Leave It to Fate by Beth Corby

 Leave It to Fate by Beth Corby
My Rating: ★★★★

I received a copy from Hodder & Stoughton through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As Ella inches her way toward thirty, she loses her job due to a hilarious and unfortunate event involving a yogurt thief and a trap set with yogurt spiked with hot sauce. A stranger urges her to leave it all up to fate and she does just that when Gillian, her estranged aunt, suffers a bad fall and needs someone to help her while she recovers. When Ella arrives, she discovers her aunt has been struggling with anger and grief after her long-time partner died, leading her to push everyone away. It seems fate has brought the pair together to repair their lives.

I read and loved Beth Corby’s first book, Where There's a Will, so I knew I had to check this out when I saw she published another book. While I did enjoy this one, I do have some mixed feelings that left me feeling a bit iffy about some things by the end. That said, I really did enjoy the story and great cast of characters.

We follow Ella, whose life has been floundering. Her art career never took off, she just lost what she was hoping would become her dream job, and she just had to go crawling back to her old soul sucking job so she can continue to make ends meet. Unsure about where her life is heading or what the point is, Ella is extremely relatable. She’s realistic, funny, creative, and a breath of fresh air. I also really liked her best friend. I wish we got to see more of her, but given Ella had to leave town to help her aunt, it makes sense that we didn’t see much of her.

We also closely follow Gillian, who is angry, and grief stricken after her long-time partner, Mike, suddenly passed away. Her house is a mess, she’s pushed everyone away, and now she needs help she doesn’t really want. The more time Ella spends with Gillian, the more we learn to love her. While abrasive, she’s smart, funny, and straight to the point. Gillian is someone who does not beat around the bushes and anyone who meets her will discover that right off the bat. 

The characters in Gillian’s small town are mostly wonderful. It made me wish I knew most of these fictional people. Plus, while Mike is dead before the story starts, he plays a large role in the story due to some secrets that came out at his funeral. This plays a large role in while Gillian is so angry on top of extremely anguished.

While the story is cute, funny, and even sad at times, I will say that the romance was beyond flat. Ella’s biological father his heavily implied all book long. The foreshadowing is there. Her mom is extremely illusive about it and dislikes her own sister along with this guy. Everything is there and then, surprise! It’s revealed that her biological father is someone else. I assumed the romance between Ella and Joe was super flat because it was super obvious who her father was from the start, and that would make her and Joe cousins. Then it’s revealed that her father is someone else and they’re free to be together with their extreme lack of chemistry. Maybe I could accept this revelation if their romance was on fire before they found out they’re cousins only to find out they’re not, but this isn’t the case.

All in all, I did enjoy this cute and funny slice of life story. It just seems silly to do all that buildup only to not go through with it so that the story ends with Ella getting a cherry on top of her ice-cream sundae. It was not necessary for her to find romance while finding her place in life, so the revelation at the end and the romance that comes from it doesn’t make sense.