After years of chaos, questionable decisions, and flirtations with the supervillain path, Bea is finally thriving. She’s got a sweet, new gig hunting demons in Maui, she’s working hard to hone her powers, and her big sister Evie is proud of her at last. In fact, everyone is soproud of her that she can’t tell them the truth: she’s feeling lost and adrift. She and her boyfriend Sam Fujikawa are struggling to make their long-distance love work, and her powers are displaying some intriguing new elements—elements that could lead her down an evil, mind-controlling path once more.
When her family’s holiday visit is disrupted by otherworldly monsters rising out of the Maui ocean, Bea throws herself into the battle—until she’s suddenly and mysteriously transported to the perfect Christmas back in San Francisco, surrounded by her family and an excess of merrymaking.
As she finds herself trapped in the bizarre holiday rom-com of her nightmares, Bea must unravel a treacherous demon plot, save the world from unspeakable evil, and resist the siren song of a supervillain destiny. And hey, maybe she’ll find time for a little holiday cheer after all….
I’m gonna take a brief moment here & give myself a little pat on the back. I’m often making proclamations on this blog, things like “I’m definitely planning to read the next book in this series over the next couple months,” and then like…two fucking years go by, and oopsies…I didn’t do the thing.
But I had said that I was going to read HOLIDAY HEROINE in December, and I actually did the damn thing! This is the last book in Sarah Kuhn’s HEROINE COMPLEX series, a book series that has come to mean as much to me as any I’ve ever read.
It was kind of surreal reading this, to be honest. It really hasn’t been that long since I started this series, but these books have seen me through some incredibly difficult days, and I’ll always be thankful for that. But yeah, it was emotional as fuck even starting this book, and knowing this was the end. I’ve ordered a signed copy of the last three books through The Ripped Bodice, and that was a really fun yearly tradition that I’ll miss.
BUT ON TO THE BOOK!!
Like the third book, HEROINE’S JOURNEY, this one is from Bea Tanaka’s POV. Moving to Maui was such a big deal for Bea, and when we catch up with her, we see that she’s adapting well to a whole new life & has made some incredible new friends.
But the promise of all the demonic activity that brought her to the island hasn’t exactly panned out, and she’s kind of fighting off some boredom & restlessness.
So it’s lucky that Evie & Aveda & the gang are all planning to visit Bea for a little “Christmas in spring” celebration. Bea is a HUGE fan of Christmas (because of course she is!), and an obsessive fan of holiday rom-coms.
But as she’s preparing for the visit, Bea has a strange encounter with a mini kaiju, and things start getting deeply weird after that. She seems to be skipping around in time. Forgetting major life events.
Shit gets wild.
I really love that, on the sixth and final book of this series, Sarah Kuhn is still introducing completely new elements & taking big risks with the narrative and structure of the book. I mean, fuck it, it’s Christmas. Let’s do some time traveling!
After reading HEROINE’S JOURNEY (book three, which I think still remains my favorite of the series), I really started to see Bea Tanaka as the wild, beating heart of this series. She is so authentically herself, and she feels things in extremely powerful ways. Her love for her friends & family is just limitless…she’s just an amazing human being & truly one of my favorite fictional characters of all time.
HOLIDAY HEROINE is kind of like Bea’s bisexual disaster magnum opus…a wacky holiday time traveling rom-com with ALL THE TROPES, all the feels, and a cozy holiday vibe…with, of course, inter-dimensional monsters & a villain hellbent on destroying humanity!
And it wouldn’t be a HEROINE COMPLEX book without tons of delicious food!!
I adored this book, and gah… this series has really meant so fucking much to me over the last couple of years! I’m sad to see HEROINE COMPLEX come to an end, but it’s been such a fun ride. If this series was ever on your radar at all, you should totally check it out. These books all manage to be fun & sexy & thrilling…and then just astonishingly emotional & totally real where some of the character’s trauma is concerned.
Oof…HEROINE COMPLEX is without a doubt one of my favorite book series ever!
Grimdark Dad 