rachel, x's Reviews > Love Fortunes and Other Disasters

Since marathoning both Karole Cozzo and Sandy Hall’s books in the past two months, I was eager to see what else Swoons Reads had to offer. When I heard that Love Fortunes and Other Disaster was set in the sort of light-hearted, whimsical fantasy world I’ve recently discovered I adore, I knew I had to grab a copy. Unfortunately, this one didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

My biggest problem with this story was that there were far too many moments when I had no idea what was happening. This book is set in a completely unique world: a town named Grimbauld where all the citizens are obsessed with a charm shop called Zita’s which can foretell - with 100% accuracy - how your love life in the following year will unfold. I did love the zany and whimsical tone of this setting. It was just so atmospheric! But like Curio, this world was so complex that I didn’t quite understand it… which meant it was very difficult for me to drudge up the energy to really care about the town’s situation. Some lady named Zita wasn’t letting anyone else make love charms? It just seems a little overly dramatic to conduct a full of a rebellion against that. I wish we had gotten more information about the mechanics and political situation of their world so I could sympathise with the character’s struggles or at least understand them better.

I also don’t think we were ever given a proper definition of what charms are... so I still completely confused about that. Are the objects bewitched with spells? Infused with a potion? Does this means magic exists or is it a form of science? Can anyone make charms or it some sort of hereditary power? Are there other types of magic then? When the twin’s parents collect wind and earthquakes - how do they do it? How do you know the effect a charm will have? Not knowing these things drove me insane and did really retract from the story. Maybe they’ll be touched on in the sequel instead? *Fingers crossed*

The characters themselves weren’t too bad. Fallon was a decent protagonist but I didn’t get overly attracted to her. I did like that she was introverted and her friends embraced that about her. Sebastian would have been a much more brilliant character if he wasn’t cast as the redeemable ‘bad boy’ romantic interest. He was a sweetheart from day one - you weren’t fooling me! - and I just couldn’t understand why Fallon was acting all weird towards him just because he had dated a few people. I also thought the romance advanced a little too quickly. Fallon was sort of starting to realise she had more than friendly feelings towards Sebastian and the next thing we know, she’s telling her friends she was in love? Hmmm, seems a bit too much! I did really like them together but I would have liked a slower development.

Luckily, I fell in love with the secondary characters. I absolutely adored Nico! He was such a cute little cinnamon roll - my favourite type of protagonist - and his little crush on Martin melted my heart, even if it was a little annoying. Anais and Bear were also absolutely adorable, I just wish we had gotten to see more of them. I’d love to see them get their own story later in the series.

Overall?

I loved the whimsical world this book is set in but I needed more answers and world-building before I could get invested in a full-on rebellion. I thought the characters were decent, particularly the secondary characters - Nico! <3 - but I wasn’t fully onboard with the main romance. For a debut, though, this author definitely has promise. This undeniably had a clever premise and I’m hoping the sequel will blow me away.