Customer Reviews

Twist of Fate (Indigo: Sensuous Love Stories)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

A Twist of Fate can best be described as a chain of mistakes that lead to boy meets girl and they fall in love. However, it is not as simple as that and it is not without many obstacles in the way. Obstacles such as he is Caucasian and she is African-American; he is rich, she is middle-income; he is divorced, she is a widow; his mother disapproves and her brother disapproves and finally, they both can lay claim to the same child.

Set in the outskirts of picturesque New Orleans, A Twist of Fate showcases Camille King as a music teacher and former circuit pianist and Nicholas Cardoneaux as CEO of Cardoneaux Construction and resident of Magnolia Grove. A Twist of Fate highlights emotional baggage from the main characters' former marriages and baggage of the secondary characters, which adds realism to some of the social stigmas at play today. Although, some of the social issues are a bit overdone, secondary characters provide a positive outlook for the main characters that are refreshing and add twists to the storyline.

Ms. Clark has penned an emotionally charged story with sensuous lovemaking scenes, vibrant imagery and characters you can feel, see, touch and root for. A Twist of Fate is a quick read, which begs you to ask, how could a mistake like this happen?

Reviewed by Dawn R. Reeves
APOOO BookClub

A Twist of Fate by Beverly Clark is definitely an original, outstanding, and heartwarming novel which identifies intensely with its title. You never know what life has in store for you from day to day and Camille King and Nicholas Cardoneaux truly learned that a twist of fate dealt a very unique blow to their senses. They meet for the first time at a fertility clinic and they are wondering why they have been summoned there to see the same doctor at the same time. Camille, who is now a widower, and Nicholas, who is now divorced, soon learn that they have quite a lot in common, and they leave the clinic with some very surprising and shocking news. It gets even better because Camille, who is African American can't believe the news; and Nicholas, who is white, is surprised as well which builds up to some interesting exchanges.

Now, the "twist of fate" begins when Camille struggles to accept the news and move on, however, Nicholas does not intend to let Camille move on without him. What escalates the plot of the story is Nicholas' mother who has her own agenda and skeletons.

Nicholas and Camille knock heads more then once, until reality and a strong bonding of love becomes the loving connection that sets the stage for more drama and decisions. This is nice page-turner and the surprise ending is very fitting for the twist and characters that Beverly so eloquently developed in the storyline.

Ms. Clark outdid herself in writing a very touching novel of medical mistakes that have a way of turning everyone's emotions around. It touches on the reality of people wanting to be accepted for something that they are not and on how they will go to any length to get or keep that acceptance. You will truly enjoy this book. I was not disappointed, and neither will you.

Reviewed by Kalaani
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

I enjoyed reading this book. This is a BW/WM story and unlike it's follow-up Beyond the Rapture.

I thought that the situation was very believable (mix-ups do happen at fertility clinics) and I loved the fact that the 2 main characters did not dwell on race as a central obstacle. The editor did a good job, and the typos were very few and far between.

Like most healthy relationships, their love focused on a mutual attraction and the reasons for that attraction. The sex scenes were good but not lewd and the length of the book made it worth the price.

The main characters were sympathetic, kind, and sensitive to each other's needs and their families. Plus I wasn't left pulling my hair out screaming at the lead female character for being stubborn and hard-headed.

I highly recommend this book!

This is my first time reading an interracial love story, but I read a lot of books. This author's writing skills are horrible in that: there are no depths to her characters, I've read better dialogue on a cereal box, the amount of punctuation errors to name a few. I felt as though I were reading a script from a play, not a story. Is this writer fresh out of an eighth grade writing course? Don't buy this book!

I expected more for my money and this book fell short. By an infinity. The saving grace for this book is the cover art. The story itself doesn't deserve such a beautiful, heartfelt cover...let a worthy book have it. The premise of the story is Camilli got pregnant with the wrong sperm, Nicholas's, when she believed it to be her dead husband's. The outline of the story is a bit out there but ive read it plenty times in Harlequin and I was looking forward to reading it since it pertained to I/R couple (my secret vice) but unlike in those books Twist of Fate was done poorly and with no emotional turmoil (though Ms. Clark did try; she was just no good at it) to make me believe how shocking it was for them to find out the truth and that their child would be of both world (white and black). This story (which I still haven't finished..only chapter 11) sucked. Plain and simple. The format of this book was ghastly and I don't know who in their right mind would give the go ahead for this format..maybe they (like me) couldn't give a fig about this book and only wanted to get it off of their hands.

Aside from the plot being lackluster and character development sorely lacking, there are scenarios in this book that were just stupid plot points and ones that had me scratching my head trying to justify it. i.e., Nicholas decides to teach at this place where Camille works just so she wont be able to avoid him anymore and the Director of the place talks to Camille (who is nothing more but one of the teachers there) to ask of her opinion on the matter..WTF? Why should he care what she thinks? She is only the hired help whereas Nicholas mother sits on the board..as if it were any question whether or not he would have gotten hired! If Ms. Clark felt it was necessary for her to know before she saw Nicholas working there then she should have just had them be friends and have him tell her about one of the possible new hire.

Another major problem i had with with book was, every time Camille is speaking to herself there is always a "girl" some where. Who talks to themselves in such a manner? i.e. Are you sure you want to do this girl? You know you want to girl. Just admit it girl you want him. Its frakking annoying! One could play a shot game with how many "girls" there is when alluding to the main character. One would be drunk before the 2 chapter. This is a waste of money and I hope I wont live to regret buying the sequel as well (purchased both books together) ...I can only pray that the sequel is better b/c Lord knows i'm going to suffer through it and get my money's worth.

If you want to torture yourself by reading this book then don't purchase it and if you it must it better be a penny b/c that's what this book is worth (if even that!).

I just read, or attempted to read A Twist of Fate. You know, I was willing to overlook many things, simply because there are so few IR romance novels out there. Poor production values, and when I say poor, Genesis leaves everyone else hungry, because they most definitely take the cake, peanuts and punch! I've never seen anything like it! They published the whole book in the PageMaker default format! Yes! 10 point Helvetica double-spaced. The widows and orphans could keep most police and fireman charities in business for years, not to mention broken sentences in the middle of paragraphs. That too, I was willing to pass.

I was even going to ignore the fact that the plot, girl meets boy through a sperm bank is hackneyed to death. For the love of Pete folks, black women meet white men the same way everybody else meets, we don't need modern technology to combine our bodily fluids. You're a romance writer, give us romance!

But, like I said, with a little effort, I got past that also. But in my opinion Beverly Clark made a fatal error: I HAVEN'T A CLUE AS TO WHY THESE TWO FELL IN LOVE! The characters are so flat and one-dimensional, I wouldn't care if they were beamed up to a space ship; ...

I'm an avid reader, and also in an interracial marriage. However, until very recently I had never read an interracial romance novel. Unfortunately, A Twist of Fate was one of my first forays into the genre.

Without spending too much time repeating other reviews, I will just agree whole-heartedly about the sheer awfulness of this book. Technically it's atrocious: typo's and grammatical errors on nearly every page. The editor of this book should be strung up by his or her toes. The story itself was a bit over the top to me (and vaguely reminiscent of Made In America), but I could've swallowed it if not for the abominable writing of Beverly Clark. I truly hope that this isn't par for the course as her writing goes, because I've seen better prose written by 3rd graders.

The characters were completely static, the timeline was truly unbelievable, and the dialogue made me laugh out loud. All I could think, especially after the 2 main characters fell madly in love (after what, 2 or 3 months?) was, "Who speaks this way?!" I can only imagine that whilst writing the dialogue, Ms. Clark never read it aloud to herself to see how false and forced it sound.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, and I certainly would recommend against purchasing it. 388 pages later all I can think is that I've just wasted precious minutes in my life. And I will never get them back.

Life was great for Camille King until tragedy blindsided her. In the blink of an eye, she became a grieving widow, however, there is hope for Camille. A few years before, her husband had preserved his sperm at a fertility clinic. Now, she can still fulfill one of her dreams by conceiving her husband's baby. Now, she is going to have part of him.

Misfortune happened to be something Nicholas Cardoneaux also knew. After many years of him and his wife trying to have a baby, their dream was always trampled with one miscarriage after another. Nicholas had lost all hope of ever having a child after his wife divorced him. That is, until he receives a call from the fertility clinic where he and his wife went before they lost their last unborn child. Because of an error by a technician, Nicholas' dream still has a chance of becoming reality after he meets the mother of his future child, Camille King.

However, things were not as simple as they seem because of major problems blocking Nicholas and Camille's path to true blissfulness--race, money, and most of all disapproving family members. Will this couple overcome their obstacles or is a baby, all they have between them?

A Twist of Fate is a highly emotional novel that made this reader take a step back and think. This is something that could really happen to anyone...even me. I applaud author, Beverly Clark, for writing such a wonderful, heartwarming, interracial story; although, there were a few moments where I thought that the issues were a little too predictable. Overall, I was very pleased with this book. Ms. Clark definitely displayed a touching, somewhat surprising plot filled with many twist and turns that enthralled my interested until the very end. The love scenes between Nicholas and Camille, while tastefully written, didn't have heavy eroticism in them. A Twist of Fate is an excellent book that I would recommend to all fans of interracial romance, or even those who just want a good intense read.

Nikita Steele
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

An interesting twist to the typical romance novel with the issue of a mistake at a fertility clinic resulting in Camille (black) carrying the child of Nicholas (white...maybe) rather than that of her dead husband. The author dealt well with the fallout from that mix-up leading to love between Camille and Nicholas. This book did not get 5 stars because I felt the reactions by Renee's brother Jamal and Nicholas's mother were a bit extreme, despite the mother's secret about her true identity.

Black or white, if Nicholas pulled up to that house with the porch swing or Camille said take me home one more time I was going to scream. Talk about redundant. The dialog and the scenes. The readers intelligence is insulted. Get through the first 100 pages, then the story actually starts.

As an old school romance reader, I have to say this is a twist on an old plot. The minute I started reading this book the disappointment set in because I knew what was coming.
However it's always nice to witness two people falling in love. A Forward Motion by S. L. Givhan may be over written but a more realistic interracial romance where a character like Jamal would have homies hanging with him most of the time. One out of the group would know to at least try to play money bags Nicholas. One of the more realistic scenes was Jamal and Nicholas having a beer together. And picturing Camille up on all fours is not very romantic, but the steamy detailed sex scenes scored some points.

I'm a big fan of interracial romances right now but want originality. Certainly no violence, and not too many negative emphases on the race issue. Okay put a new spin on the classics, but at least give it some substance. I echo one of the other reviews by saying unrealistic. I wasn't convinced this story could really happen.