Ruth Diaz

I was excited about this book when Sarah Wendell listed it on a Smart Bitches, Trashy Books Top Picks promotion - she chose some of the favorite books in the Harlequin catalogue for special discount for Valentine's Day 2016, whether they were particularly good or particularly infamous. The Superheroes Union: Dynama (and despite the title's styling, this is not part of a series!) was promising because it has a somewhat unique theme (superheroes!) and a fairly rare romance pairing for a show more mainstream publisher (two women!). With the SBTB promo, I thought I was surely going to be getting something good.

As is obvious from the intro to my review, I didn't care for the book. The biggest problem is the way it tries to tell several stories in a very short space, so that none of the stories get a proper development. The book is only 89 print pages long, really a novella, but it tackles relationships and themes that deserve at least twice that page count. I'm not really a fan of romance stories that deal with nasty divorces in the past or with current children as strong elements to moving the plot along, and it turns out those were both unadvertised (or unnoticed) and very central to both the romance plot and the framing plot. Given enough pages and a writer who really makes me care about the protagonists, I can enjoy those themes (I realize some of my favorite novel-length fanfic recently incorporates them), but this was not one of those times.

The frame plot in Dynama is the superhero gig: TJ Gutierrez was famous as Dynama for her ability to move things with her mind. She shed her identity and basically went into hiding to protect her infant children in the wake of a nasty divorce from Jon, aka Singularity, who became a supervillain with his ability to manipulate gravity. It wasn't just a divorce, even an ugly one, though: it was predicated by her getting him tossed into superhero/villain prison. Six years later, a supervillain group has escaped prison and taken Singularity with them, and TJ not only has to do her job to track them down and get them back into prison, but she has to protect her children from their father, who really wants to be a dad, but he's a villain and can't be let near them. Annmarie is a non-superpowered nanny-for-hire for the superhero union, who comes to watch the kids and keep them safe while TJ is saving the city. That's pretty much the romance plot, actually.

Most of where I want to go ??? at the story is because of page count. I really didn't understand exactly what was wrong with Singularity, except that he has a warped sense of right and wrong, though he wants to make the world better. I couldn't figure out why he wasn't allowed to see the kids, other than the villain label? and because TJ didn't like him? I mean, there is a scene where he endangers them, but I'm not convinced that there couldn't have been a way to avoid it. I also have very little sense of who Annmarie is. She shows up to save TJ and that's basically her entire role. Even her backstory about having superpowered parents only seems to come up to compare to TJ's parenting. The two women go to bed on their first night together and are girlfriends by the second day, which felt really rushed rather than a natural progression - again, I think because there weren't enough pages to develop their characters before they fell into bed. (I skipped the sex scenes themselves.)

If you toss the relationship stuff, the plot about tracking down the supervillains (and Singularity), figuring out what they're doing and putting a stop to it, that was all enjoyable to read. It reminded me a lot of cop or military stories, but had a fun twist of superpowers. It would have been nice had it been just one episode in a longer novel, I think.

(And then a pet peeve of mine, because lately it's been bugging me in books: there are several references to recent US pop culture that sometimes felt amusing, but other times seemed a bit off, like it shouldn't fit in this alternate universe. Jim Croce as a ringtone? Okay, not a problem but a bit weird. Specific brands of clothing or electronics? Nope, took me completely out of the story.)

(A nice positive is that TJ and her family are Hispanic, which isn't as common as I'd like in the random romance novels I pick up. There is so much to like about this book, really, and then it sort of just fails to live up to it!) show less

This was pretty well done, except that it felt compressed. The couple goes from being total strangers to falling in love far too quickly; the whole story takes place over about four days, and our heroines are in bed together by the second night.

I think the story would have worked a lot better with some more time and additional dealings with the ex. As it is, we get one encounter, a quick office visit, and then the big finale. Stretch that out to, say, three decent "battles" over the course show more of two or three weeks, then the conclusion, and the relationship wouldn't feel nearly as rushed. The continuing stress would have been a more plausible way for them to bond, and we would've gotten a better idea of what the ex's motivations were. Instead, he's left as a two-dimensional threat who exists only to drive the romance plot by simply existing.

That said, what there was of the story was well done. It just felt like a novel chopped down to novella length, and I'd like to see the author try her hand at longer material. She's got a neat universe set up here, and I'd like to see more of it. show less

Ace worldbuilding, heartfelt depiction of what it's like to be a parent, sweet romance.

I loved it!