Exclusive reveal: See the cover and read an excerpt from Hollywood Heroine by Sarah Kuhn

Read an exclusive excerpt from Hollywood Heroine Chapter 1 below.

"Chapter One It was a Saturday like any other when the unthinkable happened—I slept in. Yes, I am aware that sleeping in on the weekend is considered a highly revered tradition, a simple respite after the long grind of the work week. It’s just never been an option for me—after years of strict discipline, my body has trained itself to wake up at 7 a.m. on the dot. And as a superheroine, I don’t have a traditional work week. I must be awake, alert, and ready to go whenever duty may call. In my case, it calls quite a lot. Take the morning when said sleeping in occurred. I’d spent the previous night taking down a whole mess of demons who’d disguised themselves as an artisanal meats and cheeses display at a quaint corner butcher shop in the Mission. And I’d had to do it solo, as my best friend and partner in superheroing, Evie Tanaka, wasn’t feeling well. Evie was four months pregnant, and while her morning sickness (or, as she liked to call it, “all-the-time sickness”) had subsided somewhat, she still had bouts of nausea when confronted with certain foodstuffs. And one of those foodstuffs was cured meat products. I didn’t want to dodge impressive amounts of vomit while trying to defeat a throng of evil, fanged-salamis, so I’d tactfully suggested I take this mission on alone. Evie told me to maybe try calling Shruti, one of our superpowered friends who helped us out from time to time, but I was extremely confident in my ability to handle it myself. And I’d been correct. Even the most evil of salamis cannot help but quake in their casings when confronted with San Francisco’s premier superheroine—and that would be yours truly, Aveda Jupiter. After this meaty fracas, I’d returned to Team Tanaka-Jupiter HQ—a crumbling Victorian in the lower Haight—and spent the next few hours going through various reports about suspected supernatural activity in Maui. At some point, the taxing events of the day caught up with me, and I fell asleep right there at the kitchen table, my cheek pressed against the reports, a little trail of drool besmirching their fine data. I’d briefly stirred awake to my husband Scott gently scooping me up and carrying me to bed, murmuring in my ear that whatever I was doing could wait until tomorrow. Now it was tomorrow. And I was already late. While my occupation of choice is always demanding, it had become even more hectic the past couple months. This was thanks to 1) the threat from the demonic dimension known as the Otherworld taking on some all-new and exciting layers, 2) the hiring of extra staff at Team Tanaka-Jupiter, which I had to manage, and 3) Evie’s pregnancy, which had thus far been extra nerve-wracking as it was the first known offspring of a superheroine and a half-demon (that would be Evie’s husband, Nate). Oh, and we’d been tipped off that some of the most powerful demons in the Otherworld were after the baby. I’d already been feeling extra protective of Evie, but this kicked me solidly into Mama Bear territory—another reason I’d suggested I take down the evil salamis all by my lonesome. In any case, all of this meant my days were currently packed to the gills—and sleeping in was not part of my agenda. Hell, “sleeping” was barely part of my agenda, period. “Annie,” Scott mumbled as I popped up in bed and began scrolling through my phone, trying to get a handle on the day. His eyes were still shut tight, his voice thick with sleep as he reached out for me, his hand landing somewhere in the vicinity of my arm. “You should rest more.” “Nonsense.” I shook my head at him even though his eyes were still closed and he couldn’t see me. “A good four hours and I’m perfectly rested. Anyway, I need to finish looking over those reports from Maui, give Nate everything he needs to write up the butcher shop incident, go over the week’s tasks with our intrepid Tanaka-Jupiter, Inc., employees—” “And all of that does not need to be done first thing Saturday morning,” Scott said, his hand finally landing on mine. He tugged gently on my hand, pulling it away from my phone and twining our fingers together. He lifted his head, one brilliant blue eye finally popping open. “Put the phone down. And come here.” “But I’m not tired,” I insisted—only for a massive, traitorous yawn to interrupt me mid-tired. Scott laughed—a warm, familiar sound that still made my heart flutter, even after all these years. I’d loved this man since we were both awkward teenagers hopped up on angst and hormones, and time had only made that love more fierce and true than I’d ever imagined. Even now, when my attention was still firmly fixed on my schedule, my gaze couldn’t help but linger on him—those sun-kissed muscles rippling over his shoulders, that tousled golden hair. And those blue eyes that looked at me with such adoration, making me melt every time. When he pulled me against him—as he did now, my head fitting perfectly against his shoulder—I always felt like I was coming home. “Just close your eyes for a minute,” he murmured, his intoxicating summertime scent—ocean and green and sunscreen—washing over me. His hand flexed against my back, molding me more firmly against him. “The world’s not going to end just because you slept in on one freaking Saturday.” “But what if it does,” I sighed as my eyes fluttered closed, visions of fanged salamis and supernatural incident reports and pregnant Evie in peril dancing through my head. “What if it does.”"

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Mark your calendars – and let us know if you’ll be putting Hollywood Heroine on your TBR list!