Danielle Lori

I was a simple farm girl living in the magical land, Alyria, where men ruled and women only existed. Call me sheltered. Call me naive. I was probably both. I never expected to be the key to Alyria's destruction. The journey I was on wasn't only one to save me. But one where I had a lot of learning to do. With men. With magic. And with myself. But I wasn't alone. I had an escort. One I wasn't so sure about. But one I couldn't afford to lose and one I wasn't so sure I could even leave. I had many hopes. But the most important one was that my name wouldn't become my fate.

A Girl Named Calamity

Megan Williams

Calamity is defined as "an event causing great and often sudden damage or distress; a disaster". So obviously there isn't much hope for our main character here if her name literally means "disaster". So already my expectations are that Calamity will constantly get in trouble with whatever situation she finds herself in and it will either be cringe worthy or freakin' hilarious... and I have to say that her name was a true prediction of her fate.

I have to be honest, I wasn't too fond of Calamity when starting off this novel. She was inept at seemingly everything she tried and got herself in numerous disasters. Probably the first disaster was choosing her guide. Calamity of course chooses this very vicious man who doesn't seem to care at all about her well-being but instead seems headed towards his own journey and not so much focused on what Calamity wants. But I'll talk more about this mysterious guide later because for now let's focus on this disaster of a main character.

While I didn't like Calamity, I knew that I would grow to like her because I could tell that this is one of those books where the main character learns from her mistakes and becomes a force to be reckoned with. And I love those types of books so I knew that if I just allowed Calamity to keep making her mistakes, eventually she would grow into the character I wanted to read about. You know, someone who is independent, strong and never backs down from a challenge. The type of character most want to read about because they are what most people aspire to be. 

So I knew that I would eventually like Calamity but I didn't realize how long it would take to reach this point. Let me just tell you, it took a long damn time! Like this whole book was the painful growing process for Calamity and I wanted to shout at her "GROW UP ALREADY, geez", but let me just tell you that all of my patience (and maybe not so patient times) was worth it. Because book two starts and BAM Calamity is a certifiable bad*ss who kicks butt and is definitely a character I want to read about.

Guys, just like every other book (almost) you have to get through that beginning character growth and appreciate the other aspects of the novel like the mysterious guide and all the situations Calamity falls into. And I know I talked a lot about this character growth and how you have to "power through" but it's really not that serious, it's more of a warning to those of you that will want to give up when you start reading and miss out on the amazingness of this novel and the next. You seriously don't want to miss out on everything that happens so READ THIS BOOK!

Any who... I got way more sucked into this series then I expected because even though Calamity is a mess through most of this book it was a mess that kept me interested and invested. There are so many unexpected situations and characters that come about that I couldn't help but fall deeper and deeper into these characters and their world. 

Overall, I freakin' LOVED A Girl Named Calamity... and maybe you weren't expecting me to say that because the majority of this review was about how inept Calamity was as a character, but I really appreciated the growth she goes through and the situations she falls into because the imperfection makes her more relatable to the average human instead of starting as some super woman. So go and read this book because you won't regret getting entangled into this series.

Jolie

I was intrigued by the blurb when deciding to accept the author’s invitation to review the book. I am so glad that I did accept the author’s invite. I enjoyed reading A Girl Named Calamity. This has shot to the top of my personal favorite list.

The plotline was very interesting. Calamity was a farm girl living in a magical land called Alyria. Alyria is a male-dominated land, meaning that women have no say in what happens to them. That the men rule. Her whole life, Calamity has worn silver cuffs on her arms as long as she could remember. Her grandmother told her that under no circumstances should she remove the cuffs. She offered no reason. Well, she finds out why the same night her long-lost mother shows up, tries to steal the cuffs and removes one. After getting it back, her grandmother tells Calamity that she needs to get the heck out of Dodge. That she is the person that can break the seal that was placed to seal the magic in Alyria. She is a hot commodity for anyone or thing who wants that seal to be broken. So her grandmother sends her away, to find shelter with friends in a faraway city. She will need to hire an escort once she got to another city. That is where the story takes off.

Now I can see why some people thought this book was a romance. The interactions between Calamity and Weston definitely had me wondering that. It most definitely isn’t a romance. Well, not one in a typical sense. Calamity was very attracted to Weston, I couldn’t tell because of Weston’s actions. The fantasy angle was brilliant also and not overdone.

Calamity has to be the snarkiest, wise-butt person I have read in a while. I was dying at some of the one-liners that she zinged off of Weston. She also proved that she was pretty good at getting away from Weston. She landed in some pretty unusual situations. That was because of her being headstrong and she refused to listen to Weston. OMG, when she was aroused, she was hilarious. Poor Weston, I actually felt for him during that part of the book. That was the part of the book that made me go “Hrmmm” about his feelings for her.

Weston was one of those men that you love to hate. From the moment he was introduced in the bar, I knew that there was going to be trouble with him. He was an assassin, a lethal one. He was also a Titan. The best way to describe a Titan is that they were a élite warrior class think Spartans. He decided that he would escort Calamity to where she wanted to go but at a price. It didn’t take me long to figure out that he had his own agenda with her. When it was revealed, I wasn’t shocked. I also had a hard time reading him. I couldn’t figure out if he was in lust with her, liked her or wanted to get what he wanted to do over and get rid of her.

I am going to stress here that there is no sex in this book. There are some very steamy sexual situations between Calamity and Weston. I had to laugh because Calamity wanted to lose her virginity so bad and Weston kept resisting. That was a first in a book. A guy resisting sex…lol. It didn’t help that Weston could read Calamity’s mind and picked up on her naughty thoughts….lol. The best scene was the one at the end of the book. I kept screaming to myself “Do it already“. But I am glad that they held off.

The last chapter of this book messed me up. It went from one extreme to another. I didn’t think that I would recover from the shock that I got from the ending. Like the blurb says, this book does end on a cliffhanger. I know I have complained about cliffhangers in past reviews. I don’t like them. But I will make an exception to my dislike of cliffhangers. A Girl Named Calamity is such an exception. The end made me want to go and buy book 2 to see what happens!!!

5 Stars

My Summary of A Girl Named Calamity:

I loved this book. The main characters were snarky, sexy, and dangerous. The plot of this book was fantastic and definitely kept me glued to the book. Put it this way, I would recommend this book to everyone. That is how much I liked it.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Sexual situations (but no sex), language and violence

I would like to thank Danielle Lori for allowing me to read and review A Girl Named Calamity

All opinions stated in this review of A Girl Named Calamity are mine and I received no compensation for this review

**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**

A Girl Named Calamity

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