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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
This is such a great book, I can't believe I haven't read her before! Loved the characters and the way she wrote them. This book was sweet and funny, loved it.
I could understand Olivia very well and was sympathetic to her plight. However I did not understand Alastair and how finding out that his late wife had cheated on him had led him to become such a recluse for months on end. It took him quite a while to change into a character I could care even a little bit about. The plot itself dragged at times, but I enjoyed the ending.
My Initial Reaction...
I really enjoyed Fool Me Twice - it had a few twists that I wasn't expecting. And it fulfilled my craving for a good historical romance!
The Narration...
Alison Larkin was the narrator for Fool Me Twice and she was a good fit. I don't know if she normally reads with a British accent or if it's her native accent, but it never felt like work. The accent - which she used in varying ways for men and women - was pretty necessary since Fool Me Twice takes place in England, and she successfully transported me there. As is normal for many female narrators, some of her male voices sounded a little off, but for the most part even they sounded great. I quickly got lost in the story and forgot I was being read to.
The Characters...
I was worried when I started Fool Me Twice that I might feel disconnected from the characters, since it's the second book in the series and I never read the first. However, I never felt any disconnect and the only character (I suspect) that really overlaps between the two books is Olivia, the main character.
Overall I liked Olivia. It takes a lot of spunk to decide your going to pose as a housekeeper and steal the Lord of the house's private documents to blackmail a member of the government. And as you get to know Olivia's past, it's not surprising that she has this kind of backbone. She has not had an easy life and is stronger for it. The only thing that really bothered me was that Olivia has so many contradictions. As the housekeeper she constantly makes a big deal about propriety and how the staff are behaving - even though she doesn't actually care about the household. She just feels it's so wrong. But then she makes these statements (which she follows through on) that she isn't a woman who believes only in relations after marriage. The contradiction really bothered me, but other than that, I liked her.
Fool Me Twice includes the point of view of Alastair (The Duke of Marwick, who she works for) and I think this was essential to my liking him from the get-go. Seen only from Olivia's point of view, I might not have liked him because he was so mean to her! But he really is a man dealing with incredible anger after the death of his wife, who he learned had been betraying him their entire marriage. This knowledge made his angry moments rather hot, actually. He was just a very Alpha male - which I love. And the connection between him and Olivia was particularly great. Some of their banter was great for fans of sexual tension and when it escalated it delights those who want a bit more ;)
The Story...
The story for Fool Me Twice was a solid one, with several twists that I did not expect. I figured them out literally AS they were being revealed. I love a story like that and I only wonder if reading book one might have made me have better guesses. I'm definitely planning to go back and read it to find out. But I never felt like I was missing any important information, so it does work on its own.
The premise is that Olivia's been chased, since her mother's death, by the henchmen of Lord Burtrum (I'm unsure of the spelling - audiobook problems lol). But she's learned that Alastair has some documents that could blackmail him - so she goes to work for Alastair to steal the documents. This becomes a greater challenge than she anticipated because Alastair refuses to leave his rooms (where the documents seem most likely to be). So Olivia has to work on "fixing him" to get him out of his rooms - thus creating fun moments where they get to know each other and antagonize each other.
One other element I really loved about Fool Me Twice was the passing between realms of the house. Olivia is staff, Alastair is the Duke. It had this Downton Abbey feel that I absolutely loved - and Meredith Duran did an excellent job capturing the historical world she wrote her characters into.
Concluding Sentiments...
A fun mystery with a sexy romance, Fool Me Twice was a thoroughly enjoyable historical and I plan to read more from this series.
This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.
Meredith Duran is very good at writing exceedingly wretched men, and wonderfully complex relationships I love to read, and if you don’t find that attractive in your fiction, look elsewhere. The hero is particularly prone to physical shows of frustration, and the heroine earns his respect by simply not running away (she flinches from him, backs away, thinks he will kill her, and yet never does remorse ping on his emotional radar). There is a point I can tolerate this, as a fan of specific fictional wretched men and especially given the set up for the plot, HOWEVER: these allusions to his threat to her, bodily and otherwise, continues far enough into the book I grew uncomfortable.
Olivia has a spine of steel, a heroine who deserved perhaps a bit better in her counterpart. There’s a kindness in her life couldn’t take away.
The treatment of many of the other women in the text brings to mind a topic from a recent episode of the podcast Whoamance: many times, other women in romance would never be allowed to be the heroine in their own plot. It’s a frustrating flaw of the genre, and one I notice more often.
Olivia has a spine of steel, a heroine who deserved perhaps a bit better in her counterpart. There’s a kindness in her life couldn’t take away.
The treatment of many of the other women in the text brings to mind a topic from a recent episode of the podcast Whoamance: many times, other women in romance would never be allowed to be the heroine in their own plot. It’s a frustrating flaw of the genre, and one I notice more often.
I really enjoyed this book. I was very distracted while reading it and will need to re-read it another time to give it proper attention.
The cover is gorgeous. I loathe orange, but the contrast of the blue and orange is just gorgeous. I like the overall story idea also and Duran's writing was great, as always.
But. The sex here felt way to close to rape. He clearly took advantage of her and his position. I also don't care for stories where one MC "saves" the other from themselves like this. Yeah, I just loathed the execution of this overall story.
But. The sex here felt way to close to rape. He clearly took advantage of her and his position. I also don't care for stories where one MC "saves" the other from themselves like this. Yeah, I just loathed the execution of this overall story.
Duran can write but WOW was this a mixed bag. Not quite sure how to articulate my feelings into a coherent review so I’ll lead with content warnings.
CWs: abuse of power (housekeeper/employer), instances which border on mental/verbal/physical abuse (some of these were so triggering and for what???), attempted murder (previous, not done by the love interest, thank fuck)
There’s a lot happening in this book, and a huge complaint I have is Marwick himself. Dude is basically a toxic ass and sadly, our heroine makes excuses for it. Also compares her to a child multiple times when she’s a whole ass 25 year old???
(I also didn’t love that essentially all of the drama came from women being the root of evil? Like the whole time we’ve thought Olivia’s dad was the big baddie - which he was set up to be!!! Having affairs!! Political corruption!!) only to have the fake-out of Olivia being hunted by his wife that we only met at the very end of the book???
The plot is interesting and the writing is good, it’s just like whoa, the moments that were bad were BAD.
CWs: abuse of power (housekeeper/employer), instances which border on mental/verbal/physical abuse (some of these were so triggering and for what???), attempted murder (previous, not done by the love interest, thank fuck)
There’s a lot happening in this book, and a huge complaint I have is Marwick himself. Dude is basically a toxic ass and sadly, our heroine makes excuses for it. Also compares her to a child multiple times when she’s a whole ass 25 year old???
(I also didn’t love that essentially all of the drama came from women being the root of evil? Like the whole time we’ve thought Olivia’s dad was the big baddie - which he was set up to be!!! Having affairs!! Political corruption!!) only to have the fake-out of Olivia being hunted by his wife that we only met at the very end of the book???
The plot is interesting and the writing is good, it’s just like whoa, the moments that were bad were BAD.
Similar to the first book in this series, an interesting heroine made the dreadful hero (and the book overall) more palatable than he was on his own merits. I did find this story more compelling than the first one overall, as well.