That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon

October 30, 2023
Lemming (Mistlefoe) launches the Mead Mishaps series with a spritely romantasy led by a reluctant heroine and her smitten demon companion. The citizens of Boohail worship the goddess Myva, who every 15 years chooses four champions to combat the demons and monsters that have escaped through the Volsog gate. Spice farmer and homebody Cinnamon “Cin” Hotpepper is celebrating that she was not chosen with limitless libations when she stumbles upon an injured demon in her fields. He’s seven feet tall, not counting his horns, and his broad shoulders and long straight black hair set Cin’s heart aflutter. His name is Fallon Ozul and he’s there to set the record straight: Myva is not a goddess, but an evil lich who drives demons insane and preys on them to fuel her dark magic. Cinnamon sticks happen to neutralize Myva’s spell over demons, so Fallon enlists Cin’s help infiltrating Myva’s temple and destroying the chalice that holds her soul. It’s easy enough—until Fallon learns there are three more temples throughout the continent, each with its own chalice that needs to be shattered. With resilient Cin’s flirtatious irreverence and Fallon’s smoldering magnetism, can they keep their hands off each other long enough to accomplish their mission? Hilarious banter, cheeky anachronisms, and hot and heavy lovemaking punctuate this full-throttle adventure. It’s good fun. Agent: Courtney Miller-Callihan, Handspun Literary.

December 1, 2023

DEBUT Spice trader Cinnamon doesn't want to go on adventures because they lead to dangerous situations such as her sister Cherry getting devoured by a river monster. But Cin's mishap with way too much mead results in a hangover and her rescue of a devilishly handsome demon who is not so demonic after all, leading her to the knowledge that the divine being her people follow isn't really a goddess. It will be up to her, her demon mate, and the friends they rescue along the way to save their people from this evil monster masquerading as a goddess. The first book in the "Mead Mishaps" series, previously self-published, throws its heroine into the arms of a demon-shaped cinnamon roll of a hero and sends them on a quest to save the world from a power-hungry monster. VERDICT This a serious fantasy quest that doesn't take itself so seriously and is perfect for readers who love Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree and Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne, but who wish that the romances at the heart of those cozy fantasies had been considerably more explicit.--Marlene Harris

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2023
Spice farmer Cinnamon is relieved that her goddess Myva selected others to serve as the four champions fighting back an onslaught of monsters and demons. So when she saves the life of the only demon to ever penetrate the protective shield that surrounds her village and he has the gall to threaten her into accompanying him on his quest to take down the goddess herself, Cinnamon is disgruntled, to say the least. But as she travels across the kingdom with the distressingly sexy Fallon, she realizes that Myva has been victimizing demons and taking advantage of humans for centuries. She'll just ignore the fact that the demon says he wants to keep her afterward. . . . Delightfully over-the-top and raunchy, this fantasy romance takes the laugh-out-loud rom-com sensibilities (and explicit sex scenes) of Talia Hibbert or Ali Hazelwood and wraps them up in a loving send-up of some of the fantasy genre's favorite tropes. Readers who appreciate its irreverent silliness will be glad that there are already two more volumes in the originally self-published Mead Mishaps series, with paperback editions set to release from Orbit in 2024.

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January 1, 2024
A trader is swept up into an epic adventure after she inadvertently saves a demon's life. Cinnamon Hotpepper has only ever known a quiet, unassuming life on her family's spice farm, and she doesn't expect that to change. When it comes time for their village's deity--the goddess Myva--to choose her new patrons, Cinnamon's plan is to keep her head down and avoid getting involved with anything too far outside her comfort zone. Staggering home after one too many mugs of wine that same night, though, she inadvertently crosses paths with a demon, someone who should terrify her, and narrowly escapes with her life. The next morning, who should knock on the farm's front door but the demon himself? Something about Cinnamon has given Fallon Ozul the ability to break out of the spell that has kept him in a monstrous frame of mind. Now he wants her help in seeking out the witch responsible for keeping his kind enslaved and telling everyone they're evil, putting an end to her once and for all. And who is that witch? None other than Myva, who isn't actually a goddess. Cinnamon knows she's not cut out for an adventure like this, but she can't deny her growing attraction to Fallon, so maybe she won't try that hard to resist his efforts to persuade her to join him. In the process of destroying Myva's hold on the demons, they might succeed at changing their world for the better. While the contemporary-feeling dialogue and characterization might clash with the setting and worldbuilding for some readers, and the book's evolving romance could have benefited from more room to spread out, the story is a charming addition to the fantasy-romance realm. A quirky, steamy fantasy that's just what the romance genre needs.

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