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.
My Review
The synopsis for Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune sounded like something I could get on with. Family tradition, food, and a little bit of magic are all good ingredients to me for a book. Unfortunately, from the first chapter I wasn’t able to get hooked into the story. The writing style was more literary than I prefer, and I had a hard time getting to know the characters and understand the setting of Chinatown in San Francisco over the constant metaphors and slightly disjointed dialogue between the wide range of characters. I did enjoy the food aspect, learning about the recipes and the story behind them, how meals were prepared and so on, but I was also left quite confused over the romance angle, and also the big moment of suspense that is revealed in the last part of the book. Simply not a story for me, but I appreciated the life lessons sprinkled throughout.
2.5 stars
