"Love stopped at the town of Grimbaud, weary and limping upon a twisted ankle."
That is the first sentence of this book, which was what compelled me into buying it.
Love Fortunes and Other Disasters is about a town that is literally obsessed with love.
We have Zita's famous Love Charms Shop that produces 100% accurate love fortunes which the people of Grimbaud have followed every year. It was a tradition, and just mentioning the possibility that these fortunes might be wrong was absurd.
Fallon Dupree comes from a family where generations have successfully married their high school sweethearts thanks to their fortunes. However the year Fallon goes into high school, she is stunned to receive a fortune telling her that she will never find love.
Fortunately for her she isn't the only one with a bad fortune, and she soon realises a rebellion is stirring. She wants to take control of her own fate, which may or may not be impossible in this town almost possessed by the mysterious Zita and her fortunes.
If I had to describe this book with one word, it'll be cute. It was just really cute how everyone believed in love so much, how the town seemed to run on and get its energy from love.
At first thought, this book may seem like a contemporary novel but it actually leans towards magical realism, considering the magical aspects of it. They have these things called charms, weather charms and confidence charms, little 'spells' to help you with your daily life.
I rarely stumble onto magical realism books but I really enjoyed this one. It was fast-paced, the characters were likeable, and the storyline was neither too depressing nor too cheesy. It was also realistic, the thing with the bachelor and spinster villas, how they were seen by the other happy couples; it's just like in society today where being alone or single is looked down upon.
I really enjoyed the characters' relationships with one another. How Fallon and her best friends were constantly supporting each other; Anais with her insecurity in showing her boyfriend Bear the real side of her, and Nico with his trying to get his crush Martin's attention. They were all so willing to go through great lengths for another.
Fallon and Sebastian had great character and relationship developments. I liked how Fallon had grown up with parents and an elder brother who were obsessed with clean environments and high quality clothing, and how that changed because of Sebastian. Likewise, I liked seeing Sebastian changing his womaniser ways after the interactions with Fallon.
If you know me, you know I dislike books that have random romance. For me, the romance between these two weren't sudden. You could see how Fallon really detested Bastion at the beginning, but over the course of the book she slowly develops a crush on him and it's just the cutest.
This book deserves 4 stars from me because while I really enjoyed it and liked the characters, it was not completely mind-blowing and I do not exactly relate to Fallon and her friends. There were also some parts that did not make sense especially towards the end but I guess that's just how magical realism is.
Overall if you are looking for a light, cute and unique book, this is one for you to try :)
This is an honest review.
Love Fortunes and Other Disasters is available at Popular bookstores, go get it :)
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