When Lucifer Met Calamity

Hello! It’s Heather again, hope anyone celebrating Easter had a lovely weekend! Here’s a book review for a contemporary comedy/romance.

Information

Author: D. Alyce Domain

Published: April 2016

Publisher: Self-published

Length: 328 pages

Rating (all out of five)

Characters: ★★★

Plot: ★★★★

Writing Quality: ★★★ ½

Overall: ★★★

When Calamity uses her ninja skills to hit back at her boss after they sexually assault her, she finds herself hauled into trouble and a (very rightful) thirst for justice. This leads into herself, twin sister Charisma and her friend Reese following a plan to get evidence of the boss’ dodgy behaviour and get a legal case against him. Soon, Calamity manages to enlist the help of her crush, a lawyer named Lucifer, and together they find a more professional way to register the inappropriateness of Perkins. Sadly, sexual assault is a common issue in the workplace, so it was interesting to see how much effort goes into proving it.

The main characters all had rather unusually fitting names – Charisma, Calamity, Lucifer. Calamity is a fiery, sassy, independent protagonist that strives for justice but often her schemes result in the meaning of her name; I still find it a little odd that her parents would name her that, literally foreshadowing disaster. I liked how the author gave her flaws, like lying, which added to the realism of the book. Her twin, Charisma is presented as a likeable person that gets pulled into Calamity’s scandals frequently, including this one despite being pregnant. I found Reese and Sly stand-out characters though and really enjoyed their input, both having powerfully eccentric personalities. The squabbling between Sly and Calamity was definitely my favourite scene; it’s evident that the author had some fun writing this part.

Whilst many elements of the book were really great, there were some bits that I was less keen on. The use ‘eh’ was slightly overused at points! I also found it difficult to actually like Lucifer; I know that his dazzling looks, deep voice and chilling personality are supposed to make him an attractive individual, I’ll admit that at first I warmed a little to him after he stopped being so distant… then he removed Calamity’s clothes while she was sleeping without consent… and he quickly became creepy. Though he did redeem himself somewhat by helping Calamity so much, being an honest guy and simply owning a cat, and I’m sure other readers will find him more appealing. I did also note a few missing apostrophes but this didn’t really bother me.

This is a funny and very different romance to the norm that addresses the issue of sexual assault well. There’s some kissing and implied other bits but nothing too graphic, making the book a comfortable read for adults.

Here's a link to the Amazon page to buy the book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Lucifer-Calamity-Jones-Book-ebook/dp/B01ATV3UUG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492457452&sr=8-1&keywords=when+lucifer+met+calamity