When eighteen-year-old Helena is sent to be a governess at Archfall Manor - a beautiful but crumbling manor house, perched at the edge of a causeway in the North Sea - she feels confident she will know how to deal with the esteemed, but eccentric Cauldwell family who own it. But it quickly becomes clear that the Caldwell's are hiding more than Helena could ever have dreamed of.
A series of sinister events come to a head with a gruesome death - swiftly followed by another. Worse still, with the path back to the mainland cut off by a terrible storm, and no way to get help, suspicions and paranoia quickly run rampant.
But the Caldwell's aren't the only ones keeping secrets. Helena has some very important ones of her own - and soon she begins to wonder whether dark powers beyond her control might be forcing her to twist the fate of the family - and her own destiny - forever.
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Sighfeyre Isle, the tidal island that is home to the enigmatic and extravagantly wealthy Cauldwell family, has been cut off from the mainland for four days.
- Prologue, 1846: TERROR AT ARCHFALL MANOR!
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(@PenguinUKBooks, 18 January 2024, e-galley, 320 pages, #ARC from the Publisher via @NetGalley)
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I enjoyed A Cruel Twist of Fate a lot. I like the fact the book opens at the end and then goes back in time gradually working forward. Helena is a great character, mature of her age but not overly so, capable and determined to uncover the links between her family and the notorious Cauldwell's. The book is well written, and I liked the pacing, not everything is revealed, and you need to keep reading until you get all the information. I'd recommend this.