Book Review: Cupid Calamity (Evie & Kelly’s Holiday Disasters #1) (ARC)

Authors: Kelly Kay & Evie Alexander

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?

Cupid Calamity is a collection of two standalone novellas that have overlapping characters. This was my second Evie Alexander read and my first Kelly Kay, so I went into this partially not knowing what to expect. This collection of stories (two per set) features six strangers who find themselves stuck at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. Since I read Highland Games, it was nice to see that one of the six strangers the collection features is Rory. The other five include, Ben, the main from Animal Attraction in this book, Sabrina, the main from Stupid Cupid, also in this book, Jonathan and Tristan, who will be in the next 4^th of July book, and Tabi from Kelly Kay’s Over a Barrel novel. After being stuck together for a few hours, the six of them bond and exchange numbers before going their separate ways. It is a fun way to bring together all of the characters that connect the soon-to-be six stories and I love how it continued with their group texts.

In Animal Attraction, Ben meets a woman named Laurie, who has people constantly taking advantage of her kindness and she is currently unhappy with her life. The two characters meet on Valentine’s Day, which is Laurie’s birthday, at a restaurant that incorporates live animals as attractions back in England. This story is humorous and over-the-top, so if the sillier, almost ridiculous style is not for you, then you may not enjoy this one as much. This story was heart-warming, as Ben does not take advantage of Laurie, unlike her “friends.” The two get to know each other on the road towards their HEA with many disasters featuring animals.

For Stupid Cupid, Sabrina meets Patrick and two experience a series of chaotic events on their way towards love. Sabrina is in New York after being set up on a blind date by her sister, who is not Patrick as he is on his own blind date at the same restaurant. The two spot each other and have an insta-attraction where they each ditch their own date to meet each other. When the two have their first date, they experience one thing after another from mishaps with shoes to disasters with their entire meal. While they may have been attracted to each other at first sight, the two characters get to know each other through all the chaos to create a genuine connection with each other.

Overall, both of these stories were fun and perfectly sweet reads in time for Valentine’s Day. Although I am not a huge fan of insta-love, I liked that the blurb states it upfront, so I went into it with a certain expectation. While a different author wrote each story, I liked how they flowed together. Each featured the author’s unique style yet there was a nice overarching feel to the entire book. There were some absurd moments, as the stories do not take themselves too seriously, so it was nice to balance this between my other reads. I originally planned to split my reading into one story per session, but I ended up reading both in a single sitting, as they were both very entertaining. Both are great reads and I cannot wait to read about the next Holiday Disaster!

**I give a special thank you to Book Sirens and the authors for the opportunity to read this entertaining novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**