BOOK REVIEW: Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Lim @rosellewriter @berkleypub #natalietansbookofloveandfortune #bookreview

“Food comforts and heals, and is the only lover I will ever take.”

Love, comfort, loss, food, heart, and a dash of magic make this truly a book that felt good for the soul. Roselle Lim’s debut novel Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune truly enchanted me! A stunning debut that will put a bit of magic in the heart of even the biggest skeptic.

About the Book

At the news of her mother’s death, Natalie Tan returns home. The two women hadn’t spoken since Natalie left in anger seven years ago, when her mother refused to support her chosen career as a chef. Natalie is shocked to discover the vibrant neighborhood of San Francisco’s Chinatown that she remembers from her childhood is fading, with businesses failing and families moving out. She’s even more surprised to learn she has inherited her grandmother’s restaurant.

The neighborhood seer reads the restaurant’s fortune in the leaves: Natalie must cook three recipes from her grandmother’s cookbook to aid her struggling neighbors before the restaurant will succeed. Unfortunately, Natalie has no desire to help them try to turn things around–she resents the local shopkeepers for leaving her alone to take care of her agoraphobic mother when she was growing up. But with the support of a surprising new friend and a budding romance, Natalie starts to realize that maybe her neighbors really have been there for her all along.

Reflection

Natalie Tan has been away from home for some time, when she learns of her mother’s death. Her mother was an agoraphobe, and rarely left home. I loved the bits of magic—the bird singing her mother’s favorite aria on her balcony leading Natalie to understand her mother has passed. It’s the type of magic that is subtle enough, it’s almost believable. A bit like fairy tales.

The setting in San Francisco’s Chinatown was at once contemporary and mystical. I loved the connection through food and recipe’s. Natalie’s grandmother was a successful chef, running a famous restaurant in Chinatown. But as the book opens we learn that the restaurant has been closed for some time. Following the death of her grandmother, Natalie’s mother’s illness prevented her from keeping it open. Natalie herself is a true descendent of her grandmother’s wanting to be a chef and feeling as though she needs to strike out on her own to do so, when the magic was back at home all along.

Natalie has had a difficult path as she has tried to make it on her own. When the novel opens, Natalie is estranged from her family and has suffered many disappointments and bouts of loneliness as she tries to make her way in the world. But when she returns home, that is when the magic occurs. Natalie feels the spirit of her grandmother in that neighborhood, and he begins to learn her grandmother’s recipes. Natalie comes home in more way than one.

“A gathering fog brewed at the base of the gate the way steam rises from a perfect bowl of noodle soup. I was home.”

And as she begins to cook for the people of her neighborhood—the ones she left behind—her grandmother’s food made through Natalie’s hands began to restore her and those around her. I loved the central theme of food in this book and the way it restores you not just physically, but emotionally. The way food also can bring people together, and connect us to those we can’t be with physically.

And of course, there is the enchantment. Natalie must cook three recipes of her grandmother’s for the neighbors before she can reopen the restaurant. And through Natalie’s journey she finds so much—neighbors and community, friendship, happiness, and even love.

And lest you think the love story is an afterthought, think again. Natalie and Daniel’s attraction is as bound by magic as everything else in the book. I really enjoyed Natalie’s superstition about love and misfortune. She can’t help but fall for Daniel, but that doesn’t mean that everything will work out easily. As things fall apart, she must work to put them back together. It’s such a surprising and delightful book!

Though the story itself isn’t new, Roselle’s voice is so fresh and welcoming. The way she wove magic and fortune through the story was so subtle and wonderful. Enchanting!

“The recipe is for the crestfallen, the unsmiling, and the ones who need sunshine in their souls.”

Don’t we all need a bit of sunshine in our souls?

Thank you Berkley for my copy. Opinions are my own.