Super Zero by Rhonda Stapleton

Title: Super Zero
Author: Rhonda Stapleton
Genre: Superhero/Science Fiction Romance
Publisher: Rhonda Stapleton
Available: $3.12 at Amazon.com
Rating: 4.5 stars
Rater: Pippa








PLOT SUMMARY:

Working for superheroes isn't all it's cracked up to be...

When Jenna’s superhero boss The Machine gives her the opportunity to safeguard the changing crystal (a jewel that grants, changes or removes superpowers) she jumps at the chance, eager to do this so-called "cake" job and earn street cred with the Midwest League of Superheroes. To help her mission, the League assigns her a partner, the mysterious and super-sexy Vigilante. Too bad he's also super-grouchy--what a tragic waste of hotness.

Soon, Jenna learns the threat to the changing crystal is all too real, and her list of trustworthy people grows shorter by the minute. But when she discovers something even more sinister afoot, involving Vigilante's sexy arch nemesis Dementrix, it'll take all her skills to keep the mad villainess from executing her plan to unmask and decommission the world's superheroes...especially when Jenna accidentally becomes one herself.

Super Zero is a 64,000-word novel.

THE GOOD:
This is a humorous and romantic read that throws you straight into the story without any info dumping, with believeable and consistent characters, no sections that drag and some great snarky one-liners. My favourite had to be the reference to the posturing of a couple of supervillains as having gone through 'Captain Kirk's Superhero School for Overactors'. It was so compelling and entertaining that I had to read it from start to finish in one sitting - luckily at 64K words it's a fairly quick read, but it still felt a complete and complex story. It's written in first person which I normally dislike, but that didn't stop me enjoying it thoroughly.

THE BAD:
There were one too many references to the main character's belief that she was a strong, independant woman - usually just before she melted in a puddle. I felt it was a little tell-y in places too.

IN SUM:
This is a sweet and warmingly romantic superhero story with no explicit bedroom scenes, some nice twists, some great humour, and all wound up nicely in just 64, 000 words. I f you've enjoyed films like Mystery Men and The Specials, then this is definitely a book for you.

Romance Stories by Christina T. Crooks

Title: Romance Stories - An Interactive Fiction Collection
Author: Christina T. Crooks
Genre/Subgenre: Romance/Gamebook
Word count: Approx. 50 pages
Publication Date: 10/2011
Publisher: Self (October 2011)
Available: $1.49 at Amazon
Format available: .mobi or .epub
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewer: Elle Hill



Synopsis:
According to the author, “Be the star of six fun and twisted little romance stories. Explore the playfulness, action, and sudden mortal danger of these adventures with built-in hyperlinks where you choose the direction the stories take. Thirty-five possible endings, but only a few will be a happily ever after. Can you find them?”


The good:
I read this gamebook on an otherwise-miserable airplane trip. It made me giggle several times, particularly as I tried to get inside the author’s head and figure out which choices would lead me to the promised happily-ever-afters with the story’s Hunky Guy™. Of course, this said, I felt it was my choice to explore every single option, which meant I alternately died tragically, lived a life of ennui, and found my soul mate, all in one very short story.

These amusing and well-written stories vary from post-apocalyptic science fiction to uncomfortably realistic romance. The one thing they all have in common is a shero written in the second person (“you” are the lead character). Every few pages – sometimes every few paragraphs or even sentences – the reader faces the option of how to respond to certain circumstance. This very fast-paced book defies readers’ attentions to stray.


The “bad”:
In a world saturated by reality TV and omnipresent, slick visual media imagery, we’ve become a culture of citizens with tiny attention spans and a lust for ever-new stimulations. This gamebook fits perfectly into this perceptual noise. It works beautifully as a text of its kind – as I said, it is quite well-written – but in terms of stories, the scenes are too short and too frequently interrupted to provide any kind of compelling, relatable narrative.


In sum:
Reading this book, I kept thinking this method of narrative delivery is perfect for folks with ADD; it is choppy, fragmented, and relies on clichés to provide structure and storyline. In short, if you’re looking for symbolism and multi-dimensional characters, read Jane Eyre; for a well-written, light-hearted distraction from the annoyances of flying or watching your kid’s Little League game, this gamebook may well be your next best friend.