All Superheroes Need PR (Supers in the City, #1) by Elizabeth Stephens Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: contemporary romance, fantasy romance, romantasy, science fiction romance, superhero romance
Series: Supers in the City #1
Pages: 295
Published by Montlake on May 27, 2025
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads
He’s a villain looking for a hero rebrand. She’s the marketing genius who can make it happen in this fantastical romantic comedy by the author of the Beasts of Gatamora series.
Over two decades ago, forty-eight young, gifted superheroes fell to Earth and were eventually marketed as opposing heroes and villains. Now, one exceptionally gruff bad guy is looking to hop teams. Hello, PR director Vanessa Theriot.
His real name is Roland Casteel a.k.a. the Pyro. First, swap that with the less incinerating the Wyvern. Next, put him in spandex to highlight that near-godlike body. Finally, give that hero in training a heroine—if Vanessa will play the part in a pretend romance guaranteed to make the city swoon. She’s game. As shy as Vanessa is, it’s her job to be Roland’s very own Lois Lane. Who knew that fake dating would change their worlds?
But falling head over heels for real makes for a dangerous shift in the narrative. A monstrous supervillain is bringing out Roland’s bad side again. This time, it’s to save a woman who, against all the odds, is becoming the human love of his superhero life.
My Review:
The cover of this book, in particular the ginormous shadow image cast by the clinching couple at the bottom left, is an equally ginormous spoiler for the story. Consider yourself warned.
At first, it seems as if the ‘Forty-Eight’, the young aliens dropped on Earth who grow up to be superheroes, are all more than a bit Superman. It certainly seems like that origin story – multiplied 48 times. Oh, except that some of the kids turn out to be Lex Luthor, or to be more accurate, General Zod.
In other words, some of those initial 48 superhero children grow up to become supervillains instead. Considering the way that they ALL get poked and prodded and studied and even experimented on, it’s honestly not a surprise that a few would turn to the dark side of the Force because they DO have cookies.
So, again, at first, the set up is that one of the Forty-Eight has become a ‘free agent’, and is deciding between joining the Champions Coalition and the Villains Network. Considering that Pyro’s power is to set ANYTHING on fire, you’d think he’d be a lock for the Villains. But he’s flirting with both sides because he’s pretty damn cynical about the whole damn thing.
Which is where his plans go about pear-shaped. Or perhaps that should be hourglass-shaped, in the person of Vanessa Theriot, the owner of The Riot genius marketing firm. There’s something about her that draws Pyro in, hard and fast and all puns intended, to the point where he can’t stand to be around her because she makes him feel things and not just the obvious.
So he’s a dick, throws her out of a pitch meeting for her own company’s bid to handle his rebranding, throws her entire company into disarray in the fallout, and then runs into her again, can’t resist swooping in to protect her, and ends up roping her into a contract for what she believes is a marketing campaign and he thinks will result in a wedding and all that comes with it.
And they’re both right in the end – and they’re both a bit wrong. Because the instant attraction they feel for each other is definitely about hearts and flowers and lust and romance – but it’s also unlocking the key to his true powers and a whole bunch of terrible truths about the ‘Forty-Eight’ that those young superheroes – including Wyvern (formerly known as Pyro) – were programmed NOT to remember.
But of course, because those hidden truths have the potential to be truly terrible indeed – at least for everyone else – the supervillains have put enough pieces together to be more than willing to die – or more likely to kill – to discover the rest.
Escape Rating B: This is definitely another one of those mixed feelings reviews. Because I was all in on the whole superhero romance idea – I was downright looking forward to it, in fact, because it’s a trope that used to be more prevalent and then went underground and I was hoping for a renaissance because I loved that trope a lot. Recent books like Hench (which is not a romance) and Assistant to the Villain (which definitely is) gave me hope that this might go further down that road. Because the idea of exploring both the cost of superhero-dom as well as the fascinating possibilities of what the romance between a super and a non-super has a ton of romantic tension potential in it.
So this story goes along and develops the world and the setup and the romance and the reader gets invested in all of it – even if said reader wishes there was just a bit more of that worldbuilding. OTOH, reading mileage may certainly vary on the romance, as it is VERY instalove to the point of verging on fated mates.
And that wasn’t the only trope line that this one fell over and into, as Vanessa’s clumsiness bordered on a superpower of her own – and I’m still not sure that’s not right – and there’s certainly a LOT of ‘magic cock’ in their instant romance as well as a bit of fake dating – at least from Vanessa’s side of the misplaced assumptions and misunderstandings.
At the same time, I really liked Vanessa and both her found family and her adopted family are absolute delights, but Vanessa comes into this story with a lot of understandable and justifiable issues that get kind of swept away by her newfound superhero’s love – and, ahem, affection.
Howsomever, and as I said at the top, the cover is a hint. What it’s a hint for is a gigantic switcheroo, transforming All Superheroes Need PR into something a bit more like All Invading Alien Monsters Need PR (while they find their fated mates). I’m really, really curious about how that’s going to work out in the next book, All Superheroes Need Photo Ops, because it’s a plot twist I sure wasn’t expecting in this one.
