Love for the Cold-Blooded, or The Part-Time Evil Minion's Guide to Accidentally Dating a Superhero

Love for the Cold-Blooded, or The Part-Time Evil Minion's Guide to Accidentally Dating a Superhero by Alex Gabriel

Age: Young Adult, Adult
Category: Romance, LGBTQIA+, Supernatural
Rating: 4 stars

Rosie Thinks: When Melissa suggested this book to me to read, she only needed to say two words to get me interested: gay batman. Now that is not literally right, but it was close enough to get me interested! Pat, reluctant son of a supervillain, is happy with his night manager job until a series of misunderstandings ends with him in the bed of his boss. Not only is his boss a reclusive billionaire and the famous superhero Silver Paladin, but he thinks Pat's a prostitute. Soon, the two are falling head over heels for each other, but the return of Pat's mother with a new plan to take over the world doesn't help matters.

Superhero stories always seem to fall into one of two characters: dark and serious (like the recent Batman movies) or lighthearted and non-serious. This fell into the latter category. I've read several superhero stories in this style, and most of the time I find them ridiculous, overdone, corny, stereotypical . . . overall, I don't enjoy the forced humour. But somehow it really worked in this book. Pat could so easily have become an annoying MC - he's weird, over-the-top, a chatterbox - but I actually did find him hilarious and he was so well-written that it worked. There's an almost satirical edge to this, one that pokes fun at the superhero/villain stereotypes in the funnest way possible. It was silly at times, but in a way that was fun and not absurdly ridiculous.

It is set in a completely different world, but not much information is given on it other than that showdowns between villains and heroes is the norm. The villains aren't truly bad - for example, Sir Toby created a mind control ray to take over the city and make people more happy and understanding of each other. It's situations like this where the satirical side shines through. Plus, the constant reference to the heroes/villains arranging themselves to get the best looking photo for the newspaper possible. It reminded me a bit of The Incredibles - the way it shows the heroics of a supervillain/hero meeting normal, mundane family life.

Pat is the black-sheep of the family. His older sisters are all following in his mum's supervillain footsteps, but he just wants to study Urban Design. He's just a normal university student, except the times when he has to pull 'minion duty' for one of the other villains. Nick, billionaire and Silver Paladin, is utterly adorable because he's characterised as this almost awkward, shy genius with next to no social skills.

This is longer than I would've expected for a story of this type, and I was so glad for it. I enjoyed every second of it and loved how the author wrote every scene to be so interesting. The only down point is the cover - how does a cover that boring match a book as hilarious as this? I don't really know what they were thinking, as it conveys a seriousness and over-romantic-ness that isn't present in the story. Either way, I definitely recommend this to any lover of superhero stories, or just plain slash.