CBR14Bingo “Series” –Hollywood Heroine is the fifth book in the Heroine Complex series.
Hollywood Heroines finds Aveda Jupiter and Evie Tanaka heading to Los Angeles to visit the set of a pilot being filmed about their adventures. A while back they agreed to sell the rights to their story but hadn’t paid much attention to the development until the studio, Pinnacle Pictures, reached out about the visit. Aveda is still stressed from the ghost incident in the previous book, Haunted Heroine. She isn’t comfortable with change and life has been continually bombarding her with them. It took hard work on herself and her friendship with Evie to create their superheroing found family that all lived together in an old Victorian house in San Francisco. But now Bea is living and doing supernatural research in Hawai’i. Lucy has married and is living with her wife, Rose. And Evie is expecting little Galactus Tanaka-Jones which is naturally going to result in her superhero sabbatical.
Aveda’s natural desire to take charge and solve problems has her spinning multiple plates with no time for herself. She even begins to push her husband, Scott, away as she imagines a more fulfilling life for him staying in LA. When the supernatural forces begin bearing down in earnest, Aveda is far from on top of her game. Then again, who would have thought that that Otherworld magic could create vampires!
The Heroine Complex books are fun, a bit sexy, and entertaining to read. A thing I appreciate about Kuhn’s series is that the characters keep growing as people. Aveda is continuing to put in the work and self understanding that leads to having better communication and relationships with those around her and herself.
I really enjoyed having Los Angeles as the setting. Having a little bit of knowledge about cities in books adds an extra layer of immersion. It was delightful when The Ripped Bodice, a real romance bookstore in LA, is a featured location as Aveda and team search for clues. That tidbit got me curious, was the restaurant with the cheeseburger potstickers also real? And yes, you can visit Ms Chi Cafe and order Chef Shirley Chung’s award winning cheeseburger potstickers. It shouldn’t surprise me to learn that there is an over one hundred year old mochi shop in Little Tokyo but it did and now I’m determined to visit the next time I get to LA. Evie mentions wanting to do a self guided walking tour of Little Tokyo. A quick Google away found me several options. I think I know what I want to do for my birthday this year!
