More than 20 years ago, 48 young heroes came to earth, and for marketing and capitalist reasons, they were eventually split into two groups that were promoted as The Heroes and The Villains, respectively. Villain Roland Casteel, widely known as "The Pyro," is looking to become a hero. Roland meets with Vanessa Theriot, a PR manger and the owner of her own PR company, in hopes that she can help change his public image.

The plan seems simple enough. Change his name, change his look, and give him a heroine? Vanessa agrees to become Roland's "Lois Lane" and suddenly they're fake dating!

Vanessa starts to become infatuated with Roland, but just as things are going good, they turn south. A supervillain has Roland acting like his old villainous self, but this time it's to save someone he's fallen madly in love with.

This book is hilarious, spicy, sweet, relatable, heartwarming, a little dark (as it covers topics sensitive for some audiences), and just overall a really good read! There is anxiety and PTSD representation in this book through the main character, Vanessa, and her character's situation and emotions are so easy to identify & resonate with. (⚠️ - Please make sure to check the Trigger Warnings for this book on the author's website!)

As a comic book, superhero, romance, and paranormal romance fan reading this book was really an enjoyable experience. It felt so good to laugh so hard.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5/5 Stars

Thank you so much to the Publisher Montlake, to the author Elizabeth Stephens, and to NetGalley for an audiobook arc of this book!

I recieved a free ALC of this book as a gift from the author.

"Sometimes superheroes don't give a fuck about the world. Sometimes, they just want the girl."

I have read the majority of Elizabeth Stephens blacklist at this point and adored all of them, so it was no surprise I loved this book too. I just really get on with the way she writes romantic relationships; MMCs who are gone from minute one, absolutely obsessed with their FMCs and FMCs who are each strong in their own unique way. Roland, or Rollo, is probably my favourite MMC from recent memory; I actually swooned at almost everything he said. Vanessa was wonderful too, and reminded me so much of myself which greatly helped my enjoyment of this book. She was socially anxious and panicky, but still so smart and strong in other ways. I've never read or thought I would like a superhero book before, but this one was definitely worth the read.
I also loved the found family aspect of this book, and the effortless way the author incorporated such stunning diversity. All other authors should be taking notes; it really isn't that hard.

As for sex/smut/spice, I'm not sure why I've seen so much about this book being majority that as there were actually so few scenes. One partial set scene (no P-in-V, but other things) at 55% and nothing else but a few mentions of oral until after the 85% mark where there were only 2 full sex scenes through the rest of the book.

TW/CW: mentions and memories of verbal and physical child abuse by parents, PTSD and anxiety experienced on-page, mentions of transphobia, mentions of death, kidnapping, mentions of foster care and adoption, arson, light CNC and somnophilia kink (consensually explored), light BDSM elements, mentions of guns and gun violence, general violence relating to superheros and supervillains, and other things I may have missed