Julie Kenner
Aphrodite’s Kiss (2001)
Author: Julie Kenner
Genre: Romance (Supernatural)
Plot Summary:
Zoe Smith is no ordinary librarian, she is a superhero. Zoe is half human, half Protector, and while she has X-ray vision, she cannot eat chocolate. Zoe has super-senses and she keeps it a secret from everyone in her life, except for those from the Protector world. Even her mother and best gal-pal do not know she has superpowers, not that she is fully in control of her powers. Zoe is training to become a Protector, and her half-brother is coaching her through the process. One day, when Zoe is working at the school library, she meets Taylor, a P.I. down on his luck. Taylor is trying to get information on Zoe’s colleague. Zoe’s super-senses tell her that Taylor is rummaging around in her colleague’s office, and she confronts him and kicks him out. But Zoe is attracted to Taylor, and even as she kicks him out, she wants to get to know him better. Meanwhile, in the Protector world, Zoe’s evil uncle is trying to locate an amulet that is part of a prophesy and can be used to lead a rebellion of Outcasts against the Protectors and enslave humanity. Zoe and her cousin Mordi are part of the prophesy, as they are Halflings born on the same day, and it is one of their hands that the amulet must be placed to either protect humanity or enslave it. SPOILER: As Zoe and Taylor’s attraction heats up, they both find themselves falling in love. Their relationship is tested as Zoe reveals her power and other life and fights to protect her friends, family, and lover from her evil uncle and misguided cousin. Taylor has to both fight for Zoe and stand by as she fights her cousin Mordi for the amulet. It is Taylor and Zoe’s love that helps Zoe defeat her cousin and save the world from her uncle.
Geographical Setting: Los Angeles, CA
Time Period: 1990’s-2000
Series: Aphrodite series, book 1
Appeal Characteristics:
With a vulnerable, yet strong heroine, Kenner’s Aphrodite’s Kiss is a quick and fun read. Putting a new spin on Greek mythology, Kenner sets up a world like our own, but with the inclusion of super-beings that aid and protects humanity. For a supernatural romance, the tone of the book remains light and comedic, with a plethora of wacky secondary characters, including an opinionated ferret and squid-like Henchmen. Zoe and Taylor’s romance is the main plot of the book, but the search for the amulet is what drives the plot and keeps the story moving. A good versus evil theme, Kenner’s Aphrodite series is a fast and humorous read, and will have the reader cheering for the superheroes.
Read-alikes: Readers who enjoyed Kenner’s Aphrodite series may want to try her demon-hunting soccer mom series Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom. With a similar style of humor and supernatural writing used in writing the Aphrodite series, Kenner tells the story of a retired demon-hunter trying to raise her two kids in suburbia. When a demonic assassin shows up at her house right before an important dinner party, Kate Conner is forced out of retirement to save her town and her fabulous dinner. MaryJanice Davidson’s Undead and Unwed is a great companion to Kenner’s work as it blends supernatural themes with a wicked sense of humor. Betsy Taylor was just an ordinary Minnesotan woman, until she is killed by a car one snowy night and she wakes up in a coffin in a horrible pink suit. Betsy now finds trying to explain to her mother and best-friend how she is not dead and deal with the fact that she might be a vampire. As Betsy fights the need to feed, she makes friends with a gay doctor about to commit suicide, saves a mother and daughter from being killed, and meets the yummy Sinclair. Katie McAlister’s Aisling Grey novel You Slay Me is a supernatural romance with a strong female character who is constantly surrounded by wacky secondary characters, much like Kenner’s Aphrodite series. Aisling travels to Paris as an artifact courier for her uncle, and finds herself involved in a murder and her package delivery stolen. As Aisling stays in Paris, she finds out new things about herself that she never knew. Aisling is a Guardian without a portal to protect, she becomes an accidental demon-lord, and is a wyvern’s mate. As Aisling comes to grips with her new roles in life, she must solve a series of murders and protect the Otherworld from a dangerous foe. Stephanie Rowe’s Must Love Dragons is a supernatural romance with an unlikely main character, a female dragon that has violent and destructive urges, but is also lonely. Like Kenner’s heroine Zoe, Theresa is at odds with her natural abilities and has been for two centuries. Theresa has been trapped in her dragon form ever since she took a drink of Mona-the Goblet of Eternal Youth. Ever since that moment, Theresa has been shut off from the world and the main highlights of her days is ordering clothes online, having cybersex with her online boyfriend and eating no-carb pretzels. Theresa online boyfriend has started asking to meet face to face, so she strikes a bargain with the hilarious character of Satan to return her to her human form. Her internet boyfriend also happens to be an ex-dragonslayer and a P.I. hired to find her. His client is an old flame of Theresa’s who wants her back, dead or alive. As Theresa and Zeke fight their natural instincts to kill the other, they also fight their ever-growing attraction to one another. Lisa Cach’s A Babe in Ghostland is another supernatural romance where the heroine of the novel cannot fully control her powers. Megan Barrows has given up her career as a ghost-busting psychic to run an antique shop that she fills only with objects that have positive feelings. Case Lambert needs help, and he turns to Megan and her abilities to see and feel ghosts as a solution. But Megan is afraid after once almost having her soul taken by a bad spirit, to enter into the field again. After Case convinces her to visit his re-modeling project and search for spirits, Megan begins to fear that not only is she in over her head with the spirit world, but she may be falling head over heals for Case.
Red Flags: Premarital sex, human enslavement, supernatural powers
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