I’ve been reading a few fantasy romances and I thought I should talk about them. Do I think you should review every book you read? Hell no, but I also haven’t really reviewed anything this year and that’s a travesty. What is a book blog if I don’t tell you my thoughts on what I’ve read sometimes?
That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon (Mead Mishaps #1) – Kimberly Lemming
Published: 9th August 2021
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Fantasy romance
My Rating:
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 favorites. 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.
I didn't go into this book expecting to love it, yet here we are.
That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon very much is what it says on the tin. The book is about Cinnamon, who gets drunk at a festival in her village and is stumbling on home when she stumbles across a man who appears to have been caught in a rockslide (or something like that, it's been a while and my memory has seen better days). Anyway, she helps him only to discover he isn’t a random hot guy injured in the woods but instead a random hot demon and demons are crazed and attack people. It's only the chosen warriors and their goddess who protects them. She does what any drunk woman in that kind of situation would do and hauls ass out of there and beats him with a stick of cinnamon when she gets cornered on her families spice farm. She manages to get into her house and the next day her family convinces her it was her drunk brain playing tricks. All good until Fallon rocks up to her house, introduces himself as said demon, and reveals that their whole religion was a lie and they need to go on a little quest to save the demons and kill their goddess who is actual some evil witch.
I know, it's a lot, and that's just the start of the book, there are just 200 pages to fit this whole adventure in. To be honest, if I wasn’t in that kind of mood I might I have just rolled my eyes at this fantasy romance book but I was in the mood for something fun and this book delivered on that front. It was a light hearted romance, while also being surprisingly sexy with a light touch of BDSM and it was a fantasy. I'm pretty sure this book delivered on the rom com vibes that are often in contemporary romance these days with a fantasy backdrop and you just don't get that often enough. Apparently, Kimberly Lemming began writing because she wanted a low angst fantasy romance book and that kind of book just didn't exist. Turns out I want that kind of book too, who knew?
I loved the character of Cinnamon (who likes to be called Cin, her parents really weren't inventive with the naming of their kids) she had me laughing from the start because she is just that fun, messy character who hasn't got life figured out yet. She was a homebody and avoided adventure ever since her sister died and so being drawn into Fallon's quest to destroy the chalices which granted the fake goddess power was very much something she did not want to do. But, she was persuaded to help just to see if he was bullshitting her or not with the tale of the crazed demons. He wasn't and she's off travelling to 4 temples to assist. I liked Cinnamon and I wanted good things for her because she had been hurt. And Fallon? I mean he was a smoking hot demon, like literally hot. He burnt off a few shirts through this book and that was not a bad thing. He was also so much fun and you could tell he was gone for Cin and I loved him for that. And once they finally got together? Like I said, this book surprised me that when it came to them sleeping together we were introduced to some light BDSM elements which I wasn't mad about. This truly was a mash up of a fantasy world and romance. Fantasy romance is usually so much heavier on the fantasy side and it make this book so refreshing to read.
It wasn't in any way perfect, though. I wish the secondary characters had been more developed. They were fun when they appeared, but I think with a longer book they could have been developed more and had more interaction with our MCs to make them feel fully developed. The pacing was off in places. It began a bit slow and then got it's footing when the quest first began, but then it felt rushed to the end to cover them destroying these chalices and that was a little frustrating to read. I enjoyed it, but it's something to be aware of.
I don't want to focus on the negatives though because this felt refreshing. This was like fantasy romance, but light hearted fantasy romance. Kimberley Lemming has helped to develop the lighter romances that mainstream publishers would probably overlook. Fantasy does not need to be angsty and world ending every time, sometimes we just want to escape the real world and want to do it in a fantasy world and that's what you get here. I want more books like this because I don't always want to feel like it's hard work to read something.
Mistlefoe (A Mead Realm Tale) – Kimberly Lemming
Published: 25th December 2021
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Fantasy romance
My Rating:
It's all fun and games until someone catches feelings
Fate sends me straight into the lion's den. Or rather, the fox's den. After my dad trespassed into a powerful fox demon's territory, our family is struck with a powerful curse. Now, to remove it, I'll have to appeal to the demon's better nature.
Easier said than done. That arrogant fox demon won't be swayed by an apology basket full of treats. He does, however, need a fake mate for a week-long Winter Festival.
Though I'd be a liar if I didn't admit that our doting lovers' act was becoming harder by the day. The more time I spent with Lucca, the more his irresistible charms get under my skin. Deep down, I know it's all a game. But my heart just can't seem to get the memo. When our week-long affair comes to a close, will I really be able to walk away?
I figured I had to review the fun novella which Kimberley Lemming also wrote in this world, Mistlefoe. This was a lovely short novella, just 60 pages yet there was a lot of story packed in here. Ruby and her dad are blacksmith’s. It would be great if her foolish dad hadn’t gotten himself cursed for taking metals from a mine protected by a demon. Now all the weapons he crafts talk and the y like to talk dirty and sass the customers. Really not ideal. So Ruby goes to try and persuade the demon to release the curse in exchange for gifts. Lucca, the fox demon, agrees to remove the curse in exchange for Ruby pretending to be his mate at a week long demon Winter festival. She agrees, because why not right? Hilarity ensues.
How much more can I really say about this without totally spoiling it for you? Once again, Kimberley Lemming delivers on the light hearted romance with a fantasy backdrop. The characters are great and it was an easy story to read. I did get slightly frustrated that two women were arguing over a man and Ruby’s rival was really a caricature of the evil woman wanting attention but that was really a minor niggle, it was difficult to fully develop any other characters other than main couple in so few pages.
Kimberley Lemming did show me I am also dying to have more fake relationship stories with a fantasy backdrop. Or basically, just fake relationship books which aren’t just contemporary. If you know some recommend them in the comments because I cannot get enough of that trope.
Dragon Unleashed (Fallen Empire #2) – Grace Draven
Published: 9th June 2020
Source: Purchased
Genre: Fantasy romance
My Rating:
Magic is outlawed in the Krael Empire and punishable by death. Born with the gift of earth magic, the free trader Halani keeps her dangerous secret closely guarded. When her uncle buys a mysterious artifact, a piece of bone belonging to a long-dead draga, Halani knows it's far more than what it seems.
Dragas haven't been seen for more than a century, and most believe them extinct. They're wrong. Dragas still walk among the denizens of the Empire, disguised as humans. Malachus is a draga living on borrowed time. The magic that has protected him will soon turn on him--unless he finds a key part of his heritage. He has tracked it to a group of free traders, among them a grave-robbing earth witch who fascinates him as much as she frustrates him with her many secrets.
Unbeknownst to both, the Empire's twisted empress searches for a draga of her own, to capture and kill as a trophy. As Malachus the hunter becomes the hunted, Halani must risk herself and all she loves to save him from the Empire's machinations and his own lethal birthright.
I wasn’t sure if I should include my review for Dragon Unleashed in this post but it’s is one of the fantasy romance reads I’ve finished lately. It is the polar opposite of Kimberly Lemming’s books and I really should have had some in between books to cleanse the palate because the transition from light-hearted fun to tense and angsty fantasy was jarring.
I have mixed feelings about this book. When I started it I was convinced I was going to love it. Malachus was hunting for his mother bond which had been stolen and when he'd used the lightning to scry for it, he'd seen a woman with grey eyes who seemed to be linked with it. He needed to find that mother bond to be able to transform into a draga (dragon) otherwise he faced burning up as a human. It was all very tense and interesting and I was invested in his hunt. When he met Halani (who you might remember from the last books... if you're reading memory is better than mine) you could tell there was a spark. She was wary of him but he showed her mother kindness so she returned the favour when she stumbled across him half dead with arrow wounds.
It all sounds good, right? But the story moved at a medium pace at the start. You get the intro to the two characters; it establishes that Halani's uncle has the mother bond and wants to sell it but Halani knows it's being tracked and warns him to sell it quickly. It's at that point the plot sort of fell apart a little. Malachus knows Halani and the free traders are linked to his mother bond somehow but doesn't know how and so while he's recovering with them almost forgets about it totally which seems so strange when he'd been so obsessed with tracking it at the start. Then there's Halani who we know is a nice and caring woman and so she would seek to protect her family, so her warning her uncle to sell the mother bond and working to keep Malachus's attention away from finding it seems sensible. But for the length of time she did that, even whilst growing slower to Malachus, that's the part I found a little out of character for her. I think if she had been more conflicted about how close she was growing with him it would make sense, but the mother bond got forgotten about for half of the book and only came back when it could be used to drive the couple apart.
I did expect the secrets the two kept to be something I was bothered by, but I wasn't. I understood why Halani didn't bring the mother bond up, she only suspected Malachus was linked to it and wanted to protect her family. I understood why Malachus didn't reveal his quest or his true nature as draga, it's not exactly an every day conversation. But it definitely felt like their not talking was deliberate to create conflict later but boring conflict I wasn't invested in.
And, like I said, the first half (if not more) of the book is taken up with a whole lot of nothing. I think it was meant to show the developing romance between the two but I never truly believed in their romance. They lacked a bit of spark I would have liked, but then the plot all unfolds in the last 30% or whatever of the book. It just felt a little all over the place.
That being said, I liked the characters and it was an interesting story. I think I was a little more critical as I read this after reading That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon and that contrast was a lot. It isn't my favourite Grace Draven book but I did enjoy it. I just wish some things had been done better but what can you do?
And that is what I thought about a few fantasy romance reads I finished lately. Have you read any of these? And do you have any recommendations for either lighter fantasy romances or some featuring fake relationships or marriage of convenience?
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