By: Ashley Winstead
Fool Me Once was a surprise delight. I really enjoyed this book and the author’s writing style. The heroine makes very messy decisions in her personal life, but I still found her likable and was rooting for her. There is a part in the novel where she asks her sister why the characters in romantic comedies are always perfect or quirky, and never make any mistakes. Fool is the story of that girl, who repeatedly makes the wrong decision but doesn’t she deserve love too?
By day, Lee Stone is the competent and controlled Austin-based communications director for a woman owned electric car company, a la Tesla, but better and way less Elon Musk crazy. At night, she becomes “Stoner,” a character that is one of the hottest of messes that I have read in a long while. Stoner drinks excessively and is always up for a good time. She also adamantly disavows any long-term relationships after suffering through what she coins her “four heartbreaks”: her cheating father, her cheating first boyfriend, her cheating college boyfriend, and then her graduate school boyfriend, Ben Laderman, who she suspects is cheating on her so she cheats on him, in a spectacularly terrible way. She sleeps with his law school nemesis directly before third year final exams. He tanks the finals and loses his first place class ranking and a coveted clerkship. He ends up leaving Texas for California. Before he leaves, however, she learns that he had not been cheating on her at all. After this truly terrible behavior/fiasco, she swears off love and dating.
Clearly, our girl Stoner has some ISSUES. And her actions toward Ben are truly reprehensible. One of my issues with this book was that Ben seemed to forgive Lee fairly quickly after they reconnect with each other. While she does atone for her behavior, it is not until near the end of the book. Cheating is treated somewhat lightly in the novel, and I am not here for that. But! Lee’s character is a bit of a play on the traditional male character, who is basically a slut with daddy issues but we are okay with that because you know…men. I liked that Stoner was similar to that, but female, and the social dynamics that came along with it. She is also very good at her job, and I like when business women handle their business. She also had a valid arc of learning from her mistakes and growing as a person.
Ben is a very smart, resourceful guy. There were times where I wondered if he was a bit of a doormat to Lee’s shenanigans, but he was a good person and his capacity for truly forgiving Lee is admirable. He also does stand up for himself explaining to Lee that she cannot keep treating him poorly and expect him to allow it.
My only other quibble is that the main characters were attempting to turn Texas blue and the whole plot line revolved around the fact Lee and Ben only needed three Republican senators to vote for their progressive agenda of making electric cars easily accessible, etc. Look, I am a liberal democrat but my dad has family in rural Texas that we still visit regularly. This…would not fly? Practically speaking, in rural parts of Texas AND for the oil and gas companies and their employees. I totally see if this was done on a bit smaller scale, i.e., Austin or Dallas/Fort Worth area, but for the WHOLE state, I just felt a little too fantastical for me. (But I mean, I appreciate the effort and certainly wish it was true!!)
🌟🌟🌟🌟/5
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1525899740/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1654041111&sr=8-1
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fool-me-once-ashley-winstead/1139663408?ean=9781525899744
Or your local, independent bookstore!