Book #1 in the Mead Mishaps series by Kimberly Lemming
Cinnamon, a twenty-something spice farmer, lives in a culture that celebrates adventure and the heroes who fight demons (a catch-all term for werewolves, vampires, orcs, and pretty much every mythical creature you can think of). But she has learned the human cost of adventures firsthand, and all she wants is a quiet life on her family’s spice farm with the people she loves.
One night, she has a chance encounter with a demon named Fallon, whose kind she has been taught to hate and fear. But the story he has to tell goes against everything she has been taught to believe. Before she knows it, Cinnamon finds herself on an adventure with her literal enemy, doing what she thought she’d never do: risking her life to save demons and becoming a hero. Along the way, a spicy romance between Cinnamon and Fallon grows into true love, and Cinnamon tries to find a way to reconcile her desire for a peaceful life and her new relationship.
This book’s writing style was hard to get into at first. I felt that Cinnamon was too flippant about her life-threatening situation, and that she accepted radical changes of her entire worldview a little too casually. Her light-hearted narration clashed with the darkness of the story, and I found it hard to take the book seriously. I almost put it down 15-20% of the way in.
But after a few chapters I got used to the tone, the setting, and the characters, and I started to have fun. Reading the book began to feel like watching the recent Dungeons and Dragons movie: an opportunity to enjoy ridiculous but epic and entertaining absurdity. I think this book would also make an epic movie, especially the scenes with the shadow and storm dragons.
The story doesn’t have deep character development, but in a way it was refreshing to experience a plot that did not rely on major moral transformations or hero’s journeys. Sometimes it’s nice to have a protagonist that’s not there to inspire us with a character arch from ignorant bigotry to enlightened acceptance. Cinnamon is certain of her moral compass from the beginning, and as readers we get to experience what that looks like in the face of mortal danger.
Although the world-building feels ridiculous and artificial at first, we later learn that this is because of a centuries-old farce built by a lich queen hungry for power. On the one hand, the humans’ acceptance of the demons as full people seems to happen too quickly to feel believable, but on the other hand it’s heartwarming and sweet and shows us what it could look like to actually listen to, respect, and accept someone’s story of their own humanity.
Cinnamon is surprised when an innkeeper named Usha offers to help her and Fallon fight the lich queen. She’s also a little nervous about bringing Usha into harm’s way. But Usha shows Cinnamon what it really means to respect others’ humanity:
“Hey, Usha, not that I’m complaining, but why are you agreeing to help us?” Concern crept into the back of my mind. She really had no reason to jump on board so quickly. She didn’t even know us.
Chapter 7, page 109
The innkeeper’s smile faded. Her gaze dropped to the floor, and her hands clenched the front of her skirt. “I’ve unknowingly walked past fully sentient people being treated as less than animals and did nothing. If it were me at the end of a chain, I couldn’t imagine the kind of monster that would walk past me and do nothing if they knew the truth.”
Her answer left me speechless for a moment. But she was right. Her logic was simple and just made changing one’s entire worldview seem like a mundane occurrence. Maybe it should be. As much as I’d rather stay out of conflict and live out my life in peace, I don’t think I could walk away from someone suffering in front of me.
I enjoyed Cinnamon and Fallon’s romance. Fallon is clearly into Cinnamon from the beginning, but he is careful to respect her boundaries and not rush her into anything she’s not ready for. It’s also not just about sex for either of them, it’s a bond between two souls. They care for and respect each other even though they are very different. One aspect of this world I really liked is that Fallon can share part of his magic with Cinnamon. Fantasy is full of unequal couples, where one partner can live hundreds of years or use magic while the other is a normal human who dies too quickly or gets left behind. It was cool to see an unequal couple where the inequality has the potential to lessen over time and where the relationship did not need to end in lovesick tragedy. It makes me happy to think of Cinnamon becoming a shadow magician in her own right and not having to be the damsel in distress.
Here is a taste of the intensity of the relationship between Cinnamon and Fallon, right before they get married:
I thought kissing Fallon might be a sweet affair that turned heavy as our desire grew. The way you see it in kissing books, all soft lips, and declarations of love. But this demon wasn’t exaggerating in the warning he gave me. This felt as though he had opened up my soul, tasting, feeling, and seeing every dark part of me I wasn’t used to sharing. His own filled me, almost suffocating in its demands. It was almost like catching rapture in a bottle, its euphoric softness, a kind of aching desperation to feel it again. Like nothing in the world existed but you and this other person. I had the feeling of levitating off the ground and floating in the air. Oh wait, I was.
Chapter 11, page 185