Review – That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon (Mead Mishaps, Book 1) by Kimberly Lemming (4/5 stars)

Reading Level:Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Humor
Length: 279 pages
Publisher:‎ Orbit
Release Date: May 23, 2023
ASIN: B0BTZ2MDLL
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Mead Mishaps series
Source: Borrowed ebook from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Spice trader Cinnamon’s quiet life is turned upside down when she ends up on a quest with a fiery demon, in this irreverently quirky rom-com fantasy that is sweet, steamy, and funny as hell.

All she wanted to do was live her life in peace—maybe get a cat, expand the family spice farm. Really, anything that didn’t involve going on an adventure where an orc might rip her face off. But they say the goddess has favorites, and if so, Cin is clearly not one of them.

After Cin saves the demon Fallon in a wine-drunk stupor, Fallon reveals that all he really wants to do is kill an evil witch enslaving his people. And who can blame him? But now he’s dragging Cinnamon along for the ride whether she likes it or not. On the bright side, at least he keeps burning off his shirt.…”

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Mead Mishaps series. I borrowed this on ebook from the library.

Thoughts: This was an incredibly fun read with an interesting fantasy world, lots of humor, some steamy scenes, magic, and action.

Cinnamon (Cin) is a spice trader who likes to drink and wants to live a peaceful life on her family’s spice farm. Unfortunately, after an afternoon of drinking, she accidentally rescues a demon from under a fallen rock and finds out that the cure to the demon’s insanity is ironically the spice cinnamon.

Then the demon, Fallon, reveals that the goddess that Cinnamon’s village worships is really an evil lich and enlists her help in stopping the goddess. This is not the life Cin signed up for but Fallon is incredibly hot and sweet to her and she can’t help being drawn in by him.

This book was pure fun. It’s one of those stories where the characters find themselves in one ridiculous situation after another. The characters are supportive and generally nice to each other (if a bit odd at times). The world is fairly simple but well done with demons and magic.

There are quite a few very explicit sex scenes in here. They were decently done and generally a mix of being sweet with some roughness. I did find the language used to describe them a bit repetitive. Fallon definitely has more of an alpha male thing going on, so just a heads up if that’s not your thing. Cin does a good job on calling him on this at points, so the dynamic between Fallon and Cin felt very well balanced.

The writing itself is easy enough to read and I enjoyed the witty dialogue. The writing does feel a bit unpolished at times, just a bit rough around the edges when it comes to sentence structure and descriptions. That didn’t stop me from enjoying the story though.

My Summary (4/5): Overall this was an incredibly fun humorous fantasy with a lot of explicit steamy scenes. I enjoyed the world, the characters, the quest-type storyline, and how much fun I had reading this. My only complaint would be the writing feels a bit unfinished at times (almost more like fan-fic). That didn’t really detract from how much I enjoyed this. I do plan on continuing the series because this was so much fun to read!