Caped: Superheroes in Romance
San Diego has made its annual recovery from Comicon. It is a great time to live in this city where you might shop at Target with a bevy of Stormtroopers needing WD-40, meet Stampylong Nose (Epic You Tuber) at the Donut Bar, or sit next to Ninja Turtle Creator Kevin Eastman and his badass tats on the Trolly. Good Times.
Because I am an aging geek (oh the crowds), cheap (damn tickets are pricey and hard to find), and uber nerdy (I like the academic stuff upstairs the best and with a little one, it is hard to nerdfest out on panels like The Portrayal of Women of Color in Fighting Style Video Games--my own paper by the way), I don't tend to get down to the Con much anymore but I am still thrilled at the diveristy of nerd culture entering the mainstream.
Comics are still at the heart of Comicon and Superheroes rule. The Cosplayers make the Con.
Superheroes are going big at the movies.
Here is a list of films rumored to be in development! Nick Fury, Man of Steel 2, Teen Titans , Silver Surfer, Justice League, Wonder Woman, Deadpool, Sandman,Captain Canuck, Super Max, The Metal Men, Shazam, The Flash, The Fantastic Four (reboot), The Toxic Avenger, Sub-Mariner, Iron Fist, Bizarro Superman, Doctor Strange, Aquaman, Black Panther, Luke Cage, and Deathlok.
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Life is good.
Romanceland is doing our part as well. Here are some Superheroes worth your time.
1. Karma Girl by Jennifer Estep
Investigative reporter Carmen Cole gets the surprise of her life on her wedding day when she discovers that her fiancé and best friend are sleeping together—and that the two of them are her town's resident superhero and ubervillain. Shocked and hurt, Carmen reveals their secret identities and then decides to devote her life to unmasking every superhero and ubervillain who crosses her path.
A series of successful unmaskings lands Carmen a job at The Exposé, one of the biggest newspapers in Bigtime, New York, a city that's full of superheroes and ubervillains. Carmen is in her element—until she gets kidnapped by the Terrible Triad, Bigtime’s most dangerous ubervillain team.
The Triad orders Carmen to uncover the secret identity of Striker, the leader of the Fearless Five, Bigtime's most popular superhero team—or else they’ll drop her in a vat of radioactive goo. With that threat hanging over her, Carmen sets out to unmask Striker, but what she doesn’t count on is falling for the sexy superhero. But with the Terrible Triad lurking around, this is one story that just might be the death of her....
2. Black Hellebore by Nicole Zoltack
Once a year for the past decade, Nicholas Adams returns to Falledge and leaves a black hellebore on his girlfriend's grave. While fleeing Falledge, he spies a shady man sneaking into the laboratory. Nicholas chases after him and dies for his trouble. A witch brings him back to life, only Nicholas is not the same man. Turns out, magic combined with a black hellebore in his pocket changed him into a kind of a super man.
Julianna Paige, his girlfriend's twin and deputy of Falledge, struggles to solve several murders. Nicholas, and his alter ego the Black Hellebore, helps her, even as she helps him move on and start to truly live again.
Unfortunately, Nicholas wasn't the only one changed in the laboratory explosion, and now a super villain is bent on destroying Falledge, and killing the Black Hellebore. But falling in love might prove more dangerous than any super villain.
3. Yesterday's Heroes by Elizabeth Gannon
The life of a super-hero is not all it’s cracked up to be. Just ask Wyatt Ferral, one of the city’s cape-wearing favorite sons. For one thing, he can’t stand the other heroes, and is starting to see that they aren’t especially heroic. Plus, he’s forced to wear stupid looking spandex costumes, and his unauthorized biographies are filled with glaring inaccuracies. Heroing is so isolating. Some days, he just wants to walk away from it all and have a real life. All it would take is one personal tragedy to push him over the edge…
Meanwhile at the Consortium of Chaos…
The life of a super-villain is a blast, just ask the super-villainess known as “Harlot.” Just because you’re dedicated to evil doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun, right? So, when the almost forgotten hero Wyatt Ferral walks into the Consortium’s headquarters one day and says that he has a plan, she’s intrigued. Can Wyatt help their troubled organization finally succeed in one of their world domination schemes? Can she keep her fellow villains from killing the handsome hero long enough to hear what he has to say? Will he see the subtle but important distinction between collecting his memorabilia and stalking him? Was his Hero swimsuit calendar photoshopped, or do his abs actually really look like that? So many important questions…
4. Aphrodite's Passion by Julie Kenner
Mortal Tracy Tannin has always felt like the most ordinary girl in the world, especially since she’s lived her whole life in the shadow of her Hollywood superstar grandmother. But when she finds an antique belt in her grandmother’s attic, everything changes. Suddenly everyone wants Tracy—or maybe they just want the belt.
Superhero Hale is more than happy to do his job protecting mortals. But get emotionally close to one? Absolutely no way. Which is why he’s thrown a bit off his game when he suddenly finds himself craving the mortal woman he’s been assigned to protect. But that must just be the effect of the magical belt he’s supposed to retrieve, right?
5. Holding Out for a Hero by Christine Bell et all
After five years in training, it's finally time for Scarlett Fever and her fellow superheroes to leave the United Superhero Academy and test their powers out in the real world. There's only one problem. She's been assigned to partner with arrogant, by the book, and irritatingly hot, Blade of Justice.
Vince might be hard as steel, but he's not invincible. Not when iron touches him, especially in the hands of an evil minion. Not when Kara ran away after a whirlwind affair, just when he thought he might be falling in love. And definitely not when she returns, looking for his help.
The archvillain TechHead is coming for Kara and her superhero teammates, and he's determined to use their combined power to create the ultimate weapon. But Kara can't fight him alone. She needs Vince's brutal skill, though being with him means she risks losing her beloved secret identity, leaving her nowhere else to hide.
When TechHead makes a play to capture Kara, Vince has more to lose than just his heart. But he will do anything for the woman he loves, even if it means putting his heart on the line again.
Playing With Fire by Tamara Morgan
Fiona Nelson has always been one hot ticket--even before she took the conversion serum that gave her superhu¬man abilities. Fiona's powers come at a price: lack of human contact, or she won't be the only thing burning. When she loses control of her emotions, her fire powers run rampant... and she's hurt enough people already. Including herself.
But when the man behind her conversion returns to blackmail her into helping him gain power, the only person she can turn to is Ian Jones, the man who broke her teenage heart. The man determined to expose the criminal known as Fireball, whose explosive escapades are just a little too close to Fiona's M.O.
Ian is convinced Fiona's dangerous, convinced she's Fire¬ball, and convinced he'll damn himself if he doesn't resist a heat that's always drawn him to Fiona like a moth to a flame--but Ian has his own secrets.
And he'll learn far too soon what happens when you play with fire.
From the Ashes by Adrien-Luc Sanders
Sociopath. Killer. Deviant. Monster, devoid of morals, incapable of human emotion. The villain known as Spark has been called that and more, and as a super-powered aberrant has masterminded count¬less crimes to build his father's inhuman empire.
Yet to professor Sean Archer, this fearsome creature is only Tobias Rutherford--antisocial graduate research¬er, quiet underachiever, and a fascinating puzzle Sean is determined to solve.
One kiss leads to an entanglement that challenges ev¬erything Tobias knows about himself, aberrants, and his own capacity to love. But when his father orders him to assassinate a senator, one misstep unravels a knot of political intrigue that places the fate of hu¬mans and aberrants alike in Tobias's hands. As danger mounts and bodies pile deeper, will Tobias succumb to his dark nature and sacrifice Sean--or will he defy his father and rise from the ashes to become a hero in a world of villains?
6. Seductive Powers by Rebecca Royce
Wendy Warner is a bit of an oddball. Raised in an orphanage, she’s found solace and friendship by watching the television show, Space Adventures, and participating in its fan clubs. Twice a month, Wendy comes to work dressed in a costume from the show that she wears to charity events. She’s been able to ignore the looks of distain from many of her coworkers, but when the president of the company gazes at her with something more, she knows she’s in deep.
Draco Powers rather likes the way the uniform hugs all her curves in the just the right places. He’s also a real-life Guardian who told the world that, yes, some people had superhuman abilities, but, no, they wouldn’t work for free or without health insurance. Some people refer to him with derision as the "Capitalist Guardian." While Draco doesn’t care what he’s called, he’s also being hunted by a group called the Organization, whose motives are unclear and yet still cause death and destruction wherever they go.
The Organization has decided that Draco's biggest weakness is the way he cares about his employees and has chosen Wendy as their next target. To save her, Draco will have to come to terms with his real feelings and the reason he’s long resisted complicated relationships…but he's running out of time.
7. Nobody Gets the Girl: A Superhero Novel by James Maxey
Richard Rogers was an ordinary man until he met the super-genius Dr. Nicolas Knowbokov. Now trapped in a world that has no memory of him, Richard is an invisible, intangible ghost to everyone but Dr. Know and the scientist’s two sexy superheroine daughters, Rail Blade and the Thrill. Assigned the codename Nobody, Richard becomes the world’s ultimate spy, invisibly battling the super-powered terrorist army run by the mysterious mastermind Rex Monday. The fate of the free world is at stake as the superhuman battles escalate, wiping entire cities from the map, threatening the survival of all mankind. Who can save us from the looming apocalypse? Nobody!
8. Elemental Man by Summer Devon
Caleb is an ordinary guy...except for his bizarre ability to adapt to any situation. Really. Anything goes. Fire and water are no problem for him.
Someone is shoving innocents into dangerous situations and Caleb is forced to act again and again. It's up to him to stop the person who's trying to draw him out. He already suspected his attractive neighbor is his stalker and then she demonstrates the rare ability of seeing him as he adapts.
After Caleb confronts her, he has another problem on his hands. He's told the innocent civilian Melinda far too much about himself and she apparently has some extraordinary skills herself. Her rare skills might make Melinda a target of the stalker who's after Caleb.
And, thanks to his mistake about her identity, the nuisance of an agency that controls his life knows she exists. Caleb decides he has to protect and hide her from his friends and foes. Maybe she won't notice he's pretending they've got a future together.
9. Flash of Death by Cindy Dees
Trent Hollings has been secretly engineered to be the fastest man on earth. But when undercover forensics accountant Chloe Jordan walks into his life, with all her sexy reserve, time stands still for him. Not even the threat of retaliation from a powerful drug cartel can stop Trent from using his superhuman skills to keep her safe.
Chloe takes one look at Trent and sees everything she's ever craved and avoided when it comes to men: adventure…and lies. Still, she knows that it's only a matter of time before she surrenders to this smoking-hot man. But when the enemy finds them, Chloe is confronted with a truth that could destroy her love for Trent forever….
10. Steele by Sherri L. King Steele
After a year-long coma, Marla has returned home from the hospital. But something about her has changed. Something unbelievable.Brian Steele, a vigilante and ex-underground boxer, has come into Marla's life to protect her and help her understand her strange new abilities. But before long, he also has plans to seduce her down to her very soul.How will Marla, still weak and confused, cope with such a virile man as Steele? She doesn't know, but she's ready to learn. As soon as possible.
Did I miss your favorite? Let me know!
To vote for the best of the best, go to the Goodreads list: Caped: Superheroes in Romance.
If you want to see some amazing Cosplayers as well as super hot Superheroes check out my Pinterest Board: Superlove!
Need more Super Action? Get Your Super On: Heroine Style.
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