Review: Cupid Calamity by Evie Alexander and Kelly Kay

I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Cupid Calamity by Kelly Kay, Evie Alexander
Series: Evie and Kelly's Holiday Disasters #1
Published by Emlin Press on February 3, 2022
Genres: Adult Romantic Comedy
Pages: 178
Source: the author
Format: E-galley
My Rating:
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Blurb:

One cupid, two calamities, four uproarious lovers.

From the minds of Evie Alexander and Kelly Kay, comes a disastrously perfect blind date and a wild night out. Insta-love meets insta-disaster in these laugh-out-loud Valentine’s day novellas.

Animal Attraction – By Evie Alexander
Overworked, underpaid, and perpetually single, Laurie is stuck in a rut. A birthday on Valentine’s day is bad enough, but when her insensitive colleagues drag her to a secret Safari dining experience, her day hits rock bottom – she’s terrified of animals.

Workaholic Ben has just swapped the States for Somerset. He’s on track to fulfil a childhood dream, and the only date he wants on Valentine’s day is a business one. But when his fantasy woman approaches with an offer he can’t refuse, his priorities start to change.

Laurie and Ben have an instant connection and their chemistry is wild. Unfortunately so are the animals. When the menagerie goes into meltdown they’re thrown into a Darwinian Hunger Games, fighting for their lives as well as love. Can Businessman Ben unleash his inner Tarzan and save Laurie? Or has this survival of the fittest reached the point of no return?

Stupid Cupid – by Kelly Kay
Resourceful Sabrina always puts others’ needs first. She never thought she’d be abandoning a blind date to run off with a stranger. But now she’s got the chance to face her demons and choose happiness – even if it’s just for one night.

Charmer Patrick can make any situation work in his favor. But snark and humor won’t be enough to win Sabrina’s heart. He’s got to dig deep, open up, and take on fate as well as New York City.

Armed with a fire extinguisher, a cobbler’s hammer, and an EpiPen, can Patrick and Sabrina survive the worst-best date of their lives and find true love? Or will they lose each other as well as the plot?

Perfect for fans of Kayley Loring, Tara Sivec, Lyssa K Adams, Talia Hibbert, Annika Martin, Vi Keeland, Lucy Score, Pippa Grant and Heather M. Orgeron.

COMING UP IN 2022:

Cookout Carnage, featuring ‘Up in Smoke’ & ‘Off with a Bang’
Cute farm boy Jonathan clings to a love ideal, blissfully ignoring what the universe has planned, while keeping track of a pig… Posh Brit Tristan follows his heart into the American Midwest in search of the bottom half of his digital dream love.

Christmas Chaos, featuring ‘No Way in a Manger’ & ‘No Crib and No Bed’
From Highland and Hollywood Games; Zoe and Rory attempt to have a civilized and respectable rite of passage. But straightforward is not their style. 

From Over The Bus & Under The Bus; Bax and Tabi attempt to throw a meaningful Christmas celebration. But there are too many people involved and it’s nothing like they expect.

My Review

Both of these stories were hilarious and really the perfect length! The craziness that happened on each of these kind of accidental dates was the type you might see in any good Hollywood Rom-com. We have a group of characters who all ended up kind of stranded together at the airport, and while they waited for their planes, they enjoyed some drinks and got to know each other. Of course once their planes were ready, they split up, but had saved each other’s phone numbers and that led to a fun text group that we got to experience throughout both stories. One of the characters was Rory who we met in Highland Games by Evie Alexander last fall. He wasn’t one of the main characters in either story, because he got his HEA in his own book already. But it was fun seeing him relating to other characters and knowing what we already did about him. But you don’t have to read that one to enjoy this story, because like I said, he is a side character.

The first story featured Ben from the group stranded in the airport. And his love interest was a woman named Laurie who was currently feeling really used and overworked at her job. I totally got her feeling though, as it feels the same for me these days with getting more and more dumped on top of my job. It seems her birthday was on Valentine’s Day, so she went out with some other single, older and bitter, single women. They had managed to get a table at a brand new restaurant with a nature/wild animal experience as part of it. Sounds kine of cool, right? Except Laurie had a bit of a fear of animals. And in this case, she ended up being completely justified in her fears. The animals decided to kind of take over, or just do whatever they wanted. To the point where Laurie, and the attractive man she’d just made her way over to ask out – Ben, ran to find a safe place and had to barricade themselves in a room to stay away from the craziness. However once things started getting better, and the police got there, all the different people were separated and interviewed as witnesses and she didn’t see Ben again. We get some of Ben’s side of the story through his sad texts with the airport group, wondering if he’ll ever find her. When he does, well, let’s just say it is perfect, even if Laurie thinks it isn’t. I loved the ending, and loved this story! And oh yeah, did I mention that they got up to some fun times while trapped in that room?

The second story, oh my gosh, the calamity part really came into this one. First there was Sabrina from the airport group in this one. It was Valentine’s day, so all this was happening at the same time as the first story. Sabrina’s sister had set her up on a blind date with a guy named Ricky Schlong, pronounced Schlein thank you very much. But when she is sitting in a restaurant, on Valentine’s Day, waiting for her date to show up, this other guy shows up. Sure he’s not wearing what he was supposed to wear, but he’s hot. He comes over to see her, and unfortunately his name is Patrick. He is there to meet his own blind date though. His blind date’s name, well, you need to read this to find out how hilarious it is. I still can’t quite figure out how her name is supposed to be pronounced though. But when the real blind dates show up, that is when the calamities begin. Starting with being chased as Patrick and Sabrina decide they’d rather spend the evening with each other. And oh my gosh, from gluing a shoe back together, an allergic reaction, getting burnt, and ending up in jail, this night just gets crazier and crazier. I loved how it sorta ended, more sexy times for this couple as well! When the two of them thought maybe all was lost after a maid messing up the last possible connection, it all comes together in the end.

I knew after reading Evie Alexander’s book last year I was going to devour any future books by her, and now I’m pretty sure I can’t wait to read more by Kelly Kay as well!

About the Authors

Kelly Kay:

Kelly is a writer of modern, funny, and fun romance, married to a writer, mother of a creative dynamo of a nine-year-old boy and is currently a little sleepy!

She’s a klutz and goofball and loves lipstick as much as her Chuck Taylors. 

Good things in Kelly’s world include pepperoni pizza, Flair pens, wine, coffee, laughing with friends until her stomach hurts, a musician at the top of their game, matinee movies on a weekday, the Chicago Cubs, a fresh new notebook full of possibilities, bourbon on a cold night, Fantasy Football, witty men, walking through the local zoo in the rain and that moment when a character clicks in and begins to write their own adventure.  

Website – Facebook – Twitter – Instagram – Goodreads

Evie Alexander

Evie Alexander is the author of sexy romantic comedies with a very British sense of humour. She takes a method approach to her work, believing her capacity to repeatedly fail at life and love is what has given her such a rich supply of material for her writing.

Her interests include reading, eating, saving the world, and fantasising about people who only exist between the pages of her books. She lives in the West country with her family.

Website – Facebook – Twitter – Instagram – Pinterest – Goodreads