Review: Kerrigan Byrne's TEMPTING FATE.

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

I’ve seen so many rave reviews of Kerrigan Byrne’s Tempting Fate & honestly I don’t know that I can add anything to the conversation .

But if you love beauty & the beast/she’s an angel on Earth & I will do anything I can to protect her & keep unpleasantness from her door/virgin leads/a redemption arc, etc. this book is good to snatch up.

Felicity Goode is a shy, beautiful, bespectacled heiress who must marry an aristocrat to fulfill the terms of her parents’ will. But she must find a bodyguard first, someone to prevent further threats & attacks against her.

Enter Gareth Severand, who is actually Gabriel Sauvageau, former leader of the criminal Fauves. Extremely scarred & with a disfigured face, Gabriel faked his own death, took on an alias, & went through a series of facial surgeries. He’s about to leave England but he’s hired by Felicity when she mistakenly believes him to be an applicant.

She has no idea of his real identity, a blessing Gabriel thinks, since she fainted from terror during his previous rescue attempt.

Gabriel’s feelings for Felicity are STRONG from the beginning. She is everything to him & she sees him both imperfectly—she has horrible vision & her spectacles are initially broken—but also very well indeed—as someone who can protect her & use his violence & physical prowess for good.

This is classic Kerrigan Byrne to me (and therefore quite enjoyable!): an absolutely devoted hero who’s possessive & uber protective & a heroine who is such an ideal that she can bring him into the light somewhat. Make him someone who can feel joy.

I’m all about drama but there are moments when the prose feels somewhat heavy-handed, & I felt surprised & a little disconcerted by the ease of the shy Felicity’s intimate emotional revelations with Gabriel. Or maybe just her lack of awareness/surprise of how revelatory she was being.

But I really enjoyed my time spent with these two sweeties, especially the Epilogue, which is sweet & lighthearted & made me happy for Gabriel.

4 ⭐️. Release date: 5/11.