Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Kim – 320 pages
ARC from Berkley Books and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Book Blurb:
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.
My Review: 3.5 stars
Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune is about mothers, daughters, secrets and how food can be a common thread. The food descriptions were out of this world and I was craving Chinese food the entire time. Actually, her descriptions of food were my favorite part of the book. She used sensory driven adjectives that just put you at her table. I loved the cover of this book. Totally invites you in.
This was a debut novel for this author and I could tell. As rich as the food imagery was, the characters fell flat. I felt for the loss of Natalie’s mother after an estrangement and was warmed by the secrets her mother left behind, but I didn’t ever glimpse a fully developed Natalie.
Her immediate friendship with a neighbor and her speed in which she found a love interest because he followed his nose to her dumplings were both a bit cliché. I think I was expecting this to be more like Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen.
Food was the most developed character and it was important in many ways. The memories that Natalie’s cooking conjured were completely relatable. When recipes are passed down from generation to generation, there’s an invisible thread that keeps people alive in your heart. Food can also keep you sated, it can be a lifeline to bring people together and it’s an artform.
I think the author had some good ideas; they just weren’t executed to their full potential. I may be in the minority on this one; I know some other reviewers adored it. Either way, this book kept me company on a rainy day in Chicago, it was an easy and quick to read.
Shop on Amazon Here!
