Review of ‘Hero(ine) Addict’ by Blythe H. Warren

This was an enjoyable lesbian friends-to-lovers romance. I really liked Warren’s ‘Bait and Switch’, so I was happy to see her come out with a new book. I actually didn’t even look at the blurb since I knew I wanted to read this because it was written by Warren. I want to mention that just looking at the cover and title, I thought this might be a superhero story. It is not, one of the characters is a graphic novel artist so that is where the cover comes from while the title also makes perfect sense as the book goes on. This is a modern-day, slow-burn romance.

This is a story about trusting your heart over your head when it comes to love. Harper is dating a doctor who saves children for a living, what more could she want? How about a girlfriend she can spend more time with and that gets along better with her roommate. Maybe the key is making her roommate happy by finding her the perfect girlfriend who might just be Eliot the artist. But what if Eliot isn’t interested in the roommate but in Harper instead?

I’m a fan of how Warren writes and I feel comfortable when I read her books. I use this word ‘readable’ a lot to describe books with good pacing and that keeps my attention. The kind of books that are very easy to continue reading long into the night instead of putting down, and I felt that with this book.

While I really liked the pace and feel of the book, I did think the book was not long enough. There is a big reveal that comes out of nowhere (I went back to reread parts to see if I was somehow missing something, which I couldn’t find but I apologize if I did miss it) so we are just told it happened instead of being showed. I think that was a real missed opportunity since it was a big conflict moment that affected the two mains and the two secondary main characters.

I also found a few things that I thought page time should have been used to explain better. Eliot is a great example. I really wanted more about her art and her graphic novel projects. We are told later about her project, after the fact, but again I wanted to experience it instead. This book had such a fast pace that a few slower interesting moments would have been fine to mix in. I just feel like the book could have used some length.

When it came to the romance I enjoyed it. This is a friends-to-lovers romance so it’s slow-burn and the characters spend a lot of time not officially together. I thought Warren used that time wisely here to build up the chemistry. I enjoyed the flirty dialogue and I believed that these two were fighting a growing attraction. I do wish for a little more time with the mains ‘together’, but I was happy that the ending was a more realistic HEA.

While I did want more of this story, I still really enjoyed it. I have only read two of Warren’s books but her writing style clicks for me and I was really happy to see that she was back with a new release. I would recommend this to slow-burn romance fans that like a little family drama and a moderate amount of angst. I hope this won’t be the last book we see from Warren. 3.75 Stars.

An ARC was given to me for an honest review.