All Superheroes Need PR is the first book in the Supers in the City series by Elizabeth Stephens. It also happens to be my first Elizabeth Stephens book and my first monster romance, and it won’t be my last. The basic premise of the book is that 22 years ago, a group of alien children (The Forty-Eight) fell to Earth with no memories of their past and possessing extraordinary powers. They were raised among humans and eventually marketed as either heroes or villains by two opposing groups, the Champions Coalition and the Villains Network. I’m probably dating myself, but this setup reminded me of the online games City of Heroes and Champions, both of which let you create characters and join teams of either superheroes or villains. If you’re a gamer of a certain age, you’ll know what I’m referencing.

As the book begins, we meet our FMC, Vanessa Theriot, who runs her own PR firm and is vying to represent one of the free agent 48, Roland Casteel. From there, we follow the growing relationship between Vanessa and Roland as things go from strange to downright unhinged.

All Superheroes Need PR was a wild ride that was by turns funny, sexy, emotional, and thoroughly enjoyable. Ms. Stephens has done some intense and detailed world-building, and I had no problem being sucked into Vanessa and Roland’s orbit. The characters themselves are all well-written and multidimensional. The cast of characters is also extremely diverse with BIPOC, trans, and queer representation. I love this aspect of the book, and I hope to see more of it within the series as it continues.

Since I received an eALC as well, I just wanted to say that the narration was terrific and really allowed you to immerse yourself in the story.

Overall, All Superheroes Need PR was a fun ride and a terrific opener to the series. I can’t wait for book 2 to see where Ms. Stephens takes this quirky collection of characters.

Thank you to Elizabeth Stephens, Montlake and NetGalley for the gifted eALC.

Elizabeth has created such a fascinating and imaginative world in All Superheroes Need PR. The characters are a joy to spend time with and each one adds something special to the story. I loved the mix of humor, heart, and action, and the romance was truly swoon worthy. The banter is fun, the emotional moments hit just right, and the story kept me turning the pages. It was clever, charming, and so much fun to read.

THIS BOOK WAS SO REFRESHING, MY GOODNESS! I love the humor and heat Elizabeth brings to the story with her writing, and I can't wait for book 2!

Once I wrapped my head around the world, I was SAT! This was such a fun set up and I'm already excited to see Elizabeth have fun in this world.

I adored Roland💕He was absolutely not playing about Vanessa and had to remind several people that he was a hero by choice not nature hahaha

Vanessa was not my favorite FMC, but I can appreciate her story. I love the community she was able to find! That family dynamic was so real! Brothers will be you biggest pain and riders hahaha I also loved her colleagues! Can't wait to see more from them as the series continues!

Already obsessed with Monika and can't wait to see where their story goes!

i loved this book so much! so fun & entertaining. if you like the boys, but want it to be less dark.. this will be your vibe

I had so much fun with this book. I love the world and the story. I also absolutely adore the amount of representation throughout this book with LGBTQIA+ and people of color. It was really nice to see in a romantasy setting. I also loveddddd the narrators. They brought these characters to life in an amazing way. Absolutely loved and can’t wait for the next book!!

All Superheroes Need PR by Elizabeth Stephens is action fueled alien romance where a superhero hires the marketing maven & head of her company only for this matchup turning into an adventure that will change their lives forever.

This is book #1 in the Supers in the City series & It was a banter filled start that wonderfully combined romance with action & adventure.

All Superheroes Need PR Is great for those looking to read…
🩷 Superhero Romance
🩷 Workplace Romance
🩷 Forced Proximity
🩷 Anxiety & PTSD Representation

I was fortunate enough to listen to the audiobook of this dual narration & it was superb! I listened at 2x & it was perfect for my ADHD brain.

I never want to give away spoilers for one of my favorite lines was, “I may be a hero, but I’m only a hero for her. For you, I can be a villain at just fine.” (77% of the book)

I loved the pure love, chaos & hilarity that her family provided & were moments of joy & adoration in this story.

This was just a breath of fresh air for the romance genre with its utter uniqueness & unputdownable super ability. I cannot wait to read more form this series & this author. I highly recommend All Superheroes Need PR !

Massive thanks to NetGalley, Montlake & Brilliance Audio for the gifted copy, which I voluntarily read & reviewed.

Thank you so much to Montlake and Netgalley for providing an advanced copy of this book! All thoughts and opinions are still my own.

Literally everything Elizabeth Stephens writes immediately becomes a favorite. There is just something about her writing that completely hooks me every single time. And I absolutely loved her unique spin on superheroes here.

We follow a heroine who is exceptionally capable but suffers from severe anxiety - and I loved her character. I loved how this showed that strength doesn't always come in the same package. That you can be strong and still need help.

This has fantastic side characters - friends, family, other supers - you immediately care for and want more of (if I don't get a romance between Vanessa's brother and best friend I swear to- 😅). Tons of action to match the superhero/action vibe. And a hero who would (literally) burn the world for the heroine.

There are few things I love more in a romance than a hero worshiping the damn ground the heroine walks on. And Roland was simping hard.

And I loved that the author made even superheroes so quintessentially her. I don't want to ruin the little reveals but I loved how much *more* this story became by the end.

I'm so excited for the next book. Honestly I'd read 100 of these.

Passion and longing intricately intertwined into a truly stellar, unique and unforgettable plotline, that’s All Superheros Need PR in a nutshell.

It's a well written story with lots of heart. Vanessa and Roland's journey is extremely sensual, almost poetic. Loved it!!

All Superheroes Need PR is FANTASTIC. I absolutely love the world Elizabeth Stephens created and I want MORE. The narrators for this book are EXCELLENT!!!!! Legit. Dara Brown does a great job as our incredibly intelligent, socially awkward, living with trauma FMC as Vanessa. She's also a bit of a badass in her own way. And lawd...Sean Bassett as Roland. OMG I'm pretty sure both my ovaries popped when he first spoke. He's got a great voice and also knows how to voice women without making them sound like stupid airheads.

Imagine a deep voice proclaiming “In a world where forty-eight aliens fell to earth Superman style, emerging from pods as children, a balance of heroes and villains has been organized. Team hero has hired a little known PR team to rebrand one of the forty-eight from terrorizing Pyro into a new Hero, The Wyvern. But in order to keep him on team good he has a few stipulations, he wants the head of the PR team to be his Louis Lane.” That is the premise behind All Superheroes Need PR the first book in the new Supers in the City series.

Vanessa has a small but mighty PR firm and she has placed a bid to be the new force behind Pyro’s rebranding. But when the meeting with the Super doesn’t go well, she assumes all the work put into this campaign was for nothing. That shifts when the contract is hers with just a few stipulations. She will be the liaison between Pyro and public as well as any day to day. She never thought at the time that what he was really angling for was for her to play the Louis Lane to his Clark Kent. Vanessa has not had a lot of success with dating so maybe this will be great to fake date the superhero. That will help the rebranding go more smoothly…right? We all know what fake dating leads to here, and while it might be fake for Vanessa it is new fake for The Wyvern aka Roland.

It took me a little time to get into this story. Vanessa is so timid, shy and came across as weak in the beginning of the book. It was hard to buy into how she would have built a successful business on her own when she struggled to have a conversation outside of her family and immediate friend group. When we first meet Roland he too comes across as a jerk. While later we understand the visceral reaction he has to Vanessa, at the time he just seems a little mean. It isn’t until I got a peak into Vanessa’s past and she and Roland actually have a conversation that I started to have a better time in the story.

Vanessa’s adopted family was great and I loved how protective her brothers were of her. It was cute the way they all tried to protect her from the big bad superhero. The way they were willing to charge with her into danger also just really cool. I enjoyed how the parents kept the family close with weekend brunches and family dinners. Her mother was a force to be reckoned with the and swear jar was a fun touch.

The premise of this story ended up being very cool and different. There are reasons that alien children were sent to earth and when Roland finds his key and his purpose he will have to decide where his loyalties lie – to the home world that sent him there and the other alien children, or to the woman that he longs to protect. Because Roland wants it to be clear he is not a hero, but he will be Vanessa’s hero.

The beginning was a little struggle to get into as I didn’t connect with Vanessa right away. I also sometimes find that when you complain in books about social issues such as under representation of colored female authors or characters, make the majority of the side characters trans or gay and make a point of pointing out all the injustices in the world to some of those people, I, as a straight white woman, feel a little attacked. Those feelings really takes me out of the story if it doesn’t seem like something that is natural to flow of the story. Sometimes it feels like a checklist publishers put in that your story has to have 5 of these features. There are ways to do this that don’t take the reader out of the story; Craig Shaeffer does this really well with his Trans and alternate lifestyle characters.

This was a cute superhero love story when it focused on the story. There is a bit of insta-love but I accepted it in the context of what Vanessa ended up being to Roland. Very interesting concept to Superheroes and Villains basically being part of a corporation, getting regular paychecks and endorsement deals. I will definitely check out the next book in the series as overall I enjoy this world and some of the morally ambiguous heroes in it.

Narration:
Performance: ★★★★
Character Separation: ★★★★
Diction: ★★★★
Pacing/Flow: ★★★★
Sound Effects: None

Dara Brown and Sean Bassett are both new to me narrators. I thought they did a good job with the story narrators. Sean has a really deep voice that seemed to fit the Wyvern well and how I would expect him to sound. Dara brought some of Vanessa’s vulnerabilities to life and helped make it easy to understand her. I enjoyed both PoV narrations and how they performed all of the characters.

Thanks to Elizabeth Stephens and Montake for letting me read and review this book early. All thoughts are my own!!

He’s looking to rebrand as a hero, and she’s the PR manager who can help him do it.

I loved every single thing about this book. I did the audio, and it was phenomenal!! Elizabeth knows how to write a book!!

Vanessa is making a name for herself in her professional field, and Roland is the villain who can help her reach her goals. I really loved the touch of fated mates in this book and how immediately down bad he was for Vanessa. Their interactions for the first part of this book were so funny and cute. I really loved the way the narrators for this audiobook acted as these characters.

Their banter and tension and chemistry was SPECTACULAR!! He was so obsessed with her from the start, and I loved seeing how far he was willing to go for her. She was a badass, and she was truly my favorite part of this book.

Their relationship development alongside the plot outside of the romance was perfectly balanced and kept me so interested in both aspects. I was so invested in every part of this story, including all the ensemble characters. I’m so excited for more books in this universe, and I will be reading Elizabeth’s other books to tide me over until they come out.

I went into All Superheroes Need PR with a very different expectation of the book than what I read. I don't tend to read summaries of books too in depth, but I did with this one as I'm hot and cold on superhero books/movies in general. I was really interested in this one, but it just didn't hit the way I wanted it too. I did like the love relationship between Vanessa and Roland, but the nicknames they gave each other were so stilted--less so with Nessa, but Rolo seemed so weird and out of left field, especially when she said it almost involuntarily. Some of the scenes were just awkward, and the conversations felt incomplete. I did like the premise of this story, though the ending turned out a lot different than I would have thought it would, in both bad and good ways. Overall, it was an enjoyable read, but I struggled with it a bit. 3 3/4* The narrators I thought did a good job, though some of the sound effects were a bit weird. That being said, I did enjoy the change in voice from the Wyvern to Roland and other parts where voice changes were appropriate.

I received a copy of this audiobook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest and fair review.

What a unique storyline!? Sci-fi, although a genre i have dabbled in some, is not my usual cup of tea. But wow I really enjoyed this book. I will say that for the first 40% of the book it felt very Twilight-y? In the way of Vanessa felt like the melanated version of Bella 🤣 but I love an MMC that is alllllll about their woman. I also loved the beautiful trans rep 💜

I'm very curious as to how Elizabeth will continue on with this plot line and which characters (or even new ones) will star in the next book.

Overall it was a unique, and fun, reading experience. And I'm excited for book two!

Thank you to the publisher and the author for a PR package and the ALC of this novel; all opinions are my own.

This is one of my favorite books of the year without a doubt. It was cute and clever and fun adn the characters were interesting and dynamic. There’s spice and romance but also world building and interesting side characters. I don’t love superhero stuff (not a Marvel fan) but I’m OBSESSED with this book and this world and these characters.

Absolutely in love I hope this becomes a series with 50 books and I can read them all.

If you can, do a tandem read of this book: read the audiobook with the physical book. The male narrators voice made me actually gasp out loud it was so good.

This audiobook was FANTASTIC! The narrators truly brought this book to life and added so much depth to the story and the characters. Listening to this on audio was like going on adventure!

A really fantastic audiobook - this was my first Elizabeth Stephens book and I really enjoyed her take on a superhero universe and she did a great job building up the world and side characters alongside our FMC/MMC. The audio narration was also excellent, capturing the essence of the characters really well.

I already read this book once with my eyeballs and truly the story is 5 stars. Pretty sure the narration elevates it to 10 stars! Dara Brown and Sean Bassett both do a fantastic job. The first six or so chapters are read by Dara and when Sean finally comes in with Roland’s POV…words cannot describe. 🔥🔥🔥 I had so much fun both times I read it and absolutely cannot wait for more!

My review of the book:
I have devoured everything Elizabeth Stephens has written and this book was no different! I was hooked from the very first page. I loved the twist on the superhero theme and that Roland wasn't all "hero" or all "villain". My favorite trope is quickly becoming I'm only soft/good for or because of her and Elizabeth is the queen at giving that to us! I also appreciate that Vanessa was able to be a shy and slightly awkward FMC wasn't relegated into the role of 'strong, uber independent, Black corporate woman'. I also loved that the side characters had a feeling of being fully formed. I wanted more of them because I loved them so much! I NEEED Marjorie and Charlie to have their own novela or something because I need them to end up together. Speaking of Marjorie, there is fantastic representation in this book, of all kinds, and it doesn't feel like the author is just checking off a diversity checklist. You can tell that the representation she chose for this book was intentional, but in a way that feels like it's the way she sees the world and as a way to honor those communities. I absolutely need more in this series and we all need more books like this from authors like Elizabeth!

The audiobook was amazing too! The narrators did an amazing job and only enhanced the storytelling with their narration and really brought the characters to life. I also enjoyed that the narrators felt age appropriate and clearly represented the characters they were narrating for.

I am DNF this book at 60%. I was enjoying this book. In it we have a woman who runs a PR firm. In her version of earth 49 alien children crashed on earth years ago. They look human, but they all have special powers. It is decades later and some of these kids are villains and some are heroes and everyone lives in a “super” society. The heroes want to bring on one of the 49 named Pyro because of his ability to control and be fire. Now please be aware. These are no longer kids. They’re all in their 30s, but Pyro, because of incidents while he was a teenager, isn’t a villain or a hero. He’s just kind of not anywhere and has a bad reputation. The PR firm is hired to make Pyro into the superhero the world needs. It’s a very well-done story, mostly. As mentioned previously, I was thoroughly enjoying this story, but then we get to the spice. This is where things go downhill. Throughout the story, we are reminded that our main character is fragile. She has social anxiety. Even though she runs a PR firm, she lets other people talk for her. She doesn’t like to be touched. She doesn’t like to be around men. There is a history of child abuse from her father before her adopted family. She’s in her 30s, but she still has this trauma, sees therapist, etc. This gets odd because even though she is this socially anxious and scared individual she takes on the Lois Lane clause. It seems so far out in left field but OK I’ll get into that. When you get the first full on spicy scene that is what took me out of the story. The scene itself was fine if it was in any other book, but here you have an overbearing male, shoving his thumb in her mouth, soaking, “I’m not going to FU” but… It’s the manhandling and how the woman reads as completely into it, when this is a woman who can’t normally stand to be touched or around people. The whole thing just took me completely out of the story and no matter how much I try I have no desire to go back to it. It’s like it’s two different characters. I know this book is getting a lot of great things said about it, and it’s a best seller, and other TikTokers love it. Good for them. I loved most of this and if they would’ve left the spicy scene out, I probably would think this is fantastic read. But that first spicy scene did not match the rest of the book. That’s my biggest complaint. It doesn’t match the rest of the book which is cozy and sweet. It is grumpy sunshine. The guy’s kind of a dick, but it’s just so impossible. Not the aliens, not the sci-fi, not the superheroes. The spice seemed implausible, and it took me completely out of the book. So, this book is a DNF at 60%