Heidi Peacock is half Fae/ half Werewolf and has been on the run for all of her adult life. As a child she witnessed the brutal deaths of her parents and the kidnapping of her twin brother, Lexi. Ever since, she has been living an anonymous life while trying to take care of her crazy Fae aunt Lou and keeping a step ahead of any werewolf that might be around. Fate has other plans for Heidi, though, and it all starts to unravel when Robson Trowbridge, son of an Alpha and Hedi’s first crush, walks into her Starbucks one day.

Heidi is not the only one in hiding or the only one who has lost her entire family. The same wolf responsible for the death of Heidi’s parents also killed Robson’s family and managed to frame him for it. Robson has been Rogue ever since but has come back to help a member of the pack. Heidi and Robson find themselves thrown together in order to rescue Aunt Lou and possibly exact revenge on the wolf responsible for destroying their lives.

I really enjoyed The Trouble with Fate. The characters are wonderfully developed. Heidi is flawed, she is angry, she is not perfect, and easy to relate to. Over the course of The Trouble with Fate you see her grow, see her make difficult choices, and see her accept the course of her fate. She reminds me a bit of Chess Putnam from the Downside Ghosts series. I really felt for Heidi all throughout The Trouble with Fate, even when she is making decisions I did not agree with. I wanted her to figure it all out and finally just be able to relax and breathe.

The few times we do get to see Heidi let go is with Robson Trowbridge. This is a man who lives with his ghosts. Life has not been kind and you can see that in him. Ultimately, he is an Alpha and embodies all of those qualities. The way Leigh Evans develops the relationship between the two is really beautiful and somewhat sad. This is not a normal case of “love at first sight,” this is a tragic love story and I think that makes it deeper and more interesting. Several of the secondary characters are as well-developed as the primary, even with significantly less page time. My personal favorites in that category are Merry, Heidi’s enchanted Fae pendant, and Cordelia, a transgender Were that is friends with Robson.

The Trouble with Fate is a smart story. There is a lot that goes on, which comes with the territory of being a series opener, but Evans manages to weave all of that information into the story without much trouble. There are several scenes that are clearly set-ups for future books, but they are not totally out of place in the narrative. There is also a lot of action in this novel — not everyone makes it to the end without scars.

The plot of this story is fairly straightforward, but you can see how the overall story arc may start to get complicated in the future. There are some pacing issues, The Trouble with Fate can feel a bit frenetic with so much happening at once and then suddenly comes a scene that stops all the action. This is a relatively minor issue. The Trouble with Fate is told in such a refreshing voice and Evans has such tight rein on the world that any quibble I have with the pacing melts away. This is not a Disney fairytale, magic will not cure everything, and love cannot heal all wounds. I cannot wait for the next installment.

Book Stats:

• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks; First Edition edition (December 24, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1250006406
• ISBN-13: 978-1250006400

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Books in the Mystwalker series:
The Trouble with Fate
The Thing About Weres