The Misadventures of Callie Compton Review

Verdict: A fast, funny European caper with a friends-to-lovers heart: Callie Compton ran from her sweet, church-going grandmother, secretly the UK’s top crime boss, at eighteen, and six years later her deaf childhood best friend and crush, Daisy, tracks her down in Sweden. Readers love the humour, the twists and the ending; a few could not get on with the chatty first-person narration.

Best for: Readers who want adventure, British humour and a long-awaited friends-to-lovers romance with deaf representation.

Heat level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.1/5 — a 4.25 Goodreads average across 291 ratings, 4.09 on StoryGraph from 59 reviews, and 4.7 stars across 287 Amazon ratings)

Tropes: Childhood friends to lovers, second chance, crime family, road trip, found family, action comedy.

The Misadventures of Callie Compton is Alyson Root’s 2023 independently published contemporary sapphic romance. It is not every day you find out your sweater-knitting, church-going grandma is the UK’s most prolific crime boss. For Callie, that day was her eighteenth birthday.

It holds a 4.25 average across 291 Goodreads ratings, with 81% of them four or five stars, 4.09 on StoryGraph from 59 reviews, and 4.7 stars across 287 Amazon ratings.

What Is The Misadventures of Callie Compton About?

Callie bided her time, stole her grandma’s little black book of scumbag employees, and ran. Six years later, in a small café in Sweden, she senses someone watching her. Daisy Simpson, her best friend and first unrequited love, has found her.

Daisy, born deaf into a family as rotten as Callie’s, regrets never warning Callie about her grandmother. Reunited, the two set out to bring Betty, aka Queen B, to her knees. Easy, right?

What Works in This Book

Humour: Readers laughed throughout, with colourful British and northern humour.
Pace and twists: Mini cliffhangers keep it moving, and several readers were caught out by the ending.
Daisy: Readers enjoyed a deaf love interest written with depth.
Audiobook: Listeners recommend the narration.

Book Synopsis

A runaway heir with her grandmother’s little black book. A best friend who never stopped looking for her.

Taking down Queen B was never going to be easy.

My Review

This is a different kind of sapphic romance, as many readers note: an adventure first, with the romance dancing around the edges until it finally lands. Callie and Daisy both carry trauma from their families, and the found family they build along the way, including a runaway teenager escaping a homophobic father, gives the caper heart. Readers describe laughing, crying and feeling as if they had travelled across Europe with the characters, and one fan put it in their top five reads of the year.

The narration is the dividing line. One reader found the spunky voice turned into an off-putting ramble with info dumps right to the end, another found the fourth-wall breaks unnerving, and a couple took a while to adjust to the first-person style. One reader could not warm to the characters, and one felt the angst resolved almost immediately.

My honest note: A breezy, funny escape if you enjoy a chatty narrator.

Element	In The Misadventures of Callie Compton
Central relationship	Callie Compton (runaway crime-family heir) & Daisy Simpson (born deaf, childhood best friend)
Core tropes	Friends to lovers, second chance, crime caper
Setting	Across Europe, starting in Sweden
Heat level	🌶️🌶️🌶️
Length	319 pages (paperback)
Series	Standalone
Content notes	Organised crime, family trauma, homophobic parent

How Spicy Is The Misadventures of Callie Compton?

Readers focus on the action and pining more than the heat; our listing rates it as spicy.

Readers mention crime-family danger, childhood trauma and a teenager fleeing a homophobic father.

Who Should Read This Book?

You’ll likely love it if: you want a funny adventure romance with a deaf love interest. It is on our disabled sapphic romance list.

You may want to skip it if: you dislike first-person narrators who talk to the reader.

In short: Granny’s a gangster; run.

What Readers Are Actually Saying (September 2026)

On Goodreads the split is 51% five stars, 30% four, 14% three, 4% two and 1% one. On StoryGraph, 90% tagged it adventurous, 72% funny, and 77% found the characters loveable.

Why readers love it (according to the discourse): Humour first. Second, twists and pace. Third, the friends-to-lovers pining. Fourth, the audiobook.

What readers argue about and complain about: The narrative voice, above everything. Second, fourth-wall breaks. Third, quickly resolved angst.

The comparison worth making first: The Loudest Silence, another sapphic romance with deaf representation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it a mafia romance?

Loosely. Callie’s grandmother is the UK’s most prolific crime boss, but readers say Root gives the setup a light, rom-com spin rather than a dark one.

What is the deaf representation like?

Daisy was born deaf into a family that wrote her off, and readers enjoyed reading about a deaf character, which one calls pretty rare.

How is it narrated?

In first person, with dual points of view and frequent asides that break the fourth wall. Most readers loved the voice once they adjusted; a couple found it rambling or jarring.

Where does the story go?

Across Europe: it opens in Sweden and takes the pair through several countries, including Spain, as they try to bring Callie’s grandmother down.

Is The Misadventures of Callie Compton on Kindle Unlimited?

Not when we checked; the Kindle edition was listed at $4.99. Readers recommend the audiobook.

If You Loved The Misadventures of Callie Compton, Read These Next

Try Root’s vampire romance Risking Immortality, or Time and Time Again for another childhood-friends reunion. Browse our disabled sapphic romance list or the full Book Reviews archive.

The Bottom Line

The Misadventures of Callie Compton sets out to be a funny, twisty caper with a sweet romance at its core, and its humour and momentum deliver. What holds it back, for some, is a narrator who never stops talking. A fun, original ride. Check The Misadventures of Callie Compton on Amazon →