Heroes Are My Weakness. Finished 11-16-14, rating 3/5, romance, 367 pages, pub. 2014
The dead of winter. An isolated island off the coast of Maine. A man. A woman. A sinister house looming over the sea …
He’s a reclusive writer whose macabre imagination creates chilling horror novels. She’s a down-on-her-luck actress reduced to staging kids’ puppet shows. He knows a dozen ways to kill with his bare hands. She knows a dozen ways to kill with laughs.
But she’s not laughing now. When she was a teenager, he terrified her. Now they’re trapped together on a snowy island off the coast of Maine. Is he the villain she remembers or has he changed? Her head says no. Her heart says yes.
from Goodreads
The book opens with our heroine, Annie, having a conversation with her multitude of puppets as she drives to her secluded cabin in the middle of a snowstorm. It’s those puppets that kept me from investing fully in Annie from the beginning. She grew on me but the absurdity of the puppets (and their continued butting into the story) turned me off. The puppets did, much later, play a part in the sweetest aspect of Annie’s story and I think if that had been their involvement I may have liked this better. I’m sounding very anti-puppet with all of these complaints, aren’t I? Maybe it’s my problem and not Annie’s!
As for Theo Harp, our dark hero, he came off as so damaged at the beginning it was interesting to see how she would redeem him. In the end the big reveal wasn’t all that big a surprise but it did work in making him a more sympathetic character.
This felt very different from SEP’s other romances. There’s always hot sex that happens before it seems it should and there is always humor, sarcasm and intelligent characters and this book had all that. It felt like less romance this time around and it had a more sinister undertone since someone was trying to scare/hurt Annie. It was good, but different.
I know this has been nominated for many end-of-the-year book awards, but it just didn’t quite do it for me. But, no worries, I’ll still buy the next book by Susan in hardcover the week it comes out 🙂
Stacy's Books 
You do sound anti-puppet but it does sound odd for an adult to be having a conversation with puppets. I’ll have to think about this book.
She wasa puppeteer so it made since to a point. I just wish I’d gotten to know her first before she started having make believe conversations with her puppets. It made her seem a bit foolish from the get go.
Oh boy. Not sure this is for me (I don’t like puppets or clowns or….). I’m laughing as I type this. I think I’ll wait for her next one.
LOL! When we took Gage to the circus in October I was so relieved that he didn’t freak out at being so close to all of the clowns – we were down on the floor before the show.
I’ve never read this author and don’t think I’d chose this book as my first. Sounds a little strange that she talks to her puppets, which I would love if it was a movie.. I just don’t think talking to puppets in a book would seem as intense.
I love this author but I’d definitely recommend starting with another book.
I actually like puppets, but it sounds like even I would find that odd. Doesn’t sound like a romance I want to read.
Well, if you like puppets it might work better for you!
I haven’t read anything by this author yet, though this book did catch my eye and the romance aspect sounds good. The puppet thing does give me pause however! I’m on the fence about this one.
I just wish she hadn’t started with the puppets. Their involvement was less as the book went on.