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?
| Title: | Cupid Calamity |
| Author: | Evie Alexander and Kelly Kay |
| Series: | Evie and Kelly’s Holiday Disasters (Book 1) |
| Pages: | 178 |
| Category / Genre(s): | Contemporary Romantic Comedy |
| Trope(s): | Valentine’s Day Romance Insta Love / Lust |
| Point of View: | Third Person, Past Tense, Dual Viewpoint (H & h) |
| Location: | Somerset, UK and New York, USA |
| HEA: | ✔️ |
| Release Date: | 3rd February, 2022 |
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Crazy, romantic shenanigans
Authors Evie Alexander and Kelly Kay pair up to bring us the first in a new series of books, each focussing on a different holiday. The two stories in this book centre around Valentine’s Day. While the stories are both about a different couple, they are connected by a prologue where a group of travellers are stranded in an airport. One of each couple are in that group.
I now understand that each of the characters from that group of travellers will get their own story in a future book in the series. Two have already had their main story, Rory from Alexander’s Highland Games and Tabi from Kay’s Over A Barrel so presumably they will get a fun epilogue type story. I’m not going to lie, though, the scenes with all the travellers and their text conversations were confusing to me, and brought nothing extra to the story. I could have done without them.
Now onto the stories themselves…
Animal Attraction by Evie Alexander
I loved Ms Alexander’s writing in Highland Games and in Animal Attraction she’s ramped the dial past 11 and just kept going.
Our couple are Ben and Laurie and their attraction is instant and elemental. While we do get to know Ben, Laurie was really the star of this book for me. I felt for her and could resonate with her and was fiercely delighted for her to find her person. At times, I felt emotional as we see where she is in her life and how stuck she feels.
And then the hippos attacked! I laughed so hard with this story. It kept on lulling me into a the sense that it was a “normal” romance novel…and then something happened to remind me that this was crazy shenanigans x 100. If Jumanji was a romance!
It was all kinds of silly, funny and I loved reading this story. I was so disappointed when it ended as I wanted much more of Ben, Laurie and all the craziness that seemed to follow them. I’m hoping they pop up again in the future books. Easily 5 stars for this hysterical story.
Stupid Cupid – by Kelly Kay
This is my first story by Kelly Kay and while it was okay, it really didn’t delight me like the first story did.
In this story, our pair are set up on blind dates that neither are thrilled about. After bumping into each other, they decide to skip out and enjoy Valentine’s Day with each other instead. (Please don’t feel bad for their original dates – it’s all good!)
Coming off the back of Evie’s story – the mishaps and situations Sabrina and Patrick find themselves in seemed rather tame. To be fair, a hippo attack would make most things feel less exciting and more manageable.
I also didn’t connect with the humour of this story as easily as I did the first. Perhaps it’s because the author was American compared to the very British humour of the first tale, perhaps it’s just one of those things. Who knows?
This story wasn’t terrible by any means, but I really do think that had I read it independently of the first, I might have liked it better. But in comparison, it really suffers. Only 3 stars for this one.
All in all, this book gives us 2 short and engaging stories that bring the fun back to Valentine’s Day. Both stories are sexy and fun and I’m very much looking forward to the next set of stories.
* I received this book in exchange for my honest review *
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.
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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.
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Evie & Kelly’s Holiday Disasters Series:
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Review: Cookout Carnage by Evie Alexander & Kelly Kay - Jo Reads Romance
2 July 2022 at 8:21 am[…] novellas” this time focussed around American Independence Day. The first book in the series, Cupid Calamity, set up the premise behind these interconnected stories but I do think you’ll do fine if you […]