Roselle Lim

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.

Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune

f**k gentrification, leave my grieving girl and her cat alone white lady!!!!!

van 

Denaiir

This book was one of my most anticipated books of the year and I ended up disappointed unfortunately. 

This was a cute story and the cultural & food aspects were interesting and fun, but the overall plot and characters were not very engrossing.

I loved the role cooking and food played in the story. However, I didn't like the magical realism aspects, probably because I was not aware they were going to be part of the story. I didn't know whether Natalie was imagining things or whether they were actually happening. In addition, Natalie felt more like a teenager than a level-headed adult and I didn't really care for her. 

Some relationships were quite interesting (with the neighbors) but the romance was not necessary and didn't feel well integrated to the story, it could have done without it.

The audio version was a bit annoying because the narrator kept pausing after each sentence, so it made the whole reading experience less enjoyable since it felt like the story wasn't coming together seamlessly, it was quite a cringy experience.

Colleen

5 Stars
 
*A heartwarming and powerful story about family, community, and the joy of food*
 

  

 

Sometimes a book finds you at just the right time, and it is so wonderful when that happens! Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune is one of those books that I read at the perfect time. What I thought was just going to be a light in-between read turned out to be impactful and oh so enjoyable.
 
This book really isn’t getting the attention it deserves! Perhaps it just hasn’t hit the right audience yet, because this debut novel is delightful and delicious. I strongly recommend it for Foodies who love Magical Realism and heartwarming stories. That said, I can see why this book doesn’t appeal to everyone. The writing style is perhaps a bit florid and parts of the story lean towards corny. And if you don’t love reading about food, then you’ll be bored out of your mind, because food is the central theme in this book. For me though, those elements all had just the right ratio and – like a perfectly executed recipe – they blended together into something just begging to be gobbled up.
 
This is the story of Natalie Tan, a twenty-eight-year-old woman who has been estranged from her family for years. Upon her mother’s death, Natalie returns to her childhood home in Chinatown San Francisco to handle her mother’s affairs. She is shocked to find her once vibrant neighborhood struggling as the locals are pushed out of their homes in favor of gentrification. Natalie decides to go back to her roots and reopen her grandmother’s restaurant. But a fortune teller predicts that her restaurant will only succeed if she picks three neighbors in need and cooks them each one of her grandmother’s magical recipes.
 

  “She used her food like a delicious spider web—as a means to connect strangers. If anyone ever needed anything, she would always try to help them.”
 
This book may seem frothy on the top, but it is a story with surprising depth. Natalie starts her quest for selfish reasons, but she soon becomes reconnected with her community. Throughout her journey, the story explores the pain of estrangement and grief as well as other deep topics such as depression, agoraphobia, cultural traditions, and the weight of family expectations. It also discusses the very real situation surrounding gentrification. People in Chinatown (and many other neighborhoods) really are being driven out of their homes in favor of gentrification. And the plight of the displaced is often overlooked by those seeking to improve a city.
 
These heavy topics are well-balanced with heartwarming ones. The themes of family and community are the foundation of this story. Love, loyalty, forgiveness, and self-discovery are also strongly present. There is also a love story that was admittedly instalove, but it did take a backseat to the rest of the plot, so it didn’t make the overall story too saccharine. The whole thing combined into a wonderfully heartwarming and inspiring story that I absolutely loved.
 

  “Love, like life, has the greatest risk, but the greatest reward. If you jump and fail, the chasm below is endless, but if you fly, the sun will be yours.”
 
And then there was the food. The scrumptious, vividly described food! This was delightful on multiple levels. The most obvious way was simply the descriptions themselves. It is not a figure of speech when I say the food descriptions were mouth-watering. Reading this book literally made my mouth water and my stomach grumble! I’ve read other books where food descriptions and recipes were distracting or unappealing. Usually they are just gracelessly plunked into the story. Perhaps it worked here because food is such an important element in Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune. But I loved every minute of this story!
 
This book also reminded me of my time in China. Authentic Chinese food is drastically different from what most Americans think of. (It’s like comparing TexMex to traditional Mexican cuisine. They’re both good, but they’re totally different!) And the cuisine varies greatly depending upon what part of China you are in. This story reminded me of how amazing it was to first discover all of those culinary adventures.
 
Beyond the specific recipes described, Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune also reminded me of how important food is. In almost any culture, food is something that brings people together. As Natalie worked her way through her family recipes, she reconnected with her roots as well as her departed mother and grandmother. And that was something that really spoke to me. I come from a family who loves to cook (and eat!). I have so many memories of cooking together. I realized that lately cooking had started to become more of a chore. I was thinking about health and obligation and other things that suck out the joy of cooking. This book reminded me how food can be a connection to the past – both to your culture and to specific people. Like Natalie, I love to use my family’s recipes to feel connected loved ones who have passed away. Or to loved ones who are separated by many miles. That is something beautiful that I don’t want to lose sight of.
 
But this story also reminded me of how cooking connects us to the present. There is something so special about creating nourishment for someone else. There is the joy of giving. Of not cooking for recognition but out of love. Something about Magical Realism blends so well with food. Maybe there is a bit of magic in food after all. When I first read Like Water for Chocolate, I became a little obsessed with the idea that you could imbue your cooking emotions that would be felt by those who ate that food. Even if it was only symbolic, I was captivated by the thought of being able to secretly pass along love and joy through my cooking. Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune reminded me of that. I want to wholehearted thank Roselle Lim for this wonderful, empowering, evocative story! I can’t wait to read more of her work! I rarely give out five stars for Contemporary Fiction, and this being a debut makes it even more impressive. I highly recommend this book!

 
RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 5 Stars
Writing Style: 5 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 5 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 4 Stars
Level of Captivation: 5 Stars
Originality: 4 Stars

Rachel Kanyid

I was able to finish it but it didn't hold much interest to me especially.

Connor 

4.5. This book was as soothing as its recipes—full of warmth and love and friendship and growing back into community and what it’s like to live with grief and hope. It was beautiful and heart aching and I loved it.

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.

Toni Turner

This was so beautiful and delicious.
I’m so hungry now and I wish I knew my neighbors.

Jennifer

As with Vanessa Yu, I have very similar experience with Roselle Lim's Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune. I think it's very much a missed opportunity. With its mouth-watering descriptions of food and magic realism tints in the story, I thought I'd give it a chance. 

Granted, I do enjoy the way Lim described about the food and I think that's the reason I read this rather quickly. Unfortunately, my overall experience is bogged down by overly shallow characters and incoherent storytelling. Somehow this book is utterly predictable in the plots and also makes very little sense (due to Natalie's weak narrative).

So while I think the food descriptions are well written, I feel like there's a lot of areas that could had been improved in this book (because as it's written, it felt forced and all over the place). 

N.B. This book contains following content warnings: loss of loved ones / grief, abandonment, fire, and vomiting

Kerry Gibbons

Immensely slow book. Not a fair comparison with Vanessa Lu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop, which was all happy and light. This is depressingly dark at points.

Linda Quintanilla

Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune will bring back Natalie to hometown where everything has change and will continue to change. 
Natalie has not returned home for several years now. But she is returning back when she received the unexpected news of her mother passing away. It is definitely hard for her since she has not talked to her mother for years that some issues are still left unsolved. But it is up to Natalie to lie those issues now especially since she inherited her grandmother restaurant.
Her grandmother restaurant should be succeed but unexpectedly it is not just like other stores or shops in the neighborhood. She has a challenge when she inherited the property especially since her grandmother left some condition for her. She has also unsolved feelings concerning the neighborhood she grew up in. but she got to bucky up and face them head on.
3 Stars

Kath Lau

Natalie Tan left their home in San Francisco’s Chinatown to attend culinary school eventhough her mother didn’t approve of it. They eventually lost their contact with each other. Years later Natalie returns home following the unexpected death of her mother. She discovers that the neighborhood she grew up in has changed a lot. She also finds out that she has inherited her grandmother’s long-abandoned restaurant as well as her recipe book. She then decides to reopen but in order to succeed, she needs to help three of her neighbors first just like what her grandmother did in the past.

I personally liked Natalie’s character. She comes from a family of strong and resilient women. She’s not perfect and this made her so real. It was also fun getting to know the people in the community and read their background stories.

Now let’s talk about food! One of the major themes in this book is cooking so there are a lot of food references. I read this book mostly in bed before going to sleep and it was not a good idea. So just a fair warning, this book will make you hungry. This book has some recipes and they’re all mouth-watering. I’m probably being biased here because most of the food that were mentioned are my favorites. But the descriptions are so vivid that while reading, I could smell the food she’s cooking. I also liked how the author highlighted the importance of food not only to our bodies but also to our souls. How it heals people and brings them together.

Some important themes in this book are immigration, the pros/cons of gentrification, and the stigmas associated with mental illnesses especially in Asian culture. This book also covers grief and loss but in a very light and hopeful way.

I personally enjoyed the addition of magical elements which was confusing at first because I wasn’t expecting magical realism in this book. The writing is really beautiful and whimsical but I thought the use of metaphors can be too much and off-putting at times. The romance in this book progressed very quickly but it’s just a side plot and honestly, I thought it’s unnecessary. I definitely liked how the author wrapped up the story.

Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck & Fortune was wonderful and heartwarming story of love for family, community, culture, and of course food.

*Huge thanks to Berkley Publishing, PRHInternational/PRHGlobal, and NetGalley for sending me a free advance copy. This did not affect my overall opinion of the book.

Kari Bingham-Gutierrez

Any book containing food as comfort and magic is one I am going to pick up and ~devour~ right away.

Sarah Williams

3/5 stars

I wanted to love this book but I had a hard time with the author’s writing style and I don’t think this book needed the romance—it felt underdeveloped and a little out of place. 

I loved how rich this book was with culture, however. Laolao’s recipes reminded me of growing up in my grandma’s kitchen, watching as she effortlessly cooked multi-course Chinese meals. The warmth I felt reading the cooking scenes made this book worth it for me. 

Overall, this was a sweet, albeit underdeveloped, book.

Jessica 

As always, a copy of this book was provided by the publisher or author in exchange for my honest review. This does not effect my opinion in any way.
 

Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Review found here. 

Another great read in 2019! I wasn't sure what to expect from Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune mainly because I dove into it without reading the synopsis and had absolutely no idea what it would be like. (Scold me later. Okay?) I'm honestly glad I didn't because it made reading it so much more... energetic? Fun? Engrossing? All of the above? There's just something about this novel that was highly compelling to me. 

First of all, this book is one of those rare reads that made me feel A LOT. I positively adored the writing and the inclusion of food (which ABSOLUTELY made me hungry) and really, really just enjoyed the experience of reading this one. Natalie is one of my favourite fictional characters of the year and I won't soon be forgetting her--there was just something about her development, flaws and brilliance, that made me feel really connected to her. 

As far as other characters go, the author makes certain that we don't forget a single thing about the story. Everything about it is developed in a stunning manner--admittedly, the weakest point in the novel is the romance but that's not here or there--and I couldn't get enough of it! I wanted to live and breathe so many moments from it. That may have been just my hunger for the food. (No. It wasn't. It's just because the writing is... dare I say it? *Chefs kiss*) 

The story's central plotlines were fantastic. Roselle Lim's prose makes everything so dreamy and I could probably spend days in her words, just basking in the way she tells a story. Sometimes, there are author's who's words strike something deeper in us and Lim's work is one of those times. I'm so impressed with the fact that Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune is a debut. The entire thing was crafted so beautifully, I found myself making notes for several passages. 

With so much heart, soul, honesty, culture and delicious foods, you can't really go wrong. I adored every page of Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune. Obviously, I cannot recommend it enough and as I'm writing this review, I'm daydreaming about the novel. Even in parts that were less stellar than others, I couldn't get enough and look forward to seeing what Lim cooks up for us in the future.

Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune

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