Fool Me Twice

Rules for the Reckless, Book 2

By: Meredith Duran

Narrated by: Alison Larkin

Sensible and lonely, Olivia Mather survives by her wits - and her strict policy of avoiding trouble. But when she realizes that the Duke of Marwick might hold the secrets of her family's past, she does the unthinkable, infiltrating his household as a maid. She'll clean his study and rifle through his papers looking for information. Alastair de Grey has a single reason to live: vengeance. More beautiful than Lucifer, twice as feared, and thrice as cunning, he'll use any weapon to punish those who fooled and betrayed him - even an impertinent maid who doesn't know her place. But the more fascinated he becomes with the uppity redhead, the more dangerous his carefully designed plot becomes. For the one contingency he forgot to plan for was falling in love...and he cannot survive being fooled again.

©2014 Meredith Duran (P)2014 Tantor

Very good from start to finish

I enjoyed everything about this book, from the excellent narration to the well-developed characters and the interesting plot. I will look for more books by Duran.

Beautifully written but...

I did struggle to get through this book. While Ms Duran has no one in this genre who can match her style, it was tedious to be drug through the thoughts of the MC. I kept thinking " get on with it, please!" Frankly, had it not been an engaging story despite the slowwwww progress, I would have chucked it. Probably the last one of this author I will bother with.

Good story, steamy sex scenes, good writing but there was something missing

Worth a read but I couldn’t quite like the heroine all that much. She seemed a little too controlling and not compassionate enough towards the hero in the beginning.

Quite entertaining

I didn't care for the first book in this series so I started this one with just a bit of trepidation. I was pleasantly surprised.

This is an enjoyable book with good characters. I really enjoyed Olivia. Her almost Beauty and the Beast relationship with the Duke had some humorous moments. The story developed well. The second half of the book slowed somewhat in my opinion but I'm sure others found it the opposite.

I had a few concerns with this book. I didn't like how the Employer-employee line was crossed. My liking for Alastair went down a few notches there. Also, I didn't really like the ending.

The writing was great and I'm glad I didn't give up after the first book. Overall, this was very entertaining. The narration of the audiobook was first rate. This was 3.5 stars.

Open door, tortured hero, boss/employee but in a historical way.

He’s a Duke (of course) and she must become his maid in order to uncover his secrets.

Good HR with Spunky Characters

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.

Excellent. Wish the whole series was available

Even though I dislike revenge plots, I finally got around to reading this one, which won the 2015 RITA for long historical romance.

Unlike some revenge-based stories, this one is cleverly done, as one would expect from such a talented author. The romance between Olivia and the duke builds gradually, and the cross-class nature of their relationship is not glossed over.

I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook narrated by Alison Larkin. Now, on to the rest of the series!

Wait! Why isn't the rest of the series available on audio. Boo!

Olivia is on a mission

Olivia needs letters from the Duke, Alister, so that she can save herself from an enemy who is trying to harm her. She obtains a post in the Duke's household. She finds that Alister is a broken man that won't leave his room because of the betrayal and death of his wife. The household is in shambles. Even though Olivia only wants to find the letters. she gets drawn into putting the household to right. She begins to bring Alister out of his depression. She still has to defeat her enemy. In the meantime she and Alister begin to be attracted to one another. The book ties up all loose ends.

This is a second book in a series, but it is very easily a stand alone book. I found this book to be very well written. The author is able to make scenes come alive. She creates two great main characters, Alister and Olivia. There are also support characters that are vivid and believable. The narration is very good.

A Keeper!

You come across a book in 100 that you want to read again and this was one of those! the characters were well developed, the dialog was witty and realistic. the plot was an enhancement to the romance rather than a deterrent. it motivated me to write my first review and to look for more by this author!

Oddest narration ever!

Note that I didn’t say worst! It was truly the oddest and possibly most bizarre narrative experience ever recorded! The cadence, the odd inflection, the crazy accent.... it wasn’t stilted, or boring, and male female individuals were all distinct but the WAY that they all talked was weird!

Other than that it was truly well written, creatively plotted and developed and executed. What little sex there was was rip roaring hot.

Please, please, listen to her snippets, lots of them, before you spend the money or credit on the Audible version of this story. You are probably better off reading it than listening to Allison Larkin giving everyone crazy speech patterns and bizarre enunciation!

#bizarrenarration #regency #clever #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes