Title: Sweet Fate
Author:  Laurelin Paige
Publisher/Year:  Paige Press 3/7/19
Length:  266 Pages
Series:  Dirty Sweet Duet #2

Overview

Dylan Locke knows that pining over the young ingenue Audrey Lind is pointless. He can’t offer her what she wants. He definitely can’t give her what she needs. Thank goodness she’s half a world away, and he doesn’t have to deal with his attraction head on.

But fate has other plans for him, and when Audrey once again lands in his path, it’s only too easy to fall back into their easy rhythm. And then their easy banter. And of course, each other’s arms.

He tells himself nothing has changed. She still wants forever, and he still thinks tomorrow is long enough. But watching her search isn’t as easy as he thought it would be, and now Dylan must figure out if he’s really the love Scrooge he professes to be or if he’s been Fate’s willing victim all along.

My Thoughts

We pick this story back up at the unplanned wedding of Donovan and Sabrina, where Dylan has decided to make an appearance and Audrey of course is helping execute all the arrangements. After this pairs time together back around Thanksgiving, she is all that Dylan can think about even once he’s resumed his life back in London. It’s hard to get Audrey out of his head even though he knows that he’s not the right guy for her based on her romantic notions. Audrey on the other hand has managed to go on with her life, somehow working to finish her degree and is now on the path to get her first real job.

What’s nice here is that the chemistry picks up right where they left off all those months earlier, but they both have a level of restraint (or denial) sine they don’t act on their attraction. The handle all the duties that come with being friends with the couple getting married and then they go their separate ways. What Dylan hates though is that apparently to Donovan, he’s transparent and we know that Donovan is a pupeteer and has the ability to make whatever he wants happen – and apparently that means putting this couple together.

So we fast forward to London where Audrey has apparently unexpectedly gotten her first job working at the national gallery. She doesn’t remember applying for the position but it puts her in Dylan’s path and that sets them on a journey that’s not what they planned for but one that’s interesting for us readers to watch.

There’s clearly an attraction between them, and like I mentioned from the last book, the skill that our author has in writing this couple’s dynamic so differently than the previous two gives us something to dig deeper into. They circle each other – they play games both with each other and with themselves since they won’t admit what’s really going on. Audrey still has her romantic notions and the idea of moving to London and finding The One is definitely in the forefront of everything. She’s quite smitten still with Dylan but knows what he’s willing to put out there, so she settles for a complex friendship and kind of works him like she did back in New York in the hopes that it’ll make progress. (mind you this isn’t admitted overtly, but it’s Audrey’s MO I think so i assumed).

There’s Dylan on the other hand who’s clearly interested in all that Audrey has to offer and while he doesn’t go after her, he also doesn’t date anyone at all. he’s always available for Audrey when ever she calls or texts and we watch him get sucked in further and further.

The dynamic that started us off in book one of teacher and student carries through here with a new twist of mature advisor to an innocent. it’s great to see how our author wraps it all together throughout this story line.

When they realize that the lines that they don’t want to cross are stupid, they cross them and we know there’s no going back. The issue though is that neither wants the future that the other see and that means that it’s really just a short lived physical connection that they’r going to play out. It’s not until one set of cards are on the table and tragedy hits that things are forced to change.taking one back to america, leaving the other behind in the UK. What happens from there is heartbreak, fear and a twist to the story that’s expected yet not. Definitely the closure that they needed.

What I can’t wait for though is the story that’s set up around Cade. I do’nt know if the next one in this journey is Cade or Nate, but we know enough about Nate from the Slay series to guess where it’ll go. Cade on the other hand is a complete mystery and one that i’m really excited to dig into . so i’m off to find the next book. Enjoy!