Starter Villain by John Scalzi

 

From the blurb:  "Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitue teacher living with his two cats, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle, Jake, dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had a lot of enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie."

My thoughts:   John Scalzi knows how to write inventive novels that will make you laugh out loud. And Starter Villain is uniquely fun. I loved the whole idea of an average guy like Charlie inheriting his uncle's supervillain business. And I loved how he dealt with everything from super smart spy cats to assassination attempts with self-deprecating humor and aplomb. I especially loved his interactions with his cats. (He handled the surprisingly snarky dolphins well, too.) Charlie is smart and nice, and not exactly supervillain material. Which made for some very funny moments. Fast-paced and full of action, this whole book was awesome. 

My rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Reading!

P.S. I also really enjoyed Scalzi's book The Kaiju Preservation Society.