A review by twistykris
Calamity by Constance Fay

adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This was genuinely a FUN debut! I enjoyed the world-building, the plot, the sci-fi elements, and how the romance fit into all of it. Political intrigue and sci-fi weaponry play a large part of this book. At times, I felt like the writing was a liiiittle awkward, especially during Temper's CLEAR attraction towards Arcadio that she completely denies. But the "awkwardness" won me over with how much the two gradually admitted their attraction and eventual love towards each other. I sort of adopted a "they're standoffish and stubborn and don't want to open up" mindset in terms of their begrudgingly-working-together-partnership-evolving-into-more awkwardness. I really enjoy a romance where two characters can't stand each other (or at least pretend to) and everyone else can clearly see how much they like each other. I dunno, I think it's cute af.

The spice is probably a 2 or 3, pretty middle-of-the-road. There are a few scenes, but they're pretty quick, not super-detailed, and one scene is closed-door.

I have a physical copy of the book, but I also listened to the audiobook in tandem and unfortunately, I had a hard time enjoying the narrator. I feel like her voice was didn't portray a lot of emotion and feels sort of stilted, in a way. The only thing I could think of when listening was "this sounds like AI." I couldn't help but think she was trying to narrate like Julia Whelan and it wasn't coming through. (There was also a point where she read out a sentence twice; I'm assuming that was supposed to be edited out.)

Overall, I really enjoyed the overall vibe of this book and I'm looking forward to reading more in the series when they come out!
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