Super Hero saves regular girl and then she turns love interest? And she’s snarky and smart?

Yes!

This was fun cute read and perfect for super hero loving fans! Can’t wait to get this on the shelf!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read review.

The Love Interest by Helen Comerford is a delightful romantic comedy that explores love, identity, and the complexities of relationships with humor and heart. With relatable characters, witty dialogue, and a touch of whimsy, Comerford delivers a charming story that keeps you hooked from start to finish. A perfect feel-good read for anyone craving a sweet, uplifting romance.

Thank you for the ARC and book tour inclusion. This was such a fun twist on the traditional superhero story. I loved seeing Jenna Ray fully stand of for herself while continuing to be loving and caring. She was a force to be reckoned with and I will absolutely be reading more from Helen in the future!

one prophecy, one hero & one love interest. the only catch? she doesn’t want to be his love interest, all she wants is her mom and her old life back

“Saving my life does not give Blaze the right to tear it to pieces. I take the box of tea from my sister’s hands. “Don’t worry, Megan. I’ll destroy him myself.”

idk why this book isn’t hyped up enough, cause this book DESERVES ALL THE LOVE!!! JENNA DESERVES ALL THE LOVE AND ADMIRATION!!

i started this book blindly, and ngl it took me a bit to figure out the basic world-building (but that probably my slow brain after all the sleep deprivation 🥲) but once i got the hang of it, this book became a marvel movie in my head. (the way my graphics don’t do it justice even by half because pinterest sucks sometimes 😭)

this book was written for the girls burning with female rage, who have had enough of the patriarchy and their stupid lil propaganda. each time king ron (yes what a stupid name for a stupid guy) showed up and opened his mouth to spew some nonsense, i had to remind myself that he was thankfully fictional (but then realized reality also is somewhat the same 😔).

jenna is my fav female character from a superhero-esque book. she fought for her beliefs from start to end, and it was so beautiful to see her transform spectacularly into the person she is. and her relationship with her friend, joy and sister, megan was the most wholesome yet realistic portrayal ever! the fights, the silent treatment, the emotions 🥹💜✨ oh and the way anxiety was represented!!

then there’s our blaze, and boy do i love this awkward lil guy. and tbh i cannot blame him for what he is, cause that’s what he was made to believe from a very young age, and im so glad to see his character arc in the end 🥹💗💗

them together was fire! i’ll be honest in the beginning i did not know if this was a love triangle or what, but im so glad whatever path this took was messy but not because of them, but their situations. i mean (slight spoiler: they were kissing and boy floated up to the ceiling with her!! akskskkskskskljjj 🤭💘✨)

anyways the love interest is out on nov 12!!! thank you so much to helen commerford, bloomsbury publishing and colored pages book tours for this opportunity to be part of the book tour! miss helen you have a new fan 😆🎀

He's a hero. She's over it. Having been saved by a brand new superhero, Jenna is immediately and unwillingly cast in the quite literal role of his Love Interest.

I didn't expect to love this book as much as I did, but it was such a wonderful surprise! Having only read a handful of superhero/superpower fiction books, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The tagline "He's a hero. She's over it" immediately intrigued me, and I'm so glad it did because this was such a great read.

This book was playful, yet explored deeper issues like propaganda, ethics, feminism, and the climate crisis. Helen Comerford expertly wove in these very real issues with nuance, utilizing this larger than life super powered human world to magnify the effects these topics have on our society.

All in all, The Love Interest is fun and exciting, with a depth to it that makes it an overall great read.

A huge thank you to Helen Comerford, Bloomsbury USA Children's Books and NetGalley for the ARC <3

💫 Coming of age story! Hero-ish adventures, taking a stand for what you believe in, saving friends and family, understanding newfound powers, this book had it all :D
💫 I absolutely loved the twist at the end, did not see it coming at all 😭 so excited from book 2

-- ty to the author, the publisher and @coloredpagesbt for an advanced copy!

I enjoyed reading the book. This is fun and has suspense in it. The characters are lovable and have depth in them. Jenna's friendship with her best friend, Joy, is beautiful. The struggle of Jenna with the burden of sudden fame and media's and press attention is shown well. The secret mission of the HPA, the disappearance of her mother, the prophecy add a mystery layer to the story.
 
This is an enjoyable read with super heros, villains, action, twists and turns, and a little sprinkle of romance.

So many times I wanted to stop reading because Jenna was pissing me off but I’m glad I pushed through because the action was entertaining and kept me wanting more. Then to see all these girls show that man Ron that girls does it best 😁. Go Jenna.

“My name is Jenna Ray, and I’m not a Love Interest. I’m a hero.”

In a world where some people develop superpowers and heroes are prophesied, 17-year-old Jenna Ray’s coastal town is the location of the next big prophecy. A new hero usually emerges alongside catastrophe, and when she’s caught in a fire that threatens countless civilians, Jenna becomes the first save of the new superhero, Blaze. As a result, she gets cast as the Love Interest by the public and the Heroics and Power Authority (HPA). The only problem is that Jenna wants nothing to do with the HPA, and being the Love Interest means being the constant target of villain attacks. However, when the Villains approach her for her help uncovering the truth about the HPA and what happened to her missing mom, Jenna chooses to go undercover as Blaze’s Love Interest. She can’t deny her growing feelings for him, but what she learned about the HPA puts her entire town at risk. It’s up to Jenna to expose the truth and stop the HPA before they destroy everything.

The Love Interest was everything I hoped it would be. It had the essence of a classic superhero story but the heart of a YA fantasy novel where the fate of the world rests in the hands of the teenage heroine. Jenna Ray lived in a world where misogyny ran rampant and the only heroes were men. As a girl, her role would only ever be the supportive Love Interest in the eyes of the HPA and the press. I loved how Comerford took these misogynistic stereotypes that have dominated the majority of superhero stories for decades and made them tangible facts of life. It made her message more powerful, and it caused me to re-examine some of my favorite comic book stories. Not only did she display the power of a female hero, but Comerford also showed how heroes of any gender aren’t always faultless. The incorporation of Jenna’s panic attacks highlighted how strength isn’t just physical as she was fighting internal and external battles throughout the novel. I enjoyed Jenna and Blaze’s romance as well. Blaze might have been the hero, but Jenna saved him almost as much as he saved her. They were a team, and I would’ve loved some more bonding scenes between them. The ending was perfect, too. It opened the door for a sequel, which could be the perfect opportunity to build on the storylines introduced in this first book. I have a feeling this is just the beginning for Jenna Ray, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

The Love Interest is the story of Jenna Ray, a girl living in a coastal town plagued by a prophesy. When she gets rescued after a disaster it's clear she's fated to become the love interest to new hero Blaze, something she has no interest in. However when villains approach her with information on the location of her mother who has been missing for years, she agrees to get close to Blaze.


Overall this was an enjoyable read. This is a slightly different kind of superhero read and I liked the world this was set in. The romance aspect of this felt a little underdeveloped though so the marketing of it as a rom-com feels off. There's a romance there but we don't get much about Blaze himself throughout and I didn't quite buy her strong feelings for him. The society was said to be a very patriarchal society but I didn't see too much of a difference to our current society and maybe that was that point. This book is going to be a good read for younger YA readers.

My ARC is not working so unfortunately I cant read it. The premise is nice but I cannot do anything. I look forward to its release in a few days.

I really enjoyed this! Really unique superhero book. I love the characters and the real feelings. Thus was a page turner and a fun read.

THOUGHTS

I absolutely adored this book. Superhero stories aren't really my thing, but this book absolutely captivated me. Jenna's narrative voice is perfect, so engaging, and the plot is so incredibly fun. This is a great read, a wonderful escape into a harrowing world of environmental collapse and burgeoning Heroes and Villains.


PROS
Great Narrator: This book is so voicey, and I loved it. I was sucked in at once to Jenna's narrative. And she's a great character, too, especially in such a masculine-dominated genre. Jenna knows what she wants (and what she doesn't want), and she won't let anybody else tell her who she is supposed to be or what she is supposed to do. She isn't one to politely decline. She stands firm in her convictions and expresses herself, even when that expression might be a bit, well, rude (though only rude for a girl like Jenna to say it, you know?). Jenna as leading lady is really wonderful.

Great Concept: In a market saturated by patriotic American superheroes, it is nice to have a heroic story centered somewhere else--here, the UK. It's a fun shake-up to all those NYC-set superhero stories. And the idea of these heroes emerging as the world grows more environmentally unstable--as the "EV" mutates humans and animals alike--is also very fun. It's a climate change apocalypse full of superheroes and their super villains, with a side of environmental monsters as well. And I love that.

Great Formatting: Not enough authors experiment with how a book will look on the page. And I get it. We read so many books that look the same way once we move out of actual children's books that it is easy to forget that we can, you know, do something a little different. This book plays with font sizes, with word alignment, and with overall style in a way that emphasizes rising emotion and rising tension. And I really love that.


CONS
Unreasonable: Jenna has to be in this alone, for plot reasons. And I get that. But boy if her family didn't get on my nerves! They're too stuck in their ways to even entertain anything she has to say, and that's just irritating. Because it isn't like Jenna asked for this to happen to her, and the least they could do is be a sounding board (even if they ultimately come to the same conclusion). If a book where communication issues cause more problems than not isn't your thing, this one might not be for you.

Inconsistent: Overall, I think Helen Comerford really nailed her characters here, with one major (and ironic) exception. Blaze doesn't quite stand on his own two feet. He's wishy-washy in a way that doesn't feel intentional. His characterization is all over the place, and it didn't feel consistent. It didn't feel like there was a strong central character behind these conflicting decisions and actions, and that is unfortunate.

Bad Conversion: I read an early version, so this issue will hopefully be resolved before the book goes to print. But the conversion here from a UK style guide to a US style guide felt lazy. And by that, I mean the use of "ctrl-f" and "replace all" was very obvious. UK publications generally use single quotation marks for dialogue where US uses double quotation marks, and there were times that an apostrophe was changed to a double quotation in this copy. Similarly, it is more common in the UK to say someone "came round" to something, where the US prefers to say that someone "came around." But every instance of "round" in this book was changed to "around," even when "round" was acting as, you know, an adjective. Whoever did the initial formatting for the new market did it the easy way, without checking for singular instances. I do hope this will be corrected before the book goes to print, but since it was published first in the UK (and fully edited there, obviously), I do have some concern that the US publisher won't think to do a real edit before sending it out. Which might mean that first editions of this book are littered with conversion errors.


Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
9/10
Those who enjoyed Infinity Son by Adam Silvera will like this new twist on heroes and monsters. Those who love Marissa Meyer's Renegades will like this new world of superhero justice.

The characters are badass and don’t fit the usual molds, which I loved. Definitely worth the read if you’re into something spicy and layered!!

Thank you Netgalley and Bloomsbury YA for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Helen Comerford's debut novel, “The Love Interest,” is a brilliant addition to the YA genre, offering a refreshing take on the superhero narrative. Set in a slightly dystopian world, this book is filled with humor, wholesome romance, and wonderfully crafted characters that make it an enjoyable read for a wide audience. Like other reviews have said, this is similar to “The Boys” when exploring the problems with “superhero culture,” specifically with misogyny, though this book is way more PG than the show. I also found it similar to “My Hero Academia” by providing commentary on the hero society, which I found to be very interesting. I think younger YA readers and even MG readers would love this book, especially if they are fans of superheroes.

The story is fast-paced and action-packed, with some really good world-building, especially with the origins of the superpowers as well as the inner workings of the hero society itself. I really loved the setting and almost wished I was living in the superhero world of Comerford (minus the constant threat of being killed by some sort of unnatural disaster). The world created is well thought out and realistic, and I would love to read more about this specific world.

Jenna Ray, the protagonist, stands out with her strong, compelling character. She is a young Black girl who often ends up saving others, challenging traditional superhero stereotypes that are ridiculed throughout the book, specifically with men seemingly doing all the saving and how the women always have to be saved (in traditional superhero media). Jenna's human flaws, like making mistakes and then fixing them, make her a relatable character. The book also highlights the importance of mental health, with Jenna's anxiety being depicted in a realistic and empathetic manner. The depiction of Jenna’s anxiety really made me connect with her as she experienced panic attacks due to not wanting all the attention of being a love interest.

The supporting cast, including Jenna's sister Megan and her friend Joy, are equally well-developed. Their relationships with Jenna, whether familial, friendships, or romantic interests, are portrayed with a sense of lovable reality. These dynamics are central to the story and provide depth to the characters' interactions. There is also a lot of humor and tons of quotable lines throughout the book that I thoroughly enjoyed. There were some lines, mainly from Joy and Megan that actually made me audibly laugh out loud. I also really liked the use of different fonts and text sizes to portray intense emotions or loud volumes; the change in text size made it seem like I was actually reading a comic book, which worked perfectly with the material!

As stated earlier, “The Love Interest” offers a sharp-eyed critique of the misogyny prevalent in superhero genres. It exposes the passive roles often assigned to female characters and flips this by having Jenna take charge. The book also focuses on the darker aspects of superhero organizations (similar to “The Boys” and “My Hero Academia”), highlighting the sacrifices and questionable ethics behind the scenes.

Overall, “The Love Interest” is a standout YA novel with its fresh perspective on superheroes, strong female characters, and realistic relationships. This book is perfect for fans of superhero stories and sweet teen romances. It's a fast, fun read that leaves you wanting more, which is perfect as there is a hint of a sequel at the end. I can’t wait to read more from Comerford!