A lovely, breezy summer read, full of paranormal romance goodies! Second-chance romance, fated mates, shifters, witches, angels, vampires, and a whole host of mysterious goings-on in a cozy, small-town setting with oodles of family, both found and born. It may sound over-ambitious, but it doesn't take itself too seriously, so the end result is tons of fun and not at all taxing.

Our heroine is a young witch, self-exiled from her hometown. Now she's returning home to find help for her best friend's daughter, whose shifter powers are unidentified and out of control. Home means confronting (and apologizing to) all the people she left behind, including her aunt, best friends, and possibly fated mate. Hijinks ensue!

2.5 not for me but not necessarily bad. I enjoy paranormal/shifter/fantasy romance usually but I’m noticing a trend where the very specific sub genre that’s cozy adjacent, quirky, and “adorkable” (didn’t like it in 2012, don’t like it now), is just not for me. The dialogue and internal monologue is just unbearably not to my taste, and the stakes are often not compelling. So admittedly my rating could be a little biased by personal preference. I do think this book could have benefitted from a more solid foundation. Our FMC is returning to a town that she fled for reasons that were flimsy at best, can teens be reactive? Sure, does it make sense that the, for lack of a better term, misunderstanding wasn’t cleared up over 13 years? Nope. Then she has custody of a teen for over a year because the child mother is out looking for the father? The mom doesn’t come home once in over year??? To modern NYC? The most accessible place in the world?? Idk for me it was a miss in both style and substance but if you’re down for silly quirky read that’s all vibes (even slightly cringey vibes) this could be for you! The writing itself was solid.

A Simple Twist of Fate by April Asher is a fun, feel-good second chance rom-com with just the right amount of magic, mayhem, and heart. Witches, shifters, and dragons? Yes, please!

This story follows Harlow “Harry” Pierce, a witch who returns to her magical hometown thirteen years after a heartbreak that drove her away. She’s not just back for nostalgia—she’s hoping the town’s quirky charm (and a certain Alpha shifter) can help her goddaughter navigate some seriously fiery powers. But coming home means facing Jaxon Atwood, the very shifter she once thought was her Fated match… until fate had other plans.

The slow burn between Harry and Jaxon is chef’s kiss—sweet, steamy, and full of tension. Their character growth felt organic and satisfying, with past wounds giving way to genuine healing. The magical small-town vibes are strong, the side characters are delightful, and the twist at the end adds a perfect layer of surprise that had me grinning.

If you're in the mood for a paranormal rom-com with heart, humor, and a little chaos, this one’s worth picking up!
Thank you to April Asher and St. Martin's Press for the free e-ARC of A Simple Twist of Fate in Exchange for my honest opinion. Four Stars- a really good time.

Cute magic second chance romance. Both Harry and Grace were likable and you wanted things to work out for them. The world setting for this book seemed to be fully formed and I wondered if there had been previous books in the series that I had missed. Otherwise an enjoyable read.

🦇 A Simple Twist of Fate Book Review 🦇

❓ If you could shift into any creature, what would it be?

🦇 At the bright-eyed age of eighteen, witch Harlow “Harry” Pierce attended her first Fates Festival Finding Ceremony certain the Blue Willow Wisp would lead her to her Fated match, her cougar shifter boyfriend, Jaxon Atwood. But Fate had other plans, guiding her best friend to him instead. With a broken heart and vow to never return, Harry did the only thing a heartsick witch could do: run. Thirteen years later, she returns to her magical hometown—with her half-human, half-shifter goddaughter in tow—hoping that not only would the town work its magic on the troubled teenager. Too bad she needs Jaxon's help to do it.

💜 An April Asher witchy romance was one of the first books I reviewed for this account, so it was nice to see how much I've grown (as has Harry) since then. Let's break down this witchy read:

✨ Characters (3/5): Harry is a fun, sassy witch on a mission, while Jaxon gives perfect grumpy wolf, overprotective alpha vibes. They're perfectly balanced, as is their cast of friends (perfect for continuing the series with new matches). I absolutely adored every second Grace was on the page. I am a little disappointed that PCOS was mentioned with no explanation or reason (PCOS can cause anxiety and depression, orgasm dysfunction, and body image issues, which would have fit into the character with little effort).

✨ Plot and Pacing (3/5): Harry returns home for family, not for herself, only to reconcile with the family she left behind; the perfect balance of character- versus plot-led storytelling. The pacing is consistent, but a few lulls as Harry and Jaxon find their footing.

✨ World-Building (2/5): I love the small town, Stars Hollow feel (as in, everyone immediately gets up in your business), but I definitely would have loved a little more world-building. The bakery, though? Perfect.

✨ Romance (4/5): I loved seeing tiny parallels between Harry and Jaxon then and now--to show their growth while apart, yet still making it clear they know one another better than anyone. They both become different people once the animosity is dropped; instead, it's clear they'd do anything for one another.

✨ Mystery/Suspense (3/5): I hoped we'd get left in the dark regarding the reason behind Harry's disappearance a little longer; that suspense could have driven the tension between Harry and Jaxon a bit more. They let go of their animosity fairly quickly, too.

✨ Tone/Prose (3/5): Asher's prose in the Supernatural Singles series is fun and engaging with a little dash of sassy. I was hoping for more of that prose here, but it's dulled down for Harry.

🦇 Recommended for fans of The Supernatural Singles series, The Ex Hex, and A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon.

✨ The Vibes ✨
🧭 Paranormal Rom-Com
🐱 Witch / Shifter
🧭 Dragons
🐱 Second Chance Romance / Childhood Sweethearts
🧭 Found Family
🐱 Fated Mates
🧭 Small Town Romance

🦇 Major thanks to the author and publisher for providing an ARC of this book via Netgalley. 🥰 This does not affect my opinion regarding the book. #ASimpleTwistofFate

💬 Quotes
No, luck and Harry were not best friends nor acquaintances. At this point she’d take frenemies with benefits over the cold, hard reality.

Family did not always mean blood, and unfortunately sometimes the opposite was true.

You’re mine. You’re my Mate. My world. My heart. My . . . everything. And every surly, broody inch of me is yours. It always has been, and it always will be. From now and for eternity.”

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

A Simple Twist of Fate by April Asher is a third person dual-POV second chance contemporary fantasy romance. Thirteen years ago, Harlow (Harry) Pierce left her hometown of magical beings when she learned that the cougar shifter she loved was someone else’s fated mate. When her best friend’s daughter, Grace, is struggling with her new fire powers, Harry brings Grace to her small town and has to confront her past, including Jax, the man she left behind.

This is a bit of a different twist on fated mates. In this iteration, the town has a Fate Ceremony where blue will-o’the-wisps direct the townsfolk to their fated ones, including shifters. Jax’s cougar aspect recognizes Harry as his mate, but it doesn’t work in the same way as a lot of werewolf romances work where it’s not only an immediate recognition, but also an overwhelming need to solidify that bond. Jax doesn’t really experience that. He wants Harry, only wants Harry, but those impulses are not present within the lore.

A lot of paranormal and contemporary romances tend to be limited to one or two fantasy species. Here we have shifters that are quite varied (fae dragon and cougar shifters are both shifters but are distinct), fae, witches, gargoyles, seers, vampires, and possibly more. If this ends up being a series, I would be curious to see if fae dragon shifters have different ways that they experience a mating bond than cougar shifters or how vampires move through the world. Given the small town romance vibes and how everyone in this town seems to be part of the community and there doesn’t appear to be long-lived rivalries or turf wars between different species, this is more on the cozy side of fantasy rather than the grittier urban fantasy.

Harry and Jax’s romance takes a bit to start back up again, mainly because Jax is still really hurt after Harry basically packed up and left him for thirteen years and even used a spell that made it impossible to find her. I liked having the MMC being the one who doesn't want to restart the romance without some sort of sign that the FMC isn’t going anywhere because I feel like it’s often the other way around. For her part, Harry is initially concerned that Jax ended up with the person that the will-o’the-wisp said was Jax’s fated mate (who is also Harry’s friend), but it doesn’t take long for her to learn that is not the case and to shift into trying to get Jax back.

I would recommend this to fans of small town second chance romances looking for a paranormal or fantasy twist and readers of Romantasy who like twists on fated mates and shifter romances

Do you need another story like the infamous stories from Dream Harbor but with a supernatural twist? This is the story for you! I love the author from her previous series and was excited to have another witch/shifter romance. Add a little small town charm and second chance romance and you are in for a cozy read on vacation. Is this book predictable and ends happily ever after? YES! and that's what makes it such a good read. These characters are also not some hot 19 year old that suddenly becomes a the chosen one. This is about a world where supernatural creatures are just a part of everyday life. While there are some more out there characters like a fae club owner... You can really relate to the main character.
All of us have thought about running away from our hometown and going to the big city to make a name for ourselves. When Harry decides to take her Goddaughter back to her hometown to help her with her shifting powers, she learns what she left behind. And more importantly how it affected her closest friends and love of her life. She has doubts and makes mistakes but her number one priority is to help her goddaughter. I appreciate that she wasn't just immediately trying to reconnect with an old flame and the goddaughter was just a plot device. The secondary characters in Asher's books are always a stand out and you can't always tell who the next book will be. I appreciate that she gives the attention to detail on someone besides the love interest.
While many might consider this a cheesy romance, I consider it the perfect read for when you want to know everything will be fixed by the last page. I appreciate the older characters who are a little quirky without being a entire personality trait. But also how Asher writes like this could be your next door neighbor who might also happen to be a witch!

I am pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this. A Simple Twist of Fate is my firsrt experience with April Asher, and honestly, I'm not a huge fan of cozy paranormal romances, or just cozy romances at all. But this one. . .this one was really good.

The characters were pretty well written. Harlow "Harry" Pierce was not my favorite character by far. She lacked any real communication skills and was pretty judgy for all the tomfoolery she ended up pulling. But Grace? Grace was by far one of my favorite teenage side characters ever. She was snarky, and sarcastic, and sweet. And frankly, Jax was also really good. He deserved to hold a little bit of a grudge against Harry. She took off to a self-imposed exile for 13 years and then gets upset because he doesn't tell her immediately that he and Elodie (one of Harry's best friends) weren't actually mated.

The pacing was good for a cozy. Nothing about this was fast paced, but it didn't feel as if it was dragging by any means. This is a second chance romance so it wasn't necessarily slow burn. It followed the typical pacing for a decent romance. Overall, I loved it. Maybe I do like cozy paranormal romances.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was cute and I liked it (I read it in 24 hours or less so) but here’s the problems:

1) the relationships: this is a second chance, FATED romance and not only did I not believe the romance, I didn’t even believe the characters believed the romance. Considering that they were supposedly so heartbroken about what happened in the past, they were pretty quick to forgive and forget and hop into bed (also, the fact that he ate her out after a hike!). Actually that’s the problem with the friendships too: if my best friend walked out of my life cold turkey for 13 years with no contact, a margarita and an apology isn’t gonna cut it.

2) the pop culture references. Now I can handle a little name dropping but T-Swift, TWICE!, was too much for me

Okay y'all this book is so enticing and the magic / lore is amazing!! It has a lot more depth than a lot of the other cozy magic systems. i really enjoyed everything about this book (and this author too).

Appreciation to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for access to this digital ARC in return for an honest review.

Sh*tholes and c*m buckets! What a cute little story! It reads quick. I thought the magic system was really fun with had some unique elements (who knew what descry meant before this book?). The characters and town are lovable with classic quirks. The romance between Harry and Jax feels genuine. We love a man who knows how to work with his hands ;) The steamy scenes are HAWT for a vanilla heterosexual couple. You have to love Grace and her teenage angst (in my case relate to all those feelings when going through it as a teen). I'd definitely follow these characters in a spin-off!


*****Spoilers below*****
TO BEGIN - This is my first April Asher novel, so I don't have any context about her other books coming into this one.

I think my only feedback was with how some of the puzzle pieces left for the reader felt like they didn't add up in a way that was satisfying at the end. The scene with Tomlyn where he says things like "I haven't had the pleasure of interacting with someone such as you in an age and a half" and "Oh how I have missed your kind" suggest that whatever Harry is there used to be many of them and he used to interact with them frequently. Yet we find out that there is always only one fate witch, they aren't any kind of different species really, and it seems weird that Tomlyn would have spent a lot of time with them? I dunno, it felt a little like it was purposely misleading even though it was pretty obvious she was going to be the fate witch for the town (overdone misleading is a pet peeve of mine, it just gets under my skin).

I also wish we had gotten more development for the side characters. They have so much potential and you think you're going to get a bunch of time with this hot boy group she introduces at the very beginning, but then we really only get Jax for awhile and by the time the big bads are reintroduced you kinda forget who they are. Also, would have loved some more context about Elodie!

I just LOVE April Asher's books! Her world building is so fun, and this is no different. I'm hoping this is the start of a new series set in the same town. It definitely sets itself up for more books, and I'm just not ready to leave Fates Haven! The romance was sweet and the banter was fun. This is definitely one of my favorite cute, quick reads of the year! Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for my digital ARC!!

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this story.

Overall it was and was not how I expected. It was fun hallmark-y story but with a supernatural twist. The characters were fun and it really felt like we were hopping into someone’s ongoing story not just starting it. The characters were introduced in a way that first made me think “is this a sequel?” But as I was reading it felt so organic and that I was re-meeting people just like Harry.

My one qualm is that the cover completely gives Grace’s shifter away. From the moment they said they didn’t know I knew.

I hope this becomes a fun little series that I can read during the spookier months.

I'm always here for an April book and this one sounded a lot of fun.

First off, there are a lot a lot a lot of characters here and most of them are supernatural. At times it did feel a bit overwhelming to keep track of everyone, but here we are.

Harry and Jax have history and chemistry galore and they spend a good portion of the book ignoring both. It was fun reading them figure things out and actually have a damn conversation. Grace might have stolen every scene she was in and was a damn delight.

Plot wise, due to the above mentioned eleventy billion characters there are the same amount of moving pieces. Somehow it all worked for me and I was basically grinning the entire time I was reading. I definitely wanted more at the end because it felt sort of unfinished.

Overall, this was a fun book and I'll just be over here hoping there's more.

**Huge thanks to the publisher for providing the arc free of charge**

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing a DRC of this title for review.

I don't know that I completely connected with the characters or the author's voice in this one, but I'd still definitely recommend to my patrons looking for a fun romantasy romcom!

3.5 stars/5.

The magical and shifter aspects of this story were cool. I really enjoyed the mystery behind Grace’s power and the town’s issues. The competitions were a lot of fun, as well!

4 stars because it took awhile for me to get into the story—the beginning was a little slow for me.

A Simple Twist of Fate is a cute, magical little second chance romance. I would recommend this to fans of Wolf Gone Wild, A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon, The Ex Hex, etc. It’s lighthearted, a little spicy, and fun.

There is an actual plot, and it was engaging enough, but the ending did feel a bit rushed. I could have read at least 20 more pages. I hope this will turn into a series of interconnected standalone books, because the side characters (especially Elodie/Silas and Cassie) have my attention. This was the palate cleanser that I desperately needed.

3.75 ⭐️

I'm always game for a good paranormal romance. And I like it even more when the paranormal aspects are common place and blend in/are part of normal everyday life. Add in a magical small town setting and you have a the pillars for a great story.

The book as a whole was a fun read. I think one of my favorite things was the wide cast of entertaining characters. I loved the competition and banter between the Big Bads and the Fearsome Four. As well as the spins put on the town events. The lack of communication that caused the 13 year rift between the two MC's was quite infuriating though. A simple conversation could have saved a lot of heartache for a lot of people. I also called Grace's shifter animal and twist, but enjoyed seeing how they got to those conclusions. I also look forward to hopefully future book featuring Elodie and Lenny and their fated matches.

Read this book if you like:
- fated mates
- paranormal aspects
- shifters, witches and vampires
- second chance romance
- childhood sweethearts
- found family
- small town

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for my advanced copy in return for an honest review!

A Simple Twist of Fate is everything I want in a paranormal romantic comedy. April Asher brings together heart, humor, and just the right amount of magic in a story that feels both whimsical and deeply emotional.

Harlow "Harry" Pierce is an unforgettable heroine. Her relationship with her goddaughter Grace is one of the most touching parts of the book. The way Harry loves and protects Grace, while helping her figure out where she belongs, made my heart ache in the best way. Their bond feels real and earned, and I loved every moment they shared.

The second chance romance is so satisfying. Jaxon is gruff and guarded but his chemistry with Harry practically jumps off the page. Their shared past gives their reunion so much weight. Watching them reconnect, work through old wounds, and slowly fall back in love was incredibly rewarding.

Fates Haven is the kind of magical small town I wish I could visit. The side characters are charming, the magical hijinks are laugh-out-loud funny, and the emotional moments hit all the right notes. This book made me smile, tear up, and believe in the power of second chances.

Quick Summary: A rip roaring, good time, paranormal romance deluxe

My Review: A Simple Twist of Fate: A Novel by April Asher is a 2025 fantasy romance. It will be officially released on 5/13/25.

About the Book: "...something is stirring in Fates Haven, Colorado... A witch and a shifter get a second chance at love..."

The Hook: "At the bright-eyed age of eighteen, witch Harlow “Harry” Pierce attended her first Fates Haven Finding Ceremony certain the Blue Willow Wisp would lead her to her Fated match, her cougar shifter boyfriend, Jaxon Atwood. But Fate had other plans, guiding her best friend to him instead."

The Draw: Magic, fated mates, diverse representation among supernaturals, second chance at love, angsty teen, quirky aunt, The Trouble Trio

In My Own Words: Fate, fantasy, family, friends, fire, fun, and "Sugar Tits & Treats." Oh my!

My Favorite Character: Harry 😎

Honorable Mention: Those pesky gnomes 😂

My Favorite Hot Guy: It's a tie between Jax and Maddox. 😍

My Favorite Ha ha Hoot (coded, so as to avoid spoilers): The Chocolate Drop 😝

My Favorite Yum yum: Cinna-Boob Buns 🍬

My Favorite Concepts (coded):

- The Crossing Call 🌟
- The Blues 👥
- The New It Couple 💖

My Final Say: I loved this story so much! I was thoroughly entertained. The characters, the community, the conflicts and dilemmas, the banter and tension, the bakery - all of it grabbed hold of me. It was a hoot and then some.

As I was reading, I kept thinking that this would be fantastic as an audiobook. Can you imagine?! All I have to say is sign me up!!! Better yet, book me a trip to this magical place.

Reasons I enjoyed this book:

Easy-to-read
Entertaining
Funny
Great world building
Happily Ever After
Original
Page-turner
Witty
Wonderful characters

Other: Readers who enjoy cozy, cute, hilarity and supernatural hijinks with hotness will totally jive with this book. It is a gem.

Rating: 5/5
Recommend: Yes
Audience: A
Re-read: Yes
Keeper: Yes
Favorites Shelf: Yes
Status/Level: 💎

Enthusiastic appreciation is extended to the author, to the publisher (St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin), and to NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to review this highly entertaining work. It was an absolute pleasure. I very much look forward to reading more books by this writer.