Clare L. Deming

I want to take a break from my reviews of Leigh Bardugo’s books to highlight a few recent stand-alone reads that I just finished. The first one is That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming (paid link). I first heard of this author when she was a guest at an online event for writers sponsored by Orbit Books, but I hadn’t read anything of hers prior to this. This book is the first in a series called Mead Mishaps, but it looks like each is a separate story (paid link). I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Here is the blurb:

All I wanted to do was live my life in peace. Maybe get a cat, expand my spice farm. Really anything that doesn’t involve going on a quest where an orc might rip my face off. But they say the Goddess has favourites. If so, I’m clearly not one of them.

After saving the demon Fallon in a wine-drunk stupor, all he wanted to do was kill an evil witch enslaving his people.

I mean, I get it, don’t get me wrong. But he’s dragging me along for the ride, and I’m kind of peeved about it. On the bright side, he keeps burning off his shirt.

This was a light and fun novel that I read over just a couple of days. Cinnamon encounters a demon and accidentally discovers that the product of her spice farm (cinnamon, heh) frees him from a curse. Her world is turned upside down when the demon, Fallon, reveals that the Goddess worshipped by the humans of this land is actually a lich who has tricked everyone into serving her.

The story is all told through Cinnamon’s point-of-view. Her voice is energetic and opinionated, and her reactions to her situation were entertaining. Fallon is the dangerous bad-boy demon, but despite being a monster, he keeps his word about things. There weren’t many other characters of note in the story, although we do see a brief picture of Cinnamon’s family which helps to flesh out her motivations more fully.

While this is an obvious romance book, the non-romance part of the plot follows a classic quest format and creates a vehicle for the characters to interact. Cinnamon refuses to acknowledge her attraction for Fallon for a while, but when she gives in to it, the sex scenes are creative and explicit. The author does a good job of building the tension of the plot at the same time that the romance escalates, so that the ending of the book was satisfying in both respects.

I might read more of this series as it was a quick and easy book to get through — perfect to read on a cold and quiet weekend.

Have you read anything by Kimberly Lemming? Let me know in the comments (above).

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