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A Trick of Fate

Brandon Brothers, Book 1

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A Trick of Fate

By: Stella Riley
Narrated by: Alex Wyndham
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Summary

Someone is misusing Max Brandon’s name - resulting in bills for services he never ordered and goods he did not buy. For reasons he can't begin to guess, he has become the victim of some unknown person's campaign of persecution.

When the games move closer to home, almost forcing him to fight a duel...more particularly, when they draw in Frances Pendleton, a lady he never expected to see again...Max vows to catch the man behind them, no matter what the cost.

The result is a haphazard chase involving ruined abbeys, a hunt for hermits, a grotesque portrait...and a love story which, but for this odd trick of fate, might never have been given a second chance.

©2019 Stella Riley (P)2020 Stella Riley Historical Historical Fiction Regency Regency Romance Romance Romantic Comedy Comedy Funny Witty Feel-Good
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A lovely second chance romance with a little bit of mystery.
I loved the narration. Alex Wyndham gives a stellar performance as always.

A great listen

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Marvelous, carefully researched and beautifully written. Alex Wyndham's performance is, once more, memorable. Well worth keeping.

Wonderful all round

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I appreciated the very clever continuance of the characters from previous books in the series
The story line was well thought out and kept apace throughout
It was a true page turner

Continuance of an excellent series

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This is a lovely, lovely novel written by a wonderful author. It is a historical romance set in Georgian times and concerns the love story between Lord Max Brandon and Frances Pendleton. They had met and fallen in love five years prior to the start of the story but had been separated by nefarious means. However, a trick of fate brings them together again and a curious set of circumstances involving a tour of Cumbria and the Scottish borders enable them to spend time together to discover if their love still exists and can be rekindled.

Stella Riley is my favourite author. For me her greatest strengths are pitch perfect characterisation, sparkling dialogue and the inventive use of plot devices which all combine to make novels I can immerse myself in and which I never want to end. A Trick of Fate is just such a novel.

I absolutely love the plot device in this story. The identity theft and the ensuing pursuit of the enigmatic Mr Grey is so fresh and different. It gives a backbone to the story, is an interesting plot strand and provides a wonderful opportunity to watch two people fall in love with each other.

Max and Frances are beautifully depicted as people I feel I know and would love to meet. Max is a serious man who shoulders his many responsibilities with cheerful fortitude. He is kind, honourable and just and while he has his fair share of firmness and determination, he also has a delightful sense of the absurd. Frances is his equal. She is witty and intelligent, has strength of character and good moral fibre and is very aware of the conventions that a gently bred female of the time should obey. However, she is willing to push these boundaries just a little in order to explore her feelings for Max. As we watch her fall ever more deeply in love with him, so do we fall in love with Max. Ms Riley excels at writing gorgeous heroes.

However, there is a whole cast of delightful characters who leap fully formed from the page and into our hearts. From Leo, Max’s younger brother to the self-contained Rafe Sherbourne and from the mysterious Mr Grey to Lady Pendleton, Frances’s dreadful mother – they all feel like real people and add depth and colour to the story.

So much of both the characterisation and the narrative are carried through the words the protagonists say to each other and to themselves. I love the way that we see inside Max and Frances’s heads as they individually work through their thoughts and feelings. This feels so intimate and enriches our understanding of them.

Dialogue plays a major role in Ms Riley’s novels and enables the story to move along at a good pace. It feels very natural and realistic at every point whether it is conveying the warmth of family interactions, the amusing banter between the brothers or Max’s glorious decimation of his new mother-in-law. The way both brothers talk to their young niece and nephews tells us as much about the adults as it does about the children.

I really enjoyed this audiobook and think that Alex Wyndham has done a great job with conveying the warmth and wit of the story. I find it very easy to listen to his voice and think he differentiates the characters very well. Though I had already read the book, Alex’s nuanced performance made me consider parts of it in a slightly different way. This enhanced my overall appreciation of the story and I know I will listen to the audiobook again.

A lovely story by a wonderful writer

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Left me wanting more what a brilliant way to end a book. loved every page.

another masterpiece

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