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Book: “A Simple Twist of Fate” by April Asher
Publishing Info: St. Martin’s Griffin, May 2025
Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: At the bright-eyed age of eighteen, witch Harlow “Harry” Pierce attended her first Fates Haven Finding Ceremony certain the Blue Willow Wisp would lead her to her Fated match, her cougar shifter boyfriend, Jaxon Atwood. But Fate had other plans, guiding her best friend to him instead. With a broken heart, all her belongings, and a vow to never return, Harry did the only thing a broken-hearted witch could do. Run.
Thirteen years later, she returns to her magical hometown—with her half-human, half-shifter goddaughter in tow—hoping that not only would the town work its magic on the troubled teenager, but that the local Alpha of the Rocky Mountain Pack could help Grace identify—and control—her fiery abilities.
Jaxon Atwood was a shifter of few words and even less patience… until his mother retired as Alpha of the Rocky Mountain Pack and left the running of things to him. It’s a headache he didn’t need, and one that brought the witch who’d ripped his heart from his chest knocking on his door.
Ever since the disappearance of the town’s Fate Witch over a decade ago, Fates Haven’s magic has been slowly going haywire. There hasn’t been a Fated Match made in thirteen years, putting the town in serious jeopardy of losing its title of Most Fated Mates Per Population. But now, something is stirring in Fates Haven, Colorado, and it smells like the past, tastes like change, and looks like A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE.
Review: To start on a random note, I think this is one of the few cases where the cover actually spoils bits of the story. Now, I get why they included the dragon! Dragons are super popular right now, and I’m sure people will pick this book up based on this fact alone, so I can’t really blame the designers for making a savvy business decision. But on the other hand, this book is heavy on the cozy side of things, and one of the few actual plot points in the story has to do with a mystery about one of the characters. A mystery that is spoiled by this cover! Ah well. Like I said, this book lives and dies by its vibes, so the actual “twist” here is probably not that important anyways.
While this book didn’t perfectly click for me, I did enjoy the central romance. Over the last few years, as I’ve read more romance novels, I’ve discovered that I have a secret love of second chance romances, especially ones about highschool sweethearts re-connecting as adults (recs welcomed and appreciated!). So, in many ways, this was great match for me, especially with the supernatural twist of fate and the way that it lead our couple astray all of those years ago. I also enjoyed the angst that came from the fallout of this situation. Jaxon, perhaps, was owed a bit more of an apology from Harry. But at the same time, she was teenager at the time, and in a world where the concept of “fated” relationships exists, one can easily understand her reaction to the situation she found herself in.
I do wish Jaxon’s chapters had a bit more depth or a more established arc for him, as well, as his chapters became a bit repetitive with his thoughts fixated on his remaining attraction to Harry. Again, this is fairly standard in many romance novels, but I think it’s definitely an area of improvement for most books in the genre. Sure, it’s great that the romantic interest is so strongly focused on the heroine, but he needs to have an actual personality himself!
My biggest struggle with the book came down to the tone. As I said above, this is heavy on the cozy side of things, and part of the way it explores this light-hearted tone is through an abundance of, well, silliness. There was a point about a third of the way into the book where three adult women were spending their time…navigating a series of Legos on the floor to prepare for a competition at a festival. In this scene and throughout, especially when the women characters were together, it often felt like we were all back in not even high school, but middle school. We’re told these women have careers, but they behaved and talked like super young teenagers. You know how in “Friends” there is a running joke about the fact that they’re all hanging out a coffee shop all the time instead of working? Well, the same problem was here! I’m fine with a more light-hearted tone, but this one skewed too far, losing sight of the more serious aspects of the story and reducing the relationships between many characters to cliches.
In many ways, this was a fun romantic comedy with fun magic at its heart. Unfortunately, the tone was too silly and ridiculous for me, at parts. But fans of more light-hearted stories are sure to enjoy this one!
Rating 7: An enjoyable second chance romance, but the women characters behaved more like middle schoolers than adults, which took me out of the story a bit.
Reader’s Advisory:
“A Simple Twist of Fate” can be found on these Goodreads lists: High School Sweethearts and Fated.
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