Book picks similar to
Hero Status by Kristen Brand


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The Rules of Supervillainy


C.T. Phipps - 2015
    Supervillains, heroes, and monsters are a common part of the world he inhabits. Yet, after the death of his hometown's resident superhero, he gains the amazing gift of the late champion's magical cloak. Deciding he prefers to be rich rather than good, Gary embarks on a career as Merciless: The Supervillain Without Mercy. But is he evil enough to be a villain in America's most crime-ridden city? Gary soon finds himself surrounded by a host of the worst of Falconcrest City's toughest criminals. Supported by his long-suffering wife, his ex-girlfriend turned professional henchwoman, and a has-been evil mastermind, Gary may end up being not the hero they want but the villain they need.

The Rise of Renegade X


Chelsea M. Campbell - 2010
    But when he discovers the shameful secret she's been hiding all these years, that the one-night stand that spawned him was actually with a superhero, everything gets messed up. His father's too moral for his own good, so when he finds out Damien exists, he actually wants him to come live with him and his goody-goody superhero family. Damien gets shipped off to stay with them in their suburban hellhole, and he has only six weeks to prove he's not a hero in any way, or else he's stuck living with them for the rest of his life, or until he turns eighteen, whichever comes first.To get out of this mess, Damien has to survive his dad's "flying lessons" that involve throwing him off the tallest building in the city--despite his nearly debilitating fear of heights--thwarting the eccentric teen scientist who insists she's his sidekick, and keeping his supervillain girlfriend from finding out the truth. But when Damien uncovers a dastardly plot to turn all the superheroes into mindless zombie slaves, a plan hatched by his own mom, he discovers he cares about his new family more than he thought. Now he has to choose: go back to his life of villainy and let his family become zombies, or stand up to his mom and become a real hero.

Other People's Heroes


Blake M. Petit - 2002
    Imagine a world where people bend steel in their bare hands, where champions dart across the sky, where avengers step out of the shadows to protect the innocent. Imagine a man larger than life protecting the innocent, imagine a family of heroes, imagine warriors dedicated to the safety of mankind. Imagine you've worshiped them your entire life. Then imagine it's all a hoax. Imagine that your champions are actors, the fights choreographed... imagine the real heroes vanished a decade ago. Imagine you're the only one who knows the truth. And imagine what you would do to put things right...

The Miranda Contract


Ben Langdon - 2014
    Pop Star.Sometimes the life we're given isn't the life we'd choose for ourselves.For the past five years, Dan Galkin has been lying to everyone about just how ordinary he is. But Dan's the grandson of The Mad Russian: one of the world's most powerful, and insane, supervillains. And Dan has powers too. He's a living battery, able to absorb and discharge electricity with his mind. Normally he keeps his powers hidden, but when the old man returns with an offer to make his grandson heir apparent, any chance at an ordinary life is blown apart.Miranda Brody thought she wanted to be a pop star, but now she's got the international profile and the entourage, she doesn't recognize the Miranda she has become. After getting caught up in the cross-fire between Dan and his grandfather, Miranda realizes there's more to life than being famous. Staying alive, for example, becomes a high priority. And not falling in love with the pizza boy comes a close second.Labeled by society, trapped by expectation.Dan and Miranda might actually be able to change everything.As long as they don't kill each other first.

. . . and Baby Makes Two: A Novel


Judy Sheehan - 2005
    But that’s before she sees the perfect child. There he sits in his stroller, angelic and beautiful, magnetic and serene– and he makes Jane question everything she has and everything she thought she wanted. Suddenly all she can see are babies and pregnant woman everywhere. Were there always so many of them? And while there was once a man in her life–her one true love, Sam, gone from this world too soon–there is no man now. Jane must make a choice: possibly become a bitter and childless old lady, letting her biological clock tick on ’till menopause, or tend the ache in her heart now, by becoming a single mother. As Jane struggles to make the most important decision of her life, friends and family offer no shortage of opinions. There’s Ray, her “hubstitute” and gay best friend who would be jealous of any kid who got Jane as a mom; Sheila, her sister, who went from zero to sixty when she eloped with Raoul–who had two young twin sons– and has mixed feelings about being a new mommy; her strict, Catholic father who can’ t imagine what level of hell Jane would banish herself to if she becomes a single mother; and the women of Families with Children from China who are preparing to adopt orphan daughters–without a man in sight. Just as she thinks she’s made up her mind, Jane discovers one small wrench in her plans: handsome, charming, funny Peter, who just happens to be (unhappily) married. . . . And Baby Makes Two is a heartbreakingly honest, wonderfully addictive, and funny novel about love and loss, family and friendship. Judy Sheehan, co-creator of the smash hit Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, has perfectly captured the delights and dilemmas of the scariest job in the world: motherhood.From the Hardcover edition.

The Astounding Antagonists


Rafael Chandler - 2014
    Agon, a megalomaniacal inventor with an arsenal of lethal gadgets. Motley, a wisecracking jewel thief with nothing left to lose. Chillpill, a cryogenic drug lord who just wants a normal life. Baelphegor, a demonic psychopath with an ugly score to settle. They're the most dangerous supervillains on Earth, and they're about to pull off the perfect crime. There's just one catch: if they succeed, they might accidentally save the world. From the skyscrapers of Apex City to the gates of Hell itself, the Antagonists are pursued by violent superheroes and billionaire vigilantes. But as loyalties are tested and old hatreds are rekindled, the line between friend and foe begins to blur...

Ex-Heroes


Peter Clines - 2010
    Gorgon. Regenerator. Cerberus. Zzzap. The Mighty Dragon. They were heroes, using their superhuman abilities to make Los Angeles a better place.Then the plague of living death spread around the globe. Now, a year later, the heroes struggle to overcome their differences and recover from their own scars as they protect the thousands of survivors huddled in their film-studio-turned-fortress, the Mount.But the hungry ex-humans are not the only threat the survivors face. Across the city, another group has grown and gained power.

Soon I Will Be Invincible


Austin Grossman - 2007
    He's lost his freedom, his girlfriend, and his hidden island fortress. Over the years he's tried to take over the world in every way imaginable: doomsday devices of all varieties (nuclear, thermonuclear, nanotechnological) and mass mind control. He's traveled backwards in time to change history, forward in time to escape it. He's commanded robot armies, insect armies, and dinosaur armies. Fungus army. Army of fish. Of rodents. Alien invasions. All failures. But not this time. This time it's going to be different... Fatale is a rookie superhero on her first day with the Champions, the world's most famous superteam. She's a patchwork woman of skin and chrome, a gleaming technological marvel built to be the next generation of warfare. Filling the void left by a slain former member, Fatale joins a team struggling with a damaged past, trying to come together in the face of unthinkable evil. Soon I Will Be Invincible is a thrilling first novel; a fantastical adventure that gives new meaning to the notions of power, glory, responsibility, and (of course) good and evil.

Wayne of Gotham


Tracy Hickman - 2012
    No fan of the Dark Knight will want to miss this one-of-a-kind window into Gotham’s dark protector in this fast-paced thriller from New York Times bestselling fantasy writer Tracy Hickman. Readers of Kevin J. Anderson’s The Last Days of Krypton and Enemies & Allies will know that comic book characters pack a powerful punch when they enter the pages of a novel. Wayne of Gotham is no exception: as the DC Universe’s millionaire playboy journeys into the dark recesses of his own past, his a journey that could spell the end for everything he holds dear—and the end of the hero he has become: the Batman.

Wild Cards


George R.R. MartinBrian Bolland - 1986
    Most victims die, others experience physical or psychic changes: aces have useful powers, deuces minor maybe entertaining abilities, jokers uglified, disabled, relegated to ghettos.

Super Powereds: Year 1


Drew Hayes - 2013
     Knowledge is power. That would be the motto of Lander University, had it not been snatched up and used to death by others long before the school was founded. For while Lander offers a full range of courses to nearly all students, it also offers a small number of specialty classes to a very select few. Lander is home to the Hero Certification Program, a curriculum designed to develop student with superhuman capabilities, commonly known as Supers, into official Heroes. Five of this year’s freshmen are extra special. They have a secret aside from their abilities, one that they must guard from even their classmates. Because for every one person in the world with abilities they can control, there are three who lack such skill. These lesser super beings, Powereds as they are called, have always been treated as burdens and second class citizens. Though there has been ample research in the area, no one has ever succeeded in turning a Powered into a regular human, let alone a Super. That is, until now… *Note: This is Book 1 of 4 in the Super Powereds web-novel series. Others will become available on Kindle as they are created.

The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3


Matthew Phillion - 2015
     In this other timeline, a few small decisions have led to a much darker and more tragic world, and the adult versions of themselves the Indestructibles meet—Solar, the Dancer, Straylight, Whispering, and Entropy Emily—are nothing like they expected. Are they heroes? Martyrs? Or perhaps even villains? And what happens when the young Indestructibles discover that the alternate future’s version of one of their own team has been turned into the very weapon that will be used to destroy the whole world? Can they team up with these darker versions of themselves to save an entire future? It's said that when you time travel, you can never come back the same. How will journeying through time change the Indestructibles? Will they ever be the same? The Entropy of Everything is the third book in the Indestructibles series.

The Wraith


Jeffery H. Haskell - 2018
    There are people in this world that need killing, and she's just the woman for the job!From the bestselling author of the Full Metal Superhero comes an exciting new ongoing series set in the same world as Arsenal. The Wraith is 60,000 words of badassery done right. Buy it now and start enjoying justice served hot!

Nobody Gets the Girl


James Maxey - 2003
    Nicolas Knowbokov built his time machine. On the machine’s maiden voyage, Dr. Knowbokov accidentally changes history so that Richard is never born. Now trapped in a world that has no memory of him, Richard is an invisible, intangible ghost to everyone but Dr. Knowbokov and the scientist’s two superheroine daughters, Rail Blade and the Thrill.Assigned the codename Nobody, Richard becomes the world’s ultimate spy, invisibly battling the super-powered terrorist army run by the mysterious mastermind Rex Monday. The fate of the free world is at stake as the superhuman battles escalate, wiping entire cities from the map, threatening the survival of all mankind.Who can save us from the looming apocalypse? Nobody!

Cosmic Girl: Rising Up


R.S.J. Gregory - 2014
    find no leads to pursue, just some dead bodies, Britney vows to find the shadowy figure behind it all, and begins her own investigation.Back home in Chicago, she creates a costume, and gives herself a new name: Cosmic Girl.Then her search begins.But this is more than just a thirst for justice.This is personal.Experience the highs and lows of being a superhero through the eyes of Britney, as she embarks on her journey to greatness.