book has about the science and technology involved in the story, with lots of really interesting depth to the story and a theme of relying on tech a bit too much can be a bad thing. I really do kind of hope for more in the series, maybe about the whole team which would allow for this relationship to flourish even better.

I do feel like I'm repeating much of what has been said already however I do think if you like superheroes, you'd like this I just want more.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bold Strokes for the ARC for review!

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Did I hate it? No. Was it my favorite ever? Also no. But I love superhero stories and I did find it to be fun. I don't regret reading.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for the ARC of this novel. While the concept was intriguing, I did not enjoy the writing of this novel. I found myself skimming most of it so I could see the plot points but was not a fan of how it all came together. This may be more me than the author as she has written several novels so just not my cup of tea. It is not as much of a romance IMO than it is a sci-fic superhero epic. It does look to leave itself open for a sequel but is also a solid ending. This was not for me but it could be for you.

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