Review: The Trouble With Fate (Mystwalker, #1)

Author: Leigh Evans
Series: Mystwalker, #1
Release date: January 3rd 2013
Publisher: Tor UK
Paperback, 344 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

WHAT SHE DOESN'T KNOW MIGHT KILL HER: Hedi looks normal. Yet that's taken effort. Her fellow Starbucks baristas don't see her pointed ears, fae amulet or her dark past, and normal is hard for a half-fae, half-werewolf on the run. Hedi's life changed ten years ago, when her parents were murdered by unknown assassins. She's been in hiding with her loopy aunt Lou since, as whatever they wanted she's determined they won't get it. Things change when wolves capture Lou, forcing Hedi to steal to free her -- for if she can offer up a fae amulet like her own they may trade. But it belongs to a rogue werewolf named Robson Trowbridge, who betrayed Hedi on the night of her greatest need. Over forty-eight hours, Hedi will face the weres of Creemore, discover the extent of her fae powers and possibly break her own heart in the process.

With hundreds (yes, hundreds) of urban fantasy books behind me, I really thought I’d seen it all, but a sentient amulet for a sidekick is news even to me. Merry the fae amulet is an endless source of entertainment. She doesn’t speak, obviously, but she has ways to express her opinions rather loudly regardless. Most of those ways end up being very painful for poor Hedi. But Merry also has the ability to heal and she uses it to help Hedi whenever it’s needed, and in turn, Hedi feeds her and keeps her safe.

Hedi is a somewhat unusual UF protagonist. A half-fae-half-werewolf in hiding, she is neither nice nor particularly brave, and she never utters a sentence that isn’t rude to at least three people simultaneously. But being privy to her thoughts meant I also got to see the hows and whys of it firsthand, and while none of it made her more likeable, it did at least made me sympathize to a certain extent. At the same time, being inside Hedi’s head was often a hilarious experience. Her distinctive, clear-as-bell voice jumps out at the very first page.

If people stayed with proven facts, work environments would be easier. Groundless accusations just stir things up, like the whole “Who hid the turkey breast sandwich behind the milk?” controversy. Did they think I did it? Well, prove it. Maybe I did do it, and maybe if you were an anal retentive asshole who counted cookies and sandwiches, you might feel those were two good reasons to fire your barista. Maybe.

Oh, but the romance in this one is as heartbreaking as it is unusual. Hedi has been in love with the werewolf Trowbridge for as long as she can remember, but he never returned her feelings. For one, when they knew each other she was only twelve and he was in his late teens, and later she disappeared and he married a girl named Candy. Now Candy is dead, and Hedi and Trowbridge are forced to work together. To make it even worse, there’s also the small matter of Hedi’s amulet being in love with the Royal Amulet around Trowbridge’s neck.

Achieving a life-long dream and getting Trowbridge into bed isn’t so hard for Hedi. There’s a connection between them and neither of them tries too hard to resist it. But as Trowbridge himself pointed out, he’s no prize – after years of hiding, guilt-ridden, drunk and bent on revenge against the weres who killed his family, not much of the old Robson Trowbridge remains. And the memory of his dead wife Candy is always between them.

He waited for me to explode again, and when I didn't, he used two fingers on my forehead to ease me back into my seat. "You are one crazy-ass Tinker Bell," he said, returning his attention to the road.

The Trouble With Fate is full of action and sexual tension, my two favorite things. The ending, I have to admit, took me completely by surprise, and although it’s not a cliffhanger at all, it left me pining for the next book.