Narrated by Vivienne Leheny
I haven’t read very much in the Heartbreaker Bay series, but Twist of Fate is a novella which stands alone very well so that wasn’t a problem for me.
Diego is in San Francisco for the first time in 10 years, to assist with a week of wedding preparations for his brother. He and his brother, Rocco, haven’t seen each other since Diego left town, and it seemed to me they had very little to do with one another at all in the interim. So it did require a fair amount of suspension of disbelief that Rocco would ask him, and Diego would accept, the best man role.
Diego and Daisy were an item when they were teenagers but Daisy moved to New York to go to a college where she had a full scholarship and Diego had to drop out of college in California to look after his dad who had had a stroke. Diego looked after his dad for two years until his father passed away and then he left town.
There is a bit of a problem with the timeline as well. The book often refers to “10 years” as the time apart for Daisy and Diego but it’s clearly 12. That’s the sort of thing which trips me up during a listen.
When Diego’s dad had a stroke, Rocco made the decision, against Diego’s wishes (and against what Diego believed his dad would want) to bring him home from the hospice to care for him. However, given their father was non-verbal and needed 24/7 care, he quickly realised this was too much. Then, because of the oddities of the US health system, their father could not return to the hospice. 20-year-old Rocco took off to the Bahamas and left Diego holding the bag. Diego gave up his college education and his life plans to care for his father. He did this for two years with no help from Rocco at all. Frankly, I got really angry on Diego’s behalf about this and I don’t think Rocco did anywhere near enough grovelling and almost nothing to attempt to atone for his actions which were shitty in the extreme. For that reason, the reconciliation story between the brothers didn’t really work for me. I’m generally a very forgiving person but it turns out I can hold a grudge on behalf of others really well. Huh.
Rocco is getting married to Tyler and the two men have sought assistance from Daisy to plan their wedding. This, of course, throws Diego and Daisy into close proximity and those old feelings come roaring back.
The sections with Diego and Daisy together and falling in love again are sweet and I liked them as a couple. Yes it was quick (about a week) but I bought their history so I was able to go with it.
The wedding tasks the two did during the course of the week didn’t really work for me either though, given what was revealed at the end of the novella. It did not endear me to Rocco (or Tyler) for that matter but I won’t say more because spoilers. (DM me if you want to know!)
Taken as a story where the background is just an excuse to get the couple together, it works but I recommend not thinking about the setup too much.
There is a bit of a big misunderstanding right at the end which is never my favourite but at least it doesn’t last long and I liked the way it was resolved.
The novella’s flaws were saved by the narration. Vivienne Leheny is a very talented performer and gives depth and emotion to a very short story with not a lot of time for character development.
Ms. Leheny’s accents and character depictions were very good – she does a great “hero voice” and, as usual, her emotion and pacing were solid as well. I really like listening to Vivienne Leheny-narrated books. Her tone is pleasing to the ear and she delivers humour well, in addition to the more serious/sadder sections. I admit it was she who was the biggest draw to me here. Even though Twist of Fate (I’m still not exactly sure what the significance of the title is – there was no twist of fate that I saw) didn’t work super-well for me, the narration made the novella worth my time.
Kaetrin
Buy Twist of Fate by Jill Shalvis on Amazon
