Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck & Fortune by Roselle Lim

HAPPY AUGUST!!

…just kidding. August is equivalent to the longest Sunday afternoon in the world of a teacher. *crying inside*

Luckily, I have a lot going on this month to keep thoughts of the dwindling existence of summer at bay. Summer school just wrapped up (which I’m a bit sad about – I loved working with baby 6th graders and the co-teacher I was paired with.) Next week, I’ll be attending the Eastern Virginia Writing Project at William and Mary. The week following that, I’ll be heading to New Jersey and New York City with my mom to visit family. I always look forward to this annual visit, but I’m ESPECIALLY excited to go to NYC this year – we’ll be heading into Brooklyn and making an extra special stop at Books Are Magic (I’M DYYYYYINNNNG!!!) If anyone has any other recommendations for book stores (or really good bakeries, because cake is life) please share!!

Overall, this hasn’t been a summer with a whole lot of down time. It’s been productive, fun, and fairly restful. I’ve made some headway in the book shelf department and stuck to my goal of not buying any new books this summer…and I still have quite a few in my possession that haven’t been cracked yet. I’m diligently working on writing my book. I’ve hit quite a few walls, questioned my abilities, revised, revised, revised…but I keep struggling forward, because why quit?

Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck & Fortune by Roselle Lim is one book I snatched up right before I officially underwent my Book Buying Fast. All I needed to know in order to be intrigued? It centers around lots of magical (literally) food, family turmoil, a death, the promise of a love story, and the importance of community. Boom, sold.

I’m a sucker for novels that involve a love affair with food. In fact, I’m more likely to swoon over the promise of drool-worthy culinary word porn than an actual romance between two people. I could practically taste the dumplings and drunken chicken wings Lim describes in finger-licking detail.

This story follows Natalie Tan, a young woman coming back to her home city of San Francisco after the unexpected death of her mother. On the heels of a falling out with her mom, Natalie fled the confinement of her familial situation and trekked around the world, dabbling in cooking jobs while learning and experiencing life in a whole new light. After living her entire life with a single parent who suffered from crippling agoraphobia and being ostracized by stand-offish neighbors, Natalie resolved to do the thing her mother said she would never do. In her mother’s view, Natalie would never live up to the precedent her grandmother had set in the kitchen.

Returning to the place she held so much pain and resentment for, Natalie is presented with an interesting opportunity – reopen the restaurant her grandmother made into an oasis of the neighborhood or sell the building to the leechy real estate agent canvasing the dying businesses around her block.

When neighbors start coming out of the woodwork to help Natalie in her grief and business struggles, Natalie begins to reevaluate everything she thought she remembered about her life in San Francisco. She’s presented with the recipe book of her deceased grandmother and finds that each dish is capable of life changing opportunities for those who eat them. With a slew of neighbors, each of whom has an array of different problems, Natalie decides to repay their kindness with the magical help of her grandma’s cuisine. But she finds that sometimes, even the best of intentions fall flat…

Deciding what path she will take proves harder than she’s anticipated. But with the help of her community and a hot, nerdy beau, Natalie begins uncovering her own brand of magic in the minced pork.

Obviously, I was drawn by the premise of this book. But I also really enjoy stories that center around family and tradition. I’ve always admired the values of Asian cultures and the closeness and love not only shared between immediate family members, but between neighbors and friends as well. I think Lim did an excellent job sharing this perspective. It was especially powerful when she described the impact of her food on her neighbors’ lives, which actually has merit in the real world.

But the voice of Natalie didn’t ring true for me. I think this story would have been told more effectively through a third person narrative with multiple perspectives. Natalie’s voice seemed forced and ingenuine at times. If Lim had included the perspectives of the mother and grandmother as they experienced the running of the restaurant and changes of the neighborhood, that may have spiced the story up a little bit more too.

Overall, it was cute and made me crave authentic Chinese delicacies. I give it 3.5/5 stars.

Click the image below for your copy!

Another culinary love story that I ABSOLUTELY LOVED and found to be hands down adorable, while tickling my sweet tooth:

What’s your favorite food-centric love story? … I’m asking for a friend…

Happy & healthy reading!

Lexi