Blaze (or Love in the Time of Supervillains) by Laurie Boyle Crompton

Standalone. Sourcebooks Fire (February 2012) Won

Blaze is tired of spending her life on the sidelines, drawing comics and feeling invisible. She's desperate for soccer star Mark to notice her. And when her BFF texts Mark a photo of Blaze in sexy lingerie, it definitely gets his attention. After a hot date in the back of her minivan, Blaze is flying high, but suddenly Mark's feelings seem to have been blasted by a freeze-ray gun, and he dumps her. Blaze gets her revenge by posting a comic strip featuring uber-villain Mark the Shark. Mark then retaliates by posting her "sext" photo, and, overnight, Blaze goes from Super Virgin Girl to Super Slut. That life on the sidelines is looking pretty good right about now...

                    

I don't know if you know this but my brother loves comic books and everything that comes with it so being the younger sister to said brother some of that has rubbed off on me. Now, I could never know as much as our heroine Blaze does. I don't know when Wolverine first appeared and I don't have my favorite issue but I do have a favorite "superhero" who's actually a sidekick. I love Robin. Yeah, Batman's Robin. I love any heroes or sidekicks that are kids or teenagers. I guess it's fun to see someone my age fight bad guys. So why am I telling you all this? Well, it's me basically saying how excited I was to read a book with a comic book nerd girl getting revenge. I didn't know about the whole sext scandal like it says on the summary but it's not like it ruined anything for me. It did lead to a very nerdy revenge.

At first Blaze spouting out information about different issues of comics turned me off because I thought the author was trying to hard to establish her nerdiness. But, once I settled into Blaze's character I knew it wasn't an act especially when she went head to head with a certain Comic Book Guy. Blaze is her real name by the way. Her father, who's never around, has these collections of classic Marvel comics and one of them has the character of Johnny Blaze A.K.A. Ghost Rider which is of course her namesake. Her father is the reason she got into comics. I guess she knew he loved them and in a not so realistic way maybe he would pay attention to her if she could speak his language. 

Since her father moved away to New York to become an actor she's had to pick up the slack for her mom who works long hours at the hospital. Her mom always tells her how grateful she is which I appreciate because sometimes parents in book forget that their kid is a kid and not responsible for their responsibilities. There were times where she didn't see her daughter's point of view and jumped to conclusions or accused her of things. It irritated me a little but she's still a super great mom and character. So Blaze takes her brother, Josh, and his gassy, pubescent friends around everywhere but mainly to their soccer games where she expertly ogles their coach any time she can. She works on her own comic, The Blazing Goddess, while doing so and one day he finally notices her. 

As you know from the summary - Mark is a cad. Her brother tries to warn her but her ultra need to be his girlfriend wins out and she gets left in the cold. Blaze decides that The Blaze Goddess needs to come out into real life to exact her revenge on Matt the Shark and get the last laugh. But then Matt retaliates and Blaze is bullied incessantly. She doesn't know what to do or who to talk to. She definitely doesn't want Comic Book Guy, Quentin,  finding out about this because other than her two friends, one who will flirt with anyone and the other who is tough but has her back, and her brother and his gang of friends everyone else hates her. The difference is that she might be falling for him and she doesn't want to lose a good person like him.

Blaze makes a ton of mistakes. It might be too much for some people because she does act stupid. But for me I let most of it glide over. I gave her the benefit of the doubt and enjoyed her character despite her mistakes because all of us have crushed on someone so badly before that you would do anything for them to notice you and if they do you want to keep them. So I get it. I didn't judge her too harshly. There was some "slut bashing" which is apparently a thing where everyone would make fun of this girl who supposedly did it with everyone. Ironically, Blaze got in the same situation. I really didn't understand how someone could just call you so many demeaning words to your face. I just don't see people doing that. It's none of your business. What does it matter what she did or didn't send? Why do people care so much about things like that? It was pretty annoying but the story did bring up bullying and how ridiculous it is. It made a statement.

Overall: Blaze made a lot of mistakes but that didn't change the fact that her personality rocked. I loved reading about a comic book nerd finding her own strength after what seems like the worst possible thing happens to her. I also loved the protectiveness of her brother. He was one of my favorite characters if not the favorite character from the story. More comic/superhero/superpowers plots please! Oh, the only thing I didn't really like was the image of her "hot date in the back of her minivan". Not necessary.

For more info about Laurie Boyle Crompton you can go visit her at her website where you can find info on her upcoming release in early 2014 - Adrenaline.