Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
All Super-Heroes Need Photo Ops by Elizabeth Stephens Narrator: Sean Crisden, Emery Erickson
Series: Supers in the City #2
Published by Brilliance Audio on November 25, 2025
Genres: Fantasy Romance
Length: 9 hours, 43 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible
From the moment forty-eight alien superheroes crash-landed on Earth, photographer Monika Neumann had a favorite. She’s been crushing on the literally electrifying Taranis ever since she saw the cutie crawling out of his pod. Unfortunately, his popularity isn’t exactly crackling these days. He could use an image boost.
Monika is in. One right photo op and she’ll put her ridiculously hot lightning-bolt-wielding hero back in the public’s favor. The best part is, the mission will bring her closer to Taranis. She’s already looking forward to the sparks. Monika never imagined there’d be a worst an accidental recording that reveals Taranis could be more villain than hero. In fact, her pretty golden boy can get kind of ugly.
Going all 007 and spying on Taranis isn’t the adventure in romance and derring-do she expected. Can she trust him? Doubtful. Can she resist him? No way. Is she ready to risk everything on a shimmering Champion with the power to zap her heart in two? Well, yeah.
I probably needed a safe word to read this. I’m not sure how I feel about All Superheroes Need Photo Ops. I have severe mixed feelings and vacillated wildly between if it was a 2 star read or a 4 star read for me. But I will give extreme props to Elizabeth Stephens for not sugar coating the villainous hero and not making him just ‘misunderstood’. He is ultimately a villain. She also committed to Dom/Sub theme for the sex as well and did not shy away from some of the dirty in that.
The first book in the Supers in the City series, All Superheroes Need PR was really quite a cute read and while it took me awhile to connect with the female lead in that, I connected with Monika right away. She is such a cool and independent woman, completely in touch with who she is and what she wants. Taranis on the other hand, was the Heroes poster boy in the prior book. So when he turned out to be mostly a fraud and a pretty big A-hole I was a bit surprised. His character was the difficult one for me to really get on board with, at least until the last portion of the book.
The story set up and overarching story line is interesting. Aliens sent a set of kids to earth, all have different powers and are called the 48. Some have joined team Villains, some the Heroes and some have remained independent. In the first book you find out why the aliens were really sent to earth. The Wyvern was the first to manifest and come into his full power. Taranis was the number 1 hero before that happened and now he is jealous he has lost most of the spotlight. However, he has figured out if Monika also takes pictures for him, he might just be able to regain his former status.
Monika had a crush on Taranis for years. That is until she saw the man he truly was, was not the hero she always imagined. She is a professional though and so she will take his picture and make him look good, even if she almost has to die to do it. The tables turn though when Taranis discovers she is his mate (for lack of a better word) and is the reason he has manifested into his true form. This form is not as pretty as his last one and he is now also blue, but it gives him some freedoms that he hasn’t had before and now is the time to change his entire life.
I HATED Taranis for probably 2/3rds of the book. He isn’t a nice guy, he hates humans, looks down on most of the world in general and was a jerk to Monika. Monika was always someone I could root for though. She is a bit full figured and completely embraces it, is fan-freaking-tastic at her job and gets shit done. I did grow to love her and their relationship and in the end I was completely rooting for them. But it was a long road with some pretty big bumps and red flags throws on so many plays.
Bonus for those of us that read the first book, Roland and Vanessa make some appearances in the book and I loved seeing them and how far they had come.
This isn’t going to be an easy read for some people and I can see a lot of people not being okay with Taranis ever. But, I love that the author stuck to her guns on the character and didn’t completely change his overall character just because he fell in love. So just remember you might need a safe word for part of the book and you will probably be fine.
Narration:
Performance: ★★★★
Character Separation: ★★★★
Diction: ★★★★
Pacing/Flow: ★★★★
Sound Effects: None
Sean Bassett returns with another strong performance. He has a really deep voice that seemed to fit the Taranis and the Wyvern well making them feel like the big bada**es they are. Emery Ericson was a new to me narrator. She was able to make it easy for me to visualize Monika. I enjoyed both PoV narrations and how they performed all of the characters.
Listen to a clip:Â HERE
| Rating Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Plot |
|
| Writing |
|
| Characters |
|
| Dialogue |
|
| Narration (Audio) |
|
| Overall: | |
Friend me at Goodreads.
- 🎧Sirens by Kerrigan Brynne, Cynthia St. Aubin #KerriganByrne #CynthiaStAubin #StellaHunter @narratedbyteddy.bsky.social @tantoraudio.bsky.social #LoveAudiobooks @RobinBridgeFour #KindleUnlimited - June 8, 2026
- The Cupid Dilemma by April Asher @novelsbyapril.bsky.social @stmartinspress.bsky.social @RobinBridgeFour - June 1, 2026
- The Midnight Train by Matt Haig @matthaig.bsky.social @vikingbooks.bsky.social @RobinBridgeFour - May 25, 2026
Probably not the book for me. Though the title is hilarious.
So hilarious. I definitely tried the first book for the title alone.
I would struggle with the jerk, but I love a good jerk that redeems themselves.
I can’t say he is completely redeemed. But definitely more likable in the end and probably a perfect fit for Monika.
Sounds like I might not enjoy this one. I’m also not really a fan of much dom-sub stories unless they don’t get too far into it maybe? I don’t know. This series does sound like one I might still want to go try the first one though. Great review!
For me it went a little too far on the Dom-Sub side. But it is such a fine line that it is too close to call. 😛