Cinderman, by Anne Stuart

Another good Anne Stuart, this time one of her series titles, Cinderman. I was right to keep reading her after the first two bad reads.

HE'D BEEN SO ELUSIVE

Suzanna Molloy was trailing top-secret Dr. Daniel Crompton-a man reputed to be as hot as his experiments with chemical fusion. But even Suzanna didn't expect their meeting to be so explosive!

HE WAS SO DANGEROUS

A suspect lab accident gave Daniel fantastical powers-and threw Suzanna right into his arms. Now she was on the run with a man whose fiery gaze could reduce objects--and her resistance--to cinders.

HE'D BECOME MORE THAN A MAN…

With his newfound power of invisibility, Daniel kept catching--and kissing--Suzanna unawares. She'd found her fantasy man, but the only way to keep him was to keep him alive!

Reading Night Shadow gave me a taste for superhero romance, and I remembered I had this one in my TBR. This one takes a more campy stance than Night Shadow, but it works just as well. A B+.

With the backdrop of the adventure, the romance works very well. I really liked Suzanna, she was independent and strong, determined not to be a damsel in distress and to earn what she has. The T-Shirts with the combative feminist slogans were a nice touch, they were very much her. I especially appreciated the fact that she was described as having the typical body, 10 pounds overweight. And in spite of this, Daniel was mad with desire for her.

As for Daniel, he was one of those scientists with 0 social skills. I'd probably want to murder him in real life, but in fiction, I loved him. I think at one point he says something "exquisitely rude", and that describes him well ;-) I loved the way he was so baffled by the way he was starting to feel around Suzanna. Previously he'd been so removed from the worldly pleasures, from sex to eating. Hhe just had sex as a physical function and eat only to fuel up, not even bothering to chew, but drinking a nutritious liquid thing. Being with Suzanna changed all that.

The whole plot about a corporation out to dominate the world was the reason I was glad this wasn't taken too seriously. This kind of thing works if it's used for fun, but taken all seriously, it gets very tedious. At least for me.

There's also a lot of fun to be had with the superpowers here. Quite a bit of exploration of them, too the kind of thing one imagines one would do in their place.

Stuart obviously had fun writing this and it shows. Come to think of it, that's a pretty good compliment.