Challenge #11

Readers of Romance Winter Challenge #11: Pick a book that was first published in 2008

Phenomenal Girl 5
A.J. Menden
Action Romance (Shomi)
Rating: 3.75 stars
305 pages

My Amazon Review:

A "super" new Romance...., December 17, 2008

I was excited to come across Phenomenal Girl 5 at my local bookstore as it was an idyllic team up for me. As a romance fan as well as a long time comic book fan (in fact my husband of twenty years and I met in a comic book store), I've often wondered about how a superhero based romance would be written. This was a good start.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. My only issue with the storyline was it was a little too cutesy-funny and not enough drama. In comic terms more Spider Man than Dark Knight. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing, just different.

The author is obviously a "fangirl" herself and the many comic homages and in jokes were fun. I'd hoped for a bit more sensuality or sexual chemistry between the hero and heroine, but the love scenes are quite tame, and even,sorry to say, boring. The book drags a bit in the middle but does pick up in the last quarter. The super hero melees were quite exciting and action packed. Major props need to go to the very artsy comic like cover by artist Judy York.

My biggest issue with the book was the heroines emotional immaturity, especially in relation to the maturity of the hero. But, as this seems to be the prevalent theme in most of today's vampire, paranormal, action romances, I guess I'll just have to get used to it. Though the "slightly ditzy modern girl who has the ancient, intelligent man fall for her" storyline is getting slightly redundant.

Finally, I want to encourage and support any new author like Ms. Menden who is out there breaking new ground in the Romance field, so I enjoyed Phenomenal Girl 5 enough to recommend it to Romance readers looking for something different and will try the next book in the series as well.
3.75 stars.