Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Lim

* * * 1/2

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.

Source: advance e-galley provided in exchange for an honest review


A story set in Chinatown featuring a passionate cook who creates and recreates delicious family recipes? Sign me up!

I thought this was an sweet story overall and enjoyed when Natalie described what cooking did to her senses. Honestly, I wish I could feel that passionately about cooking and inventing dishes for people, and it's clear how this is an intrinsic part of her soul. Through cooking she could connect with her grandmother, a renowned chef in Chinatown, who died before she was born. When she returns home after her mother's death, she learns that there's more to her mother's story that she was unaware of. Looking to make things right with Natalie, her mother's last wish was for her to inherit her grandmother's restaurant and bring it back to life. Her grandmother was a pillar of the community and her restaurant was the star. Being asked to reopen it feels like too much is being asked of her. Her first instinct is to run away which has been her tactic awhile now.But then she's persuaded to stay and as she assimilates to life in the neighbourhood she left, she learns about how much has changed, and not for the better as people are looking to gentrify her once vibrant community. With renewed purpose she hasn't had in a long time, Natalie dreams of helping to unify the community and re-energize the local businesses. 

Family and cultural heritage are central to this story as was the food that made my mouth water. Natalie's love for cooking and the joy she gets from it come through the pages. Throw in the fact that her grandmother's recipes seem to have some sort of magical properties, and the dishes take on a life of their own. (Think the movie, Chocolat where Vienne's creations have such a profound impact on the villagers. It's the same idea here where Natalie's dishes seem to stir emotions and instigate action by the folks who eat them.) Interestingly, while Natalie's love of food and her grandmother's treasured recipes came through, I thought her budding romance with Daniel fell flat. As her potential love interest I didn't pick up on any chemistry between them. One drawback for me was that at times it felt as if the author was grasping too hard with the metaphors. She describes Natalie's process in relation to food so beautifully, creating such impressive pictures that I think sections outside of those could have flowed better with simpler descriptions. 

Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune is a sweet coming-of-age story about laying down roots and rebuilding community. If you're a foodie, you'll enjoy the addition of the recipes and like me, wish you could reach through and taste some of the deliciousness inside. I look forward to reading more from Roselle Lim in the future!

~ Bel

Breathe, Annie, Breathe by Miranda Kenneally

* * * * 

Annie hates running. No matter how far she jogs, she can’t escape the guilt that if she hadn’t broken up with Kyle, he might still be alive. So to honor his memory, she starts preparing for the marathon he intended to race.

But the training is even more grueling than Annie could have imagined. Despite her coaching, she’s at war with her body, her mind—and her heart. With every mile that athletic Jeremiah cheers her on, she grows more conflicted. She wants to run into his arms…and sprint in the opposite direction. For Annie, opening up to love again may be even more of a challenge than crossing the finish line.

I was so excited to pick this up from the library but did so without realizing that it was the fifth book in the Hundred Oaks series. I don’t know how that fact escaped me. So I just left it on my shelf staring at me, not willing to return it yet but also hesitant about reading a book out of order.  At 6 o’clock one morning when I just couldn’t sleep any more, I gave in. You see, I couldn’t knock this book out of my mind and it’s been that way since I saw the cover and read that excerpt. I grabbed my favourite blanket, propped myself on the couch and finished it in three hours.

I found myself wrapped up in Annie’s story immediately. Having run in the past, though not recently, I was fascinated by her decision to run a marathon and how she described her training. She’s still processing the loss of her boyfriend and rebuilding a life for herself. Doing this is her way to make Kyle’s own dream of running  a marathon come true.  It also keeps him close to her.  As I read on, I also felt like it was personal atonement for her for the things that did go wrong between them shortly before his death.  Her heart is a wreck just as much as her body is going through the grueling training. Despite the heavy discipline and the hours she spends between training, working and school, this single-minded focus is what is holding her together.

She’s thrown off when Jeremiah comes into the picture. It’s the first time she finds herself attracted to someone since Kyle and she feels a little guilt, as if she’s being untrue to his memory. But she knows life goes on and she has to go on with it. Still she won’t let her new friendship or attraction to Jeremiah mess with her end goal.  That being said, there’s also something refreshing about being in his company. Annie feels the pressure and loss most around people who knew Kyle and knew them as a couple. Hanging out with Jeremiah and his family is like finding an emotional sanctuary.

As these two draw closer, Annie learns that Jeremiah has his own quirks that he’s trying to work on. The question is can she handle a friendship with him knowing that there are certain things he needs in his life? It means they both have to learn to let go, have trust and embrace risks. This is the hurdle that Annie has to jump over in order to move on.

Breathe, Annie, Breathe is worthy of all the praise. It’s written so beautifully and the emotional moments are not sappy but are treated with sensitivity.  I also enjoyed the silly banter between Jeremiah and Annie. They are a good match for each other but it takes a while to get there. Any initial concerns I had about reading this series out of order has been dashed and I'll happily catch up on Kenneally's other books.

 ~ Bel

Ten Tiny Breaths (Ten Tiny Breaths #1) by K.A. Tucker

* * * 1/2

Kacey Cleary’s whole life imploded four years ago in a drunk-driving accident. Now she’s working hard to bury the pieces left behind—all but one. Her little sister, Livie. Kacey can swallow the constant disapproval from her born-again aunt Darla over her self-destructive lifestyle; she can stop herself from going kick-boxer crazy on Uncle Raymond when he loses the girls’ college funds at a blackjack table. She just needs to keep it together until Livie is no longer a minor, and then they can get the hell out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

But when Uncle Raymond slides into bed next to Livie one night, Kacey decides it’s time to run. Armed with two bus tickets and dreams of living near the coast, Kacey and Livie start their new lives in a Miami apartment complex, complete with a grumpy landlord, a pervert upstairs, and a neighbor with a stage name perfectly matched to her chosen “profession.” But Kacey’s not worried. She can handle all of them. What she can’t handle is Trent Emerson in apartment 1D.

Kacey doesn’t want to feel. She doesn’t. It’s safer that way. For everyone. But sexy Trent finds a way into her numb heart, reigniting her ability to love again. She starts to believe that maybe she can leave the past where it belongs and start over. Maybe she’s not beyond repair.

But Kacey isn’t the only one who’s broken. Seemingly perfect Trent has an unforgiveable past of his own; one that, when discovered, will shatter Kacey’s newly constructed life and send her back into suffocating darkness.

Ten Tiny Breaths explores the emotional upheaval of loss, betrayal, forgiveness and the ultimate steps toward healing. Kacey seems like a young woman who is perfectly in control of herself and her circumstances. She takes on the responsibility of raising her younger sister and won’t allow herself to be distracted from that. She channels all of her aggression and anger into kickboxing and keeps everyone else at arms-length.

When they arrive at their new home in Miami, little do Kacey and Livie know that this apartment complex will become a family to them complete with off-the-wall characters. Kacey is forced to learn to get along with them and slowly let people in. That includes her neighbor, Trent who throws her off her game. She’s all cool and tough until he’s around and then she loses control of her senses a bit.

I wasn’t really all that crazy about Kacey initially. She’s hard and purposefully unlikeable though she does try to be nicer for the sake of her sister. It’s understandable why she’s that way but it's still amazing anyone would even try to cozy up to her with that personality, which is why I was baffled by Trent's interest in her. (I eventually picked up on Trent's motives before Kacey worked it out.) Trent and her other neighbor Storm, try to no avail to get her to talk about her past recognizing that she's a ticking time bomb. When things do finally crash around her, it’s almost a blessing in disguise as she’s forced to confront her horrifying loss along with the pain and anger she has bottled up for years.

Kacey and Livie left their past to arrive in Miami with nothing and gain everything through the family they create and the breakthroughs that open the doors to their futures. It ends on a very hopeful note but not before the painstaking exercise of healing and the hardest of all – forgiveness.

K.A.Tucker has built upon Ten Tiny Breaths with a series featuring the characters she has introduced here. It'll be interesting to visit with them in each of their stories to see how they progress and what they make of themselves. The second one, One Tiny Lie, is Livie's story and her time to shine.

~ Bel

Where You'll Find Me by Erin Fletcher

* * *

When Hanley Helton discovers a boy living in her garage, she knows she should kick him out. But Nate is too charming to be dangerous. He just needs a place to get away, which Hanley understands. Her own escape methods (vodka, black hair dye, and pretending the past didn't happen) are more traditional, but who is she to judge?

Nate doesn't tell her why he's in her garage, and she doesn't tell him what she's running from. Soon, Hanley's trading her late-night escapades for all-night conversations and stolen kisses. But when Nate's recognized as the missing teen from the news, Hanley isn't sure which is worse: that she's harboring a fugitive, or that she's in love with one.

Where You’ll Find Me starts with Hanley stumbling home drunk and discovering a stranger in her garage as she’s trying to sneak into the house. She doesn’t quite have the mental capacity in her inebriated state to deal with this stranger and after a few awkward exchanges, she goes to bed.  She does deal with him the next day. You’d think that once she’s sobered up she would be freaking out a bit about this guy, Nate, who for all she knows could be a serial killer, who’s been hiding in her family’s garage for some time now.  Instead, Hanley seems to recognize something familiar in him, that sense of something not being right in life and looking to escape. So she allows him to stay and they become friends.

Hanley’s issues involve a very sad incident that she hasn’t gotten over, sibling rivalry and best friends who are equally as lost as she is. Even with past therapy, she hasn't been able to fully heal from the pain she's been holding on to. She doesn't feel that she can go to her parents. As a means to cope, she resorted to becoming a different person with a thick wall around her. For all his mystery, Nate becomes someone she starts opening up to as painful as that is. It's a relief to be able to speak to someone finally but he doesn’t quite reciprocate which does eat at her.

It took a while for Hanley to grow on me. It was hard to like her with her foul attitude, sneaking around and lies. Of course there was a reason for it but until the story got to that point of revelation, I was just annoyed with her.  I knew my feeling towards Hanley stemmed a bit from my being a mother of two daughters. The idea of secrecy and deviousness made me feel so uncomfortable. But once Hanley started speaking truthfully about what she had been grappling with, my heart went out to her.

Nate is a good influence on her. Whatever he has lived through, he reminds her repeatedly to look at things from a different perspective. More importantly, he helps Hanley understand that she’s not the only one suffering. Later Hanley is given the opportunity to step up and be a better friend to Nate and her best friends which is a very encouraging turnaround in her life.

As uneasy as this was to read in parts, I did like Where You’ll Find Me.  It has poignant moments, reconciliations and promises of second chances. On a personal level, it has reminded me to be there for my kids and really listen to them. Oh and to also make sure that the garage door is always closed at the end of the day. Believe it or not, the same night I started this book, I discovered that we had left our garage door open. Thankfully, I realized this before bed. Phew!

~ Bel