Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune
Ratings17
Average rating3.5
Lush and visual, chock-full of delicious recipes, Roselle Lim’s magical debut novel is about food, heritage, and finding family in the most unexpected places. 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.
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Not what I was expecting! I liked a lot of this book and how it's about food and tradition however some of it plays like a Disney movie.
Spoilerish
I honestly would see this if it was a Disney movie but it wasn't what I picked it up to be. It seems like everything is just going so well for her and there are no hurdles till the end and she seems so.. self centered? Even though she's making dishes for other people it seems like she doesn't really care? The main character just didn't jive with me. Food sounded delicious though.
2-3* I picked this up for a lighter read after a string of ‘heavy' books and craving something more light hearted, but I think it may have gone too far the other way. It's a really great concept and there are nuggets of goodness in it, but it just lacks substance. Everything was just too neat and tidy and the characters didn't feel like 3 dimensional people. I guess I'm passed the stage where meeting a guy briefly a couple times amounts to him being your soul mate or people getting over hurt and trauma in a blink of an eye because you're earnest enough cuts it for me in a story. I'm all for gushy romance and heart warming stories, but it still needs to feel real. I really wanted to like it, but it just didn't do a lot for me on any level. If those things don't bother you, go for it, but if you want something with a bit more, maybe pass.
I liked this, but something was missing. It was too simple, I guess. I loved that it took place in Chinatown and there was lots of talk of food!
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