⭐⭐⭐💫
The first book I picked up for the Love in the Night Readathon was That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon. This is the first in Kimberly Lemming's Mead Mishaps series. This was able to cover the prompts Getting Horny, Eat Her Out and New To You Author for the readathon. I was also able to use this for the Fall in Love prompt Outdoor Background on Cover and Color Me Romantic prompt for White (white on the cover). For Bang in the Night applied this to the prompt I'm Horny (main character with horns). For the theme song I chose Come Fly with Me from Frank Sinatra's Reprise Rarities Volume 1.
Cinnamon is a spice farmer in a small village. Every few years heroes are called to help Myva, the witch turned goddess help keep the gate she created to hold back the demon horde in place. Cinnamon was not chosen as a hero and is happy about it since they don't always come back. When heading home from the festival celebrating the heroes, she comes across someone trapped in a landslide. After digging him out she sees that he's not a person, but a demon. Fallon has escapted imprisionment and is on a quest to destroy the sacred chalices of Myva. He explains to Cinnamon that the humans have all been duped and Myva is not a goddess, but a Lich. Fallon makes a deal with Cinnamon to travel to her four temples to destroy the chalices that are actually her phylactories.
Okay, this book is one with contradictions for me. I had fun reading it and enjoyed how things were progressing. I thought the fantasy elements were a basic set up. I like Cinnamon's attitude and how she went about dealing with Fallon and the situation forced upon her (becoming the hero when she was avoiding it the best she could). There were two big detractions for me, but they do kind of blend together. The first is the modern language and demeanor of Cinnamon. It just felt too different from the setting. We start in a stereotypical historical feeling village with fantasy vibes, but then to me her Gen Z way of speaking just took me out of the story constantly.
Paired with that was the way the fantasy world was built and the random modern things that were randomly added. I wanted to learn a lot more about the magic and how it worked. The demons weren't what we would normally consider a demon, but more of a catchall phrase for monsters/creatures. Fallon is a dragon shifter and Cinnamon also meets a minotaur, centaur, werewolf and naga (that's what I can remember off the top of my head). All of them are called demons, which is fine, except I wanted the explanations because since it's a common creature that is used in other fantasies and paranormals. Also, there were a lot of things added to the world that felt like a wink and nod to the reader, but to me just felt completely out of place; and once again took me out of the story. For example, Cinnamon is wandering an open market area and one of the vendors is selling nachos in a bucket. I don't know why, but it just made me frustrated. On top of those two things I also thought that Myva was making some "deus ex machina" choices that helped our "heroes." On top of the fact that she was making odd choices, but I also didn't agree with some of the things that Cinnamon and Fallon were doing. The pacing just felt off and I got a little ranty when talking about this book.
Despite my frustrations with the book, I was still having a fun time reading it. That's why it's a little hard for me to rate, because I did mostly enjoy my time (until I got pulled out of the story). I know that the point maybe to have the more fun and modern take on a fantasy, but it just didn't mesh well to me for the most part. I'm definitely intrigued to read more from the series, but I think I'll have to wait until I'm in the mood for a fantasy that's a little more free and light-hearted. Maybe next FaRoFeb?
Have you read That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon, Kimberly Lemming, 3.5 stars, 2 days, eBook, 182 pages, published in 2021, indie published
No comments:
Post a Comment