Fool Me Twice
5 Stars

On the run, Olivia Holladay is desperate enough to infiltrate the household of Alistair de Grey, the Duke of Marwick. Posing as his new housekeeper, Olivia needs to search his private rooms for the folder that can ensure her safety. The only problem is convincing the reclusive duke to leave...

Series note: This 2nd book continues the saga of the Duchess of Marwick's letters. While the first book contains tropes I dislike, this might not be the case for other readers. Therefore, it is recommended to read book #1 for the necessary backstory.

After the disappointment of the previous book, which was a DNF, my expectations for Olivia and Alistair's story were quite low. Thankfully, it is a wonderful take on the familiar Beauty and the Beast tale.

Kudos to Duran for being able to rehabilitate Alistair's character after his obnoxious behavior in the first book. While his morose behavior is understandable considering his twisted wife's actions, it does not excuse his cruelty toward his brother and his long-suffering staff. Once he begins to emerge from his depressive rage and his true nature is revealed, he becomes an incredible hero, albeit one that needs a slap upside the head or two when it comes to Olivia.

Olivia is a wonderful heroine. Intelligent, spirited, and resourceful, she has a backbone of steel and has no qualms about telling the duke the truth and putting him in his place. Her verbal sparing with Alistair is a delight, and they have sizzling chemistry.

The minor mystery revolving around Olivia's identity is exciting, and Duran thankfully avoids the pitfalls of the keeping secrets trope by not drawing it out excessively.

In sum, an excellent read, and my only quibble is the lack of an epilogue. ( )

This was well written, and entertaining, but it had some sizable problems so I shaved off a star. The entire premise of the plot, that she must act as his housekeeper in order to ferret out the papers she needs, is made moot by the fact that she has the papers that *he* needs. Just trade the damn papers! Or, if he doesn't want to lose the dirt he has on the guy, because he also wants revenge on the man, all the better! Trade the papers for him dealing with her enemy and she won't even have to lift a finger. It's honestly a win/win for them both. This is just one of the major gaps in sense the heroine has though. She's also the worst at making a case for herself when she's caught committing a crime. She has one of the best reasons ever for stealing, *a life depending on it*, and yet when she has a few moments to explain she starts the story way back before she was even born? Twice? And then when she's neutralized the immediate threat and has a bit longer, she resents that he wasn't eager to listen to her explanation and still doesn't bother to justify her actions. And then just gives him the letters anyway, even though now he poses a threat to her as well and maybe that blackmail could have saved her from this *new* danger. Out of the frying pan, into the fire. And then at the end she goes off alone, entirely unnecessarily, even though she knows someone wants her dead. I know these choices were all made to extend the drama, but they still sort of suck. The letters end up being pointless, the blackmail she's gone through everything to get is meaningless. Nothing matters... lol. The hero... I don't know, kind of wallowed in his pity-party of rage? And then is pretty adversarial even when he doesn't need to be. Like, he notices some of the h's qualities of character, which is nice, but instead of admiration it inspires a desire to crush them out of her?? He's motivated to repeatedly try to convince her she's powerless? Bah on that! He also repeatedly tries to convince them both that he's a villain, to justify the things he wants to do anyway I guess? Did it seem to anyone else like he was going to joyfully force himself on (rape) her when he felt betrayed? He seemed like 'well, well, well, now I don't even have to feel bad for taking whatever I want from you!'. He wasn't given further opportunity so we'll never know, but, there's playing the villain, and then there's actually being one. I would have gone for the gun as well! *sigh* It's a huge testament to the writing and other parts of the book that I'm still glad I read this, and, despite my considerable problems with it, give it 3 stars. ( )

If I have a complaint about Meredith Duran, it's her pacing. I was reading and thoroughly enjoying this, but at about the 60% mark I felt there's no way I could buy into the romance. I was convinced, at some point, it would just be manufactured and suddenly Alastair would melt and nothing would make sense, and it would be unconvincing.

However, I put Meredith Duran in a tier of brilliant romance novelists. Infallible, of course not. But the kind that can pull off magic.

Alastair was a complete and utter monster. And while the lizard part of my brain can be like "Oh, dangerous and sexy," and the logical part can be "Oh, pathetic and abusive," the part that Duran as an author can wave like a magic wand is the romance. Because at 75% - 75%! - (or something) I was suddenly fully invested in them. And oddly, I liked the complete jackasses voice just as much if not more than the Olivia's. And that's saying something, because Olivia is on that shelf reserved for the best of them.

Anyway, I'm not actually complaining about her pacing here, I'm marveling at it. And I am astonished by Duran's ability to turn the villain into the hero while he still maintains his edge. And her ability to write a heroine like Olivia, a romance and a book like this, which gives me joy.

I would guess this isn't going to work for everyone, but I do like her struggling heroes so much. ( )

Some of the language used yanked me out of the story in a really unexpected way but over all this was a solid historical fiction and I enjoyed reading it. ( )

4.5/5
Meredith Duran's books are usually hit or miss for me, but this series is definitely something I really enjoy. Beautiful story, wonderful dialogues between characters... Alastair is a very vulnerable man on the edge of madness, and Olivia brings him back to life by sheer force of will. There is humour and honesty, but there is also a female character not prone to drama and over-analyzing everything, which is something I always try to avoid reading about. Please, do try this. Very much recommended! ( )