The Trouble with Fate

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy

THE TROUBLE WITH FATE sort of snuck up on me with how good it was. The cover didn’t wow me, and the first couple chapters are a little slow. But, after the underwhelming start, this story–and more importantly the characters–completely won me over and made the first book in the Mystwalker series one of my favorite urban fantasy titles of the year.

The combustible and intense exchanges between Hedi and Trowbridge were fraught with sexual tension. Heidi had been nursing a crush on Trowbridge since she was a little girl, whereas he was much older and hardly aware of her. When they meet again after Heidi is an adult, events on both side have drastically altered both of their opinions of the show more other. Heidi has become a thief without any moral hangups about it. Her practical almost to a fault view of life was so entertaining and often at odds with the emotions she tries to suppress. Trowbridge, on the other hand, has been a rogue wolf for so many years that he’s mostly sharp edges and plenty of bark. The other character that really surprised me by being so ‘human’ was Heidi’s amulet, Merry. She never speaks, but Evans imbued her with so much personality and emotion, that her story-line was the one that ended up breaking my heart.

The character interactions are what I loved the most about THE TROUBLE WITH FATE, but the fae and werewolf infused world was also extremely well done. There is a long and volatile history between these two groups, and we are only scratching the surface of numerous interesting concepts related to them, like the sentient pendants. THE TROUBLE WITH FATE may not have started out with a bang, but it sure ended with one. The Mystwalker series has a lot more in store for us based on this debut, so I’m anxiously awaiting more when THE THING ABOUT WERES is released on July 30, 2013.

Sexual Content:
A mild sex scene. Scenes of sensuality. show less

This book was a breathe of paranormal FRESH AIR. I have read an ENDLESS amount of the genre in the last few months, and to be honest, it all started swirling into a collective, repetitive, blur. This book broke the mold for me. It was action packed in JUST the right places, and with just the right amount of words.

I fell into INSTA-LOVE with the main character, Hedi Peacock. I loved her snaky attitude, I LOVED her wit, I absolutely fell for everything she held true and dear. She is definitely in my top 10 favourite female characters. I also appreciated that she wasn't your typical, toothpick thin, female protagonist that seems to populate books these days.

Robson Trowbridge, the male protagonist, was also SO amazingly written. His show more presence in the book added so much more to the experience. The interaction between him and Hedi was endlessly entertaining, and I pretty much couldn't turn the pages fast enough to get to their back and forth dialogue. He's a Were, but not your typical, brooding, "hear me roar" type.

Merry..OH my sweet Merry. I think she had to be my ultimate favourite "character" of the book. It was such a unique idea, and I applaud the author for the intricacies of her existence, and her relationship and importance to Hedi. She was her healer, her friend, and all while being teeny tiny, and a hanging fairy amulet from her neck.

Quick moving, and not ONE dull moment. This book had me anticipating every characters next moves-how they would react to confessions, and new developments. I ESPECIALLY loved the scene in the beginning when Hedi unleashes her pent up anger for Robson, and the fact that she believed he abandoned her many years back-UGH..my HEART.

I definitely recommend this book to fans of the paranormal, but who also enjoy a whole lot of wit and humour as a side course. Leigh Evans is officially one of my new favourites, and I can't WAIT until the next books are out!! show less

4.5 stars
It all started with a day dream, a blue eyed hunk and boob grabbing stone.
Heidi, was just trying to make it through the day and not get fired when the dreams came. If that wasn't bad enough, he walked in the door to her coffee shop. All her control slipped, her memories warred between hate and love. This was only the beginning of her storm to come. She will be dragged into a fight they never wanted any part of. She is betrayed, heartbroken, beaten, and yet there is so much hope and *ding dong* some happiness to be found. She is half Fae, half Were, not excepted by either. Stuck in the middle of the two worlds, a spilt person. Her family was murdered, her twin taken away and her only family is a crazy Fae Aunt who seems to be show more drifting near death. She is basically alone.
Bridge, a rouge were, son of the pack alpha has been hiding away. He just wants to forget the death of his wife, killed the same night as Heidi's family. He is seen by Heidi but does not recognize her. Something is up and he's trying to find out what while staying under the radar of the new pack leader. He grieves his mate and does not understand why he lived after she died. He wants to know the identity of the wolf that killed his family. He is in for a shock when he finds Heidi in his bed stealing his amulet after a kiss and cuddle session he thought he dreamed.
Then it all begins, everything hits the fan. Backstabbing, lying, death, truths and much more than any of them have time to prepare for. Their story is not an easy breezy love story. It get's dark, twisted, oh so painful. It also is sexy, sweet, funny and exciting. It is one of those 'forget sleeping" reads, you just have to read one more page.....then BAM it ended with me sniffling at one huge cliffhanger.
I am addicted, and NEED to read book 2.
Another go to author. show less

Check out rabidgummibear.wordpress.com for more reviews!
A book involving a half fae half werewolf girl named Heidi Peacock and a lot of adventure I honestly don’t know if I could ask for more in this debut novel by Leigh Evans.

The plot revolves around Heidi discovering a lot of things about herself and growing as a person. Along with meeting a steamy love interest. Heidi has been living under the radar with her Aunt Lou and a surprising mess brings her out of hiding. Leaving her in some interesting spots and forced to really learn about herself. Throw in the hot love interest to boot.

The book for me had a slower start, but I felt like that was completely compensated for with the ending! Bring me book two! I was ready to jump into it show more as soon as I finished this one. The slow start would be my only complaint really with the book.

The things I loved was that Evans did an amazing job building an interesting world while moving the plot along. Once I got past the ‘slow’ part I was left completely enamoured with the book and not wanting to put it down. I also fell in love very quickly with the head strong Heidi Peacock who didn't take anybody's crap.

Overall I give Evan's debut novel a 4/5 and say it's worth the cash! Especially if you are huge fan or urban fantasy. show less

3.5/5
The Trouble With Fate has its merits, and it's definitely not a bad start for a first novel. I particularly liked Hedi's talent of mystwalking and wished for the author to explore it more than werewolves involvement.

Apparently Hedi is a mystwalker - a rare talent among Fae that is cherished by Fae courts where Mystwalkers are educated and become the bogeymen of Fae, invisible assassins who can drive anyone mad or even kill them in their sleep. There is one thing though. The Fae closed the borders between two worlds after Hedi's parents death, and her and her aunt stayed behind.

So this is the part I liked - Hedi's exploration of her talents, her trip into the mystworld and her animated amulet, Merry, who she constantly talks show more to.

Everything else felt a bit messy - the plot itself, the pace which was slow, patchy and uneven and even the characters' unusually fast development because the action itself only takes a few days and we still can't avoid the whole unfortunate business of true mates and/or imprinting which I really dislike in paranormal romance genre.

Werewolves of Miss Evans will appeal to the fans of Kelley Armstrong, Patricia Briggs and Rachel Vincent - I liked them and their viciousness. I also liked the main villain and his rationalised cruelty. He was a bit of a snake. Cold and slow but with lightning fast strikes in between.

The whole ending is very intense and quite gory, and obviously creates a great buzz for the next book with its interesting twist. I just wished to hell the action was more even and linear, and the Fae side of the story was represented more equally, but I'll reserve my judgement until I read book #2. show less

The story behind THE TROUBLE WITH FATE interested me as soon as I saw the blurb. For some reason I went into the book thinking it was a YA book but quickly found out it was Paranormal Romance. I'm not really sure why I thought it was YA, cover maybe?!?

I really liked the idea of a character being half Fae and half Were. I can not recall any other book where that has happened so I as intrigued with the idea. I felt Evans she did pretty well with her main female character Hedi. I liked the mix of powers and the struggle Hedi had with herself and her mixed heritage. The romance between Hedi and Robson went from mutual hate to sex/love in a blink of an eye. I thought there could have been another scene or two thrown in to make it a bit of a show more smoother act but I ended up getting over it pretty quickly. Both characters had major issues but ended up fitting together well and I like them together better than I liked them apart. Make sense? There were times where I couldn't put the book down and others I wanted something to happen a little faster. The transition from scene to scene did not always feel smooth. I often found myself waiting for the transition only to find out I missed it causing me to go back a bit to re-catch up on the new scene. There was great back story revealed at a nice pace to give you a good understanding to all the rivalry that is revealed between the different groups introduced. I like the amulet storyline and I enjoyed the supporting characters as well as the main ones.

The ending left me going "huh? Really after everything that just happened? Seriously?" Definitely not an ending I was expecting but even after feeling like that the cliffhanger makes me want to pick up book two because I have to know what will happen next so I guess the ending did its job!! So although there were some obvious flaws in places and I wasn't always 100% in to the book I still enjoyed it. show less

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.

Quick & Dirty: First book from Ms. Evans and it shows promise.

Opening Sentence: We lived in a long flat bungalow in Creemore.

The Review:

Firstly, I am astounded at the word pictures that Ms. Evans is able to capture in my mind. She has a knack for expressing color and even light that is truly unique. But there are times in which I was lost in a myriad of words and the story was left behind almost casually which is a shame because I wanted to get swept away by this universe and characters.

Our heroine, Hedi Peacock is part werewolf and fae. She witnessed the murder of her father by a werewolf, the slaying of her mother by her own kind and her twin kidnapped when she was just a child. How Hedi handles show more and sometimes doesn’t handle these challenges are part of what made me adore her. Our hero, Robson “Bridge” Trowbridge is not the run of the mill Alpha Were. He is accused of killing his family, including his father, the Alpha of the Creemore pack, and his wife, Candy.

When these two characters start interacting with each other is where the magic really starts to fly. The love/hate and bad/good characteristics are on display for all to see and I’m sure that their story will continue to be just as challenging as their first meeting.

One of the side characters is Hedi’s amulet that she has named Merry. Initially it was a struggle to see a piece of jewelry with such life instilled in her but eventually I was won over by the sheer link between Hedi and Merry. There was even a tear shed about 3/4 of the way through this book because of Merry.

The world in which these three characters live is filled with murder, intrigue, passion, politics, betrayal and torture. However, one of the strangest portions of the book was the time Hedi spent in Threall. Hopefully more of this world will be explained in The Thing About Weres and I look forward to reading it.

To sum up, this was a good start for a first time author. There are areas that I hope to see improvement like maintaining the story and other areas that I look forward to experiencing again like Ms. Evan’s gift of word pictures. If you are looking for an adventure and don’t mind putting in a little work, this book is worth the time.

Notable Scene:

When Trowbridge had opened the coffee shop door–the second Were to enter in ten minutes–I’d dropped to my knees, stricken with the fear that I’d slipped into a hallucination of my own, and had done so without experiencing the usual shit-here-I-go slide that happens before Lou pulls me into one of hers. Then, just as quickly as it had swamped me, my fear eased. I don’t detect scents when I’m dreaming and my nose had picked up an aroma over the brewed coffee that was Trowbridge’s alone. Ten years ago, when I’d been a lovesick twelve-year-old, I hadn’t been able to put my finger on that unique thing in his personal scent signature that my hormones interpreted as “Yum, Robson Trowbridge.”

Even now older and a hell of a lot more bitter, I couldn’t find a word for it. It was just a truth, as tiresome and hard to deny as the notion that chocolate bypasses your stomach and goes straight to your hips. Trowbridge smelled different than the other Creemore Weres. He always had.

FTC Advisory: St. Martin’s/Macmillan provided me with a copy of The Trouble with Fate. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. show less