This was good. I love superheroes and supervillains so I was pretty excited when I first heard about this concept being produced by SwoonReads. It was every bit as swoonworthy as I expected. I loved all the characters. The banter between them all was perfect. Abby was great and I loved her relationships with Rylan, Connor and Sarah. Her relationship with Rylan developed slowly and they both really opened up to each other, developing a strong friendship before anything else. It was sweet. Sarah was hilarious. I loved her obsession with Red Comet and her forays into fanfiction. Connor was a great brother to Abby. He might not have always been present but he did try to be there for her and support her.

The plot was relatively interesting. The superhero identity and the villain were both fairly obvious although I didn't see the twist. I didn't expect Connor would lose his powers. But it worked out well enough. I liked Rylan and Abby's investigations into the microchips. I would've liked to see more of Abby sneaking around and finding things out on her own - rather than just with Rylan. It was nice they were a team but that part of the plot of where Rylan approaches her to investigate felt weak - since she never really does.

Overall a solid, well written and funny superhero romance. 4.5 stars. ( )

Note to self: don't waste time on books published by SwoonReads. ( )

The Supervillain and Me is a playful YA novel that’s just a very fun read. The mystery behind who this new villain, Iron Phantom, is, well, that was enough for me to keep the pages turning because the clues will keep you second-guessing yourself.

Abby is a normal teenager living in a city that’s filled with crime. Her father is the mayor and her brother, unknown to anyone outside the family, is the hero Red Comet, who is often saving the day from these criminals crawling around the city. Then one day, Abby is saved from a criminal by Iron Phantom, only it seems he’s a villain; not a hero. However, as she begins to have more encounters with Iron Phantom, Abby begins to see that there might be more of a hero side to this villain than the city seems to think.

The interactions between Abby and Iron Phantom had me cracking up. They had great chemistry together and their banters always left a smile on my face. And let’s face it, I even found myself loving that dang supervillain!

The most fun part of the book though was again, trying to figure out who Iron Phantom was. There were two possibilities, and you keep getting pulled into thinking it’s one, and then suddenly you think it’s the other. It was definitely a good little mystery to solve, all while watching Abby and Iron Phantom trying to figure out what exactly is happening in their city, and who’s behind it.

Overall, I think this book is great for any audience because it’s a fun, clean story that just leaves you feeling good and satisfied at the end of it all. ( )

I wrestled between 2 and 3 stars for this story for the longest but a few things put it over the edge. I love superhero stories or anything that explores humans with powers. In particular, I liked Iron Phantom’s powers and their limitations, the theme of grief and regret, the familial relationships, Rylan, and the general light-heartedness. I thought the opening with how crime had increased in Morriston city was great and set the tone well. The main villain had a believable motive too. Unfortunately, this book doesn’t deliver on the supervillain angle, it’s more so a misunderstood hero, and the dialogue is corny at times.

Also, it’s super obvious who Iron Phantom is from day one, but it was not too grating to wait for Abby to figure it out. Predictable (at times) but still fun!

2.5 ( )

I was really looking forward to this book. I had this whole idea in my head, of wacky hijinks and mistaken identities and a snarky love interest. Maybe a bit of “good girl finding her dark self”. I wanted laughs and superhero battles and high-quality fluff.

As you can maybe guess, I didn’t get that. Nothing seemed to hit quite right—not the superhero stuff, not the romance, not the stuff with the school musical or the family drama—and for a lot of it, I can’t even identify what didn’t work. It’s almost like Banas was trying to write YA without really understanding it or knowing teens, or maybe she was trying to do too much with the space she had and the book got rushed to print. I dunno.

So: the superhero stuff is pretty average, though it’s more of the “rescuing people” angle than fighting all-out villains and the McGuffin is seriously bad science; the school musical felt reasonably real except that the shenanigans were over-the-top and the musical itself felt like a parody; and the overprotective father and brother open up discussion about grief and family bonds and autonomy but that’s never tackled in the text, nor are Abby’s issues with absentee parenting, really.

And then we have the romance. At times it felt like what I was going for, with a push-pull of morals and sass. At times it was more like a friendship. The rest of the time, there were unaddressed issues. Of the “I’ll just teleport into your room and demand your help even though it’s 2 am and I nearly killed your dad this morning” variety. (She tells him off. He doesn’t stop and laughs when she tries to arm herself. But it’s okay because he’s actually kind of nice?) Also, they had no chemistry for me and I couldn’t see what Abby saw in the guy.

Generally underwhelming, in other words, and at times, out-right annoying. I so wish it had been better.

Warnings: Generally jerkish male behaviour and overprotective family dynamics. Love interest with serious boundary problems.

4/10 (would be a 5 but, like, the boundaries) ( )