Review: The Trouble With Fate by Leigh Evans
Author: Leigh Evans
Title: The Trouble With Fate
Release: December 2012
Series: Mystwalker #1
Reviewer: Mona Leigh
Source: Personal LibraryPurchase: | Book Depository
Meet Hedi Peacock. She’s half Fae. Half Were. And all trouble…
I Have Two Words For Werewolves:
My name is Hedi Peacock and I have a secret. I’m not human, and I have the pointy Fae ears and Were inner-bitch to prove it. As fairy tales go, my childhood was damn near perfect, all fur and magic until a werewolf killed my father and the Fae executed my mother. I’ve never forgiven either side. Especially Robson Trowbridge. He was a part-time werewolf, a full-time bastard, and the first and only boy I ever loved. That is, until he became the prime suspect in my father’s death…
Bite Me.
Today I’m a half-breed barista working at a fancy coffee house, living with my loopy Aunt Lou and a temperamental amulet named Merry, and wondering where in the world I’m going in life. A pretty normal existence, considering. But when a pack of Weres decides to kidnap my aunt and force me to steal another amulet, the only one who can help me is the last person I ever thought I’d turn to: Robson Trowbridge. And he’s as annoyingly beautiful as I remember. That’s the trouble with fate: Sometimes it barks. Other times it bites. And the rest of the time it just breaks your heart. Again…
I put this on my TBR list before it came out and moved it to the top so I could finish it before the RT Booklovers Convention in a few weeks. I’d read the blurbs and wondered how Leigh would pull off a fae/were hybrid falling for a full blood were. Well, let me tell you … she does it with style. The story is gritty and dark (like any good urban fantasy) with light touches of high fantasy blended in to give it an ‘other world’ quality.
The Heidi Peacock fae/were mix works because Leigh lays the groundwork for it and builds her world so that such a combination becomes plausible. She also has us believing that a necklace can be a living thing, too. And as for heroes, Robson Trowbridge is about as flawed as a man can get and still be likeable and sexy. It’s not often we read about a hero with missing fingers who mistakes his lover for his dead wife and calls her by the wrong name.
Heidi is a seriously flawed heroine, too. She has a bad attitude, she steals, she lies, she bucks authority, and her sense of honor is sadly lacking. Despite those faults, she falls in love with Trowbridge when she’s twelve, and that love never goes away – it’s what carries the story. Even though he’s six years older and marries someone else, leaves her in a burning house, and calls her Candace, the love persists.
Her heart may be broken, but she can’t turn off her feelings (something most of us experience at least once). In fact, she breaks all kinds of rules to save him. It’s because of Trowbridge that she realizes what a sorry person she is and makes a conscious decision to change, become better, and for once in her life, actually keep her promises.
Like I said, the story is dark and gritty, but it has funny, touching moments that let the reader breathe. We watch the relationship between Heidi and Trowbridge grow into something viable enough to allow her to keep his damaged pack together in his absence. And as their bond grows, so does their maturity.
I scarfed down The Trouble with Fate, and now I can’t wait for the sequel! If this isn’t on your TBR list, it should be.
Mona Leigh
