Evie is pregnant with the first part superhero, part demon baby and while there is the normal nausea and slightly elevated blood pressure, Evie’s husband Nate is so overly solicitous that Evie is feeling like an experiment on a slab in his science lab. It doesn’t help that she is feeling extremely amorous and Nate keeps turning her down so Evie is frustrated, incredibly frustrated, which is not helping her doubts about whether or not she can handle becoming a mother. When an invitation to a reunion at the college Evie attended shows up in her email even though she is suspicious, after all she never even graduated, she and her crime fighting partner Aveda cross the bay for a girl’s weekend away. But, once on campus, Evie finds that not only must she confront the ghosts of her past life but real ghosts who are injuring students. When young student Julie is attacked and then disappears after telling Evie not to trust the college authorities, Evie and Aveda go undercover to find the truth and protect the students.

I have not read the first trilogy but there is enough backstory mentioned that it is possible to start the series with this, the beginning of the second trilogy of the Heroine Complex. The characters are well-developed, each with their own strengths and weakness as well as self-doubts and areas of confidence. A fun series with characters you will want in your friend circle. Since the next book does not come out until July, I am off to look up the first trilogy and find out even more about these superheroines. Recommended

Haunted Heroine by Sarah Kuhn: Fantastically Funny
The fourth book in the smart, snarky, and action-packed Heroine series follows Evie Tanaka, Aveda Jupiter, and Bea Tanaka as they combat a new supernatural threat.

Everything in Evie Tanaka's life is finally perfect. As a badass superheroine, she defends San Francisco from demon invasion on the regular. Her relationships with superhero partner Aveda Jupiter, little sister Bea, and hot, half-demon husband Nate have never been stronger. Maybe it's possible for a grad school dropout turned put-upon personal assistant turned superhero to have it all?

Just when she thinks life can't get any better, Evie learns she's pregnant. Everyone around her is overjoyed…but Evie has major doubts about whether she's cut out for motherhood. Before she can dwell on her dilemma, a local women's college reports a string of mysterious "hauntings," and Evie and Aveda are called in to investigate, going undercover as grad students during the creepiest time of the year: Halloween.

As she confronts terrifying ghosts and lives out a bizarre version of the grad school life she left behind, Evie can't help but wonder about the road not taken: what would her life be like if she'd stayed here instead of pursuing superheroing with Aveda? And can an overwhelmed pregnant superhero truly have it all?

She's about to find out.
The best feature of Sarah Kuhn’s writing is the humor. While I’m new to reading her work, I’m finding her snarky, smart comedy part of what makes the books so fresh and original. I’m a sucker for humor and wit in my stories and every author I love shares some facet of this trait. Sarah Kuhn is rapidly beginning to become a favorite. But if it was only the comedic elements that wouldn’t make it nearly as good. So I’d like to talk a bit about her newest in the series and why I liked it so much.
To begin with, the characters grow and change. The original novel starts with a character unmarried and not as confident. By the time, we meet up with Evie Tanaka in Haunted Heroine, she is married, confident, pregnant and has a brand new life with her best friend, sister and husband. But nobody is perfect and no life is perfect. Evie has doubts and fears that linger from her college days and now she must go back and confront those feelings. It is her confrontations and reliance on her friends that teaches her new skills and helps her learn about herself and her power. That kind of powerful writing, the ability to have a character doubt themselves but rise to a challenge and change over the course of a book is what makes a strong story.
She and her friends aren’t perfect, they make mistakes. But she and they learn from them to find the solution to the problems happening on her old campus. Part of also makes the story compelling is it isn’t straight forward. Those causing the problems aren’t always who you think, nor are all the college students. Everyone has a piece of the puzzle and that helps draw out the mystery and the action.
The romance elements are smoking hot, but honest to who the characters are. And while the relationship in the novel is male/female, some of the other relationships depicted are of different sexual orientations as well as including other genders beyond male and female. I find the author’s ability to include that level of diversity part of the draw of her writing.
If you love humor, mystery, diversity, and compelling action with unique and strong characters, you will love the latest in Sarah Kuhn’s Heroine series. I loved the thoughtful growth of the characters, the comedy, and the realistic emotions in the story. The resolution is unexpected and the romance beautifully truthful. I can’t wait to read more about the characters and world of the Heroine Series.
Rating: 5 out of 5 ghosts.

DNFed 4 chapters in because I didn't pay enough attention when I saw a new Heroine Complex book and clicked download, thinking it would be about another character getting a romance and doing some superhero-ing. Actually this is about Evie, the heroine from book one, as she faces parenthood, which, since I liked this series for the romance more than the plot, I don't think is going to be for me.

Based on what I read, this has the humor and the characterization of the earlier books, and, as long as you're not primarily interested in romance (or you don't mind a romance sequel with baby), I think you'll enjoy this. Kuhn's a talented writer, for sure, and I look forward to what she does, but I'm going to check out of Heroine Complex, unless maybe there's another romance.

3.5 stars
As having enjoyed the previous books in the series I was excited to get a copy, and I was not disappointed. I loved the supernatural mystery to the plot, and I liked how we get to have Evie’s POV. It was harrowing to read all her insecurities and the what if’s when life does not go the way you had planned, it was nice to see a more vulnerable side. I also really enjoyed the fact that there is more going on and can’t wait to read about it in future books. Overall, Haunted Heroine is a fun, and heartwarming read that features a highly relatable heroine and supernatural mystery.

Definitely a good start with what Lucy and Rose's characters are doing.Then it gets predictably complicated (oh, and then there's pretty much no more Rose and Lucy after that, which sucked).

Aveda and Evie have to go undercover as grad students at Morgan college because Morgan seems to have a ghost problem (and could it be a demon problem to?)

On the good side, it had a very Silas University (from the Carmilla webseries/movie) to it. There was also a Scott & Bailey TV show mention (very cool).

On the other hand. Nate's an ass in this. I never really saw why he was put with Evie in the first place, and, in this book that opinion has only been strengthened.

Overall I thought that Evie's subplot seemed really really very forced and made it hard at times to get into the rest of the book. It also needed much more Bea, Rose, and Lucy.

I was given this ARC by Netgalley on behalf of DAW.

*I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Wow, this series just keeps getting better and better! Haunted Heroine follows a now-pregnant Evie Tanaka, who is worried that she may not have what it takes to be a mother. When the college she formerly attended--and left after accidentally setting the library on fire--invites Evie for a class reunion, she and co-heroine Aveda Jupiter take a "babymoon" road trip across the bridge. Upon arrival they find that ghostly encounters have been plaguing the students, and decide to offer their expertise in kicking ass. This was exactly what I needed during this weird time. I would recommend this series to anyone looking for a fun, feminist superhero with a lot of romance!

Evie and Aveda are back in an all new adventure that pairs superhero antics with ghostly visits. The local college has always been haunted, but the ghosts have never been destructive before. Evie and Aveda are going under cover to see if they can figure out what has changed and how to stop it. It's just the thing that Evie needs now that her pregnancy (and her fear surrounding this huge change) is straining her relationship with her husband and her so-called perfect life. Running away from her fears won't solve her problems, but fighting ghosts might just be what Evie needs to adjust her mindset to cope with her new reality.

The Heroine Complex series is fun, funny and fast-paced. I'm glad to see that there are still adventures for Evie and Aveda after their got their HEAs.

I’ve been a fan of this series since the very first book, and I was so happy to see that this book was once again from Evie’s POV (after a book each from Aveda and Bea’s POVs.) After the bombshell in the last book, I was very interested to see how Evie was going to handle everything, and this book did not disappoint. This is the fourth book in the Heroine Complex series and I wouldn’t recommend reading these out of order. These books are heavily character driven, and each book builds on the relationships of the last one.

“The two of you undercover?” Bea snorted. “Sounds like a classic Aveda Jupiter scheme—the chance of shenanigans is off the charts.”


Evie has the perfect life – a great career as one half of the Evie Tanaka/Aveda Jupiter superhero duo, a healthy best friend relationship with the other half of that duo, a marriage with the love of her life, and the reassurance that the little sister she basically raised is all grown up and doing well, and now she’s – surprise! – pregnant. So why does everything seem to be falling apart? Besides the all-day nausea and the need for constant naps, Nate’s treating her like a science experiment and she can’t help think about the baby without a sense of dread. So a little time away for a weekend trip with Aveda to the college she attended grad school at is perfect, right? Dropping out of grad school – after burning down the library when she lost control of her fire powers – was a turning point in her life, and perhaps going back will help her realize just how far she’s come from that overwhelmed and sad kid. But besides her out of control pregnancy hormones, the ghost sightings at Morgan College have suddenly turned violent, and Evie and Aveda decide to go undercover as TAs to investigate. Can confronting the ghosts on campus also help Evie confront the ghosts of her past?

A large part of Evie’s journey had been accepting her emotions instead of suppressing them, and by extension also accepting her superheroine powers. It’s no shock that being given a chance to relive her grad school days brings up all sorts of emotions for Evie, especially around her relationship with her old professor and boyfriend, Richard. He’s frankly a dirtbag of the first order who had no qualms about having a relationship with one of his own students and belittled her constantly. It’s especially gross because in his role as a pop culture professor, he puts down women of color for enjoying media that centers and empowers them. After all, it can’t be great unless it was written by an old white guy, right? While Evie’s wrestling with why and how she ever put up with this guy, it also doesn’t help that she’s having communication problems with her husband Nate. As primarily a romance reader, this did hit a few of my HEA alarm bells (it’s generally accepted that once a couple gets their HEA, they stay in love forever with no issues) but at the end of the book, I felt like it was necessary. Both Evie and Nate have messy pasts and lots of even more messy emotions, and learning to own them is just as essential in their relationship as it is for the rest of Evie’s life.

I love the partnership between Evie and Aveda. They’ve both grown tremendously over the course of the books, and it was wonderful to see how Aveda navigated being supportive of Evie while also calling her on some of her behaviors. There is, in fact, a lot about the power of friendship, and not just the main characters. There’s several super sweet friendships among the group of female and non-binary college students that Evie and Aveda fall into and they made a nice foil to their own relationship.

“I’d come back to Morgan College to close the door on the past, but I’d been going out of my way to avoid it, to pretend like it didn’t bother me. To act like Scared Mouse Evie had been left so far in the dust, she didn’t even exist anymore.”


But what I loved most about this book was its take on the “women can have it all!” narrative – that, obviously, if we want it enough, we can figure how to have a career, a romantic relationship, and a family without shortchanging one or all of them – or ourselves. Evie can’t help but compare Sad Mouse Evie (as she calls her grad student self), who was exhausted all the time from juggling her responsibility for kid Bea, TA’ing classes, and trying to finish her own coursework, to her present-day self. What would life have been like if she’d been able to live in the dorms with her best friend, attend raucous dorm parties, and make late night runs to Taco Bell? Was dropping out of grad school and going to work as Aveda’s assistant really the best path for her life? Evie has clung to a certain interpretation of those years of her life, and it’s only while she’s back at college with motherhood on the horizon that she’s finally forced to deal with it. It’s a very timely realization – about the importance of rage, and about using your voice to speak up for others and, most importantly, yourself,

Overall, I absolutely adored this book and the chance to catch up with Evie again, and I’ll be eagerly looking forward to the next one!

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The adventure continues as superheroine Evie Tanaka confronts the past and faces the future in Haunted Heroine. Sarah Kuhn’s latest entry in the Heroine Complex series has all the action, humor, and heart I’ve come to expect from this wonderful, original series.

When she and Aveda go undercover as grad students at Evie’s former college, it’s time for Evie to face what might have been. She had to drop out as a grad student because she was burning the candle at both ends, trying to be a mom to her grieving little sister while also taking a challenging class load was just too much. Being back at Morgan College posing as a grad student makes Evie question things. She loves her life, loves her husband and the family she’s made, but impending motherhood (with a baby who has both superhero and demon DNA) and an emotional distance between her and Nate is making Evie doubt herself. I really loved that there wasn’t false drama; these are all logical questions. Take away the supernatural elements and Evie’s doubts and insecurities are all real-world problems people face. Evie has already become the badass superheroine she’s meant to be and I won’t spoil the story by going into detail over the obstacles she faces. Suffice it to say that in Haunted Heroine Evie fully comes into her own and learns self-acceptance, which I absolutely loved.

Evie’s college adventure wouldn’t be complete without her co-superheroine at her side. The growth of Evie and Aveda’s friendship is one of my favorite things about the Heroine Complex series. While their friendship was toxic at the beginning of Heroine Complex and Aveda really had to learn boundaries, she’s come a long way. Aveda is supportive and protective of Evie, recognizing her own faults and determined to be the best friend she can be. She also takes to college life immediately and her enthusiasm was infectious. I adored watching their friendship grow even stronger. They also make plenty of new friends at Morgan and each of these students are interesting and engaging characters in their own right. The bonds that form in this book are wonderful to read about and the pages of the story practically flew by because of them.

It would be remiss of me to talk about Haunted Heroine and not mention the hauntings. Morgan College is experiencing some fearsome ghost activity and Evie and Aveda are on the case. I loved watching the layers of the mystery unfold as Evie and Aveda investigate the supernatural happenings. The action is fun and exciting, the mystery and its potential consequences are interesting, and I finished the story excited to see what Ms. Kuhn has in store for the Heroine Complex-verse.

Every bit as delightful as earlier books in the series! I love this heroines and the found family they have built. Part of what I loved about the earlier installments was the blend of supernatural hijinks with the very real emotions of navigating early adulthood and all its tumult: friends, relationships, relating to siblings as grown humans in their own right. HAUNTED HEROINE naturally extends Evie Tanaka's life into its next phase, and it's marvelous to see. I particularly loved that this book has her grappling with her past and the way it can cast unhelpful echoes onto the present and future. I also ADORED that a major step for Evie is in learning to allow herself to feel whatever it is she's feeling without pushing it down. In that, Kuhn examines something I think is so crucial to so many women.

This book was excellent, and I'm so happy this series continued!

For obvious reasons, I am perhaps one of the most biased reviewers possible (other than the editors and the author herself), but it's a joy to work on these books! In addition to the series as a whole being just so much fun, Sarah Kuhn continues to grow as a writer with each new title, and I love watching Evie, Aveda, and Bea evolve with her as they take on new challenges both in their personal lives and as superheroines.

If there was ever a series that needed more books, it was this one. I was excited when Haunted Heroine got announced, and now that I’ve read it I can say for certain that the excitement was well deserved. Haunted Heroine was a fantastic addition to the Heroine Complex series. It was an excellent continuation for the characters of the series—and as they embarked on the next chapter in their story, they were literally and figuratively being haunted by things from the past and present. With this kind of story, it was an emotional rollercoaster from start to finish, and I was rooting for the characters every step of the way.

Haunted Heroine is told from the perspective of Evie Tanaka, one of my favorite characters. Her POV is what introduced the series, and her perspective was just as delightful to read from as the first time around, in Heroine Complex. While the beginning was looking at her future—with her husband, Nate, and her pregnancy—much of the story explored Evie’s past. That also included an old relationship that has haunted (no pun intended) Evie in previous books in the series. It had affected her relationships with others, as well as how she saw herself. So it was great to see it finally addressed. Plus Kuhn’s handling of the emotional side of the character arcs was fantastic. It was one of my favorite aspects about the story, and I felt like a lot of the lingering plot threads from previous stories reached a satisfying resolution.

It was also great to see how the other characters in the series were adjusting to changes in their lives/ what they were currently doing after the end of the third book—including Evie’s younger sister, Bea, Aveda, and everyone else. Evie and Aveda’s friendship has always been one of the highlights of the series, even with the ups and downs. I liked how they were both still working on their friendship, but there was never a doubt that there was a bond there.

Overall, I liked Haunted Heroine’s story. It took place in October, and the setting—Morgan College—was different from the more familiar urban city setting of San Francisco. The grounds of the college afforded for something of a spooky atmosphere, and it was a perfect place for the latest mystery to play out.

Haunted Heroine is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. If you’re a fan of this series, then this one should be on your TBR list.

Disclaimer: This copy of the book was provided by the publisher (DAW Books) via netgalley for this review, thank you!

"The fourth book in the smart, snarky, and action-packed Heroine series follows Evie Tanaka, Aveda Jupiter, and Bea Tanaka as they combat a new supernatural threat.

Everything in Evie Tanaka's life is finally perfect. As a badass superheroine, she defends San Francisco from demon invasion on the regular. Her relationships with superhero partner Aveda Jupiter, little sister Bea, and hot, half-demon husband Nate have never been stronger. Maybe it's possible for a grad school dropout turned put-upon personal assistant turned superhero to have it all?

Just when she thinks life can't get any better, Evie learns she's pregnant. Everyone around her is overjoyed...but Evie has major doubts about whether she's cut out for motherhood. Before she can dwell on her dilemma, a local women's college reports a string of mysterious "hauntings," and Evie and Aveda are called in to investigate, going undercover as grad students during the creepiest time of the year: Halloween.

As she confronts terrifying ghosts and lives out a bizarre version of the grad school life she left behind, Evie can't help but wonder about the road not taken: what would her life be like if she'd stayed here instead of pursuing superheroing with Aveda? And can an overwhelmed pregnant superhero truly have it all?

She's about to find out."

I love that this series keeps growing and expanding, I love it even more that there are hauntings!

It's been a while since I read the last Heroine Complex story, but Haunted Heroine reminded me why I love the series. It's one of my favorite superhero series because of how emotional and endearing the characters. In Haunted Heroine, Evie has to confront her own past mistakes and failures. We think we've moved on from the past, that we've made peace with our ghosts, but then they come back to haunt us. They prove that they've never really left us.

In Haunted Heroine, Evie's grappling with her past, her ex-boyfriend who was awful, and her decision to leave grad school balanced with her new fears of being a mother. Ghosts and hauntings aside, Haunted Heroine had moments that struck a chord within me. The burden of women of color to represent, and be perfect. Memories of being gaslight and having ex-boyfriends who thought they were more knowledgeable dismiss my opinion. And the influence of Asian American superheroes/representation growing up.

It’s been about two to three years since I’ve read the first three books, but I was so excited to read this next installment in the Heroine Complex series! This book is the start of the new trilogy, but you definitely still feel the character growth that has gone on in the original trilogy. Haunted Heroine was an excellent addition to a beloved trilogy, a return to a world that still needs saving.

There are spoilers for the first three book in this review!

Evie‘s life is pretty much perfect: she’s happily married and a badass superheroine, plus she just found out that she’s pregnant. But she’s also dealing with the fear of not being a good mother and not communicating well with her husband. She doesn’t have time to fully process this before she falls into a new case. Along with her best friend (and fellow superheroine) Aveda, Evie goes undercover at the college that she dropped out of years ago, Morgan College.

My favorite thing about this series has always been the characters and the bonds they have with each other. Evie and Aveda have always been so close, and now they’ve formed a healthy and supportive friendship. I feel like their dynamic is at the forefront of this book, if only because we see more of them because they’re undercover together. Aveda helps Evie realize some pent-up feelings, including the rage she still feels towards her ex, a professor who’s still teaching at Morgan.

Despite being in Hawaii, Bea is still very much present in this story, and she and Evie have a heart-to-heart. I loved reading this strong sister relationship! And while we don’t see as much of Nate, we do still get his and Evie’s relationship. Also, I loved seeing Aveda and Scott making kissy faces in the background; I can’t wait to read more of them in the next book!

While Evie’s life is so-called “perfect,” she still has to work through her repressed feelings, especially since they’re at Morgan, the site of one of her most traumatic events. I loved seeing that there was still character growth to be had; moving into a new trilogy can be difficult, I think, because the first book serves as a bridge of the two halves. Also, Evie gets to beat down on her narcissistic ex, the professor who dated her when she was a grad student (there wasn’t too much of an age difference, but still, the power dynamics remain), and we love to see it!

The plot was a prominent aspect of the book. Evie and Aveda spend most of their time tracking down ghosts and the people who have seen them. I’m not saying this was boring but…I was a touch bored most of the time. However, I think I’ve just realized that I’m so invested in this series because of the characters and not any of the demon stuff, which is the basis for the series.

Anyways, Morgan College is open to women and nonbinary people for undergrad and to all genders for grad. There is a prominent side character who is nonbinary (they/them pronouns), as well as many wlw side characters.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. The plot was a little lacking for me but that’s just because I’m more invested in the characters and their dynamics than anything else. I loved returning to this world in Haunted Heroine and can’t wait for the next book in this series!

This is a fun and fast paced series with likable characters. I looked after reading this galley copy and I see there’s a novella called Unsung Heroine that is set between books 3 and 4 so you might want to get that before reading this if you’ve been loving this series too!
If you haven’t read this series yet and you like your urban fantasy character driven this might be one to try for you. My caveats are I don’t think this is a series I’d recommend to most male readers and while it isn’t sex filled the author doesn’t hold back when there is a bedroom scene so skip if that would bother you.

I read and very much enjoyed the first in the series, and although I haven't read the second and third, I had no trouble following this one.

I noted about the first book that all the characters have a lot of issues, but they are, at least, mostly aware of them and committed to working on them. Three books further on, they've clearly done a lot of that, but there's still work to do, and Evie working on her issues is in fact the central focus of this book.

Although it's technically a supers book, if you're after old-school superpowered battles and banter and costumes this is not the place to look for it. There's a bit of each of those (especially costumes, though largely of the Halloween variety), but it's more a character-driven than a plot-driven book. There's definitely a plot - a mystery plot, in fact - but the important part is not so much solving the mystery as how the process of working on solving the mystery is also a process of Evie dealing with issues from her past, and Evie (and others under her mentorship) learning to be confident, appropriately angry, and self-nurturing.

Most of these people are young women of colour, and I am none of those three things; I suspect if I was, the book would get a fifth star. I didn't find it preachy or too much of a performance of contemporary expected opinions; it came across as authentic, and I'm sure will be very powerful for its intended audience. I also didn't object to the portrayal of the privileged, entitled white guy; he's a type that exists, in distressingly large numbers. I've read books by him, in fact, though these days I try not to.

Overall, recommended, including for people who are not dead centre of its target demographic, because I think we all need to hear these conversations being had - even if our contribution to them is to shut up and listen for a change.

I received a review copy via Netgalley.

This is a super cute superheroine novel! This is my first Kuhn and I don't think it works as a standalone unfortunately. I don't recommend you read this without the previous books, and I will definitely check out earlier installments.

'Haunted Heroine' may be my favorite of the Heroine Complex serious yet. I was absolutely devastated when Kuhn reached the end of the original trilogy then overjoyed to the point of yelling and dancing when she announced there would be more (literally). The found family that inhabits the pages of the Heroine Complex novels is layered and complicated and messy - superheroes and half-demons and wizards, sure, but also people like the rest of us. They way superheroes surely would be if they existed. The way they should be in comics and movies. Adding the dynamic of pregnancy and fear of motherhood - having had two children of my own, I can vouch for how difficult it is to wrestle with those feelings and how difficult it is to realize that you're expected to suppress them, to show the world a smile while you're crying inside, The world would be a much better place for mothers and for women, if we all had a family like Evie's and if the strong among us realized how important, how powerful, how strong it is to let other people in.