From the critically acclaimed author of Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune comes a new delightful novel about exploring all the magical possibilities of life in the most extraordinary city of all: Paris. Vanessa Yu never wanted to see people’s fortunes—or misfortunes—in tealeaves. Ever since she can remember, Vanessa has been able to see people’s fortunes at the bottom of their teacups. To … the bottom of their teacups. To avoid blurting out their fortunes, she converts to coffee, but somehow fortunes escape and find a way to complicate her life and the ones of those around her. To add to this plight, her romance life is so nonexistent that her parents enlist the services of a matchmaking expert from Shanghai.
After her matchmaking appointment, Vanessa sees death for the first time. She decides that she can’t truly live until she can find a way to get rid of her uncanny abilities. When her eccentric Aunt Evelyn shows up with a tempting offer to whisk her away, Vanessa says au revoir to California and bonjour to Paris. There, Vanessa learns more about herself and the root of her gifts and realizes one thing to be true: knowing one’s destiny isn’t a curse, but being unable to change it is.
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This book ticks a lot of boxes for me:
takes me traveling. I’ve been to Palo Alto and Paris and it’s wonderful to be able to go for a “visit”
loads of food, glorious food. Roselle’s descriptions of all the sumptuous food got my mouth watering at 3 in the morning. Don’t read this if you’re hungry
strong family bond. Ah, the meddling aunties, the Tiger Moms, and the favorite aunt and uncle. I miss them sometimes.
sweet romance. There are a couple of them in this book— an instant attraction and a second-chance love
multicultural and diverse. Chinese-Americans, Filipino-Canadian, French, etc. There’s an M/M pair of uncles. There are also customs and traditions woven into the story.
I really enjoyed reading Vanessa’s story of dealing with her “gift” of fortune-telling and finding out in the end where her true talents lie. So much, I stayed until 4 am to finish it.
A couple of aspects affected my rating. The character’s lifestyle is too rich to be relatable and the descriptions of food, setting, and clothes got to be too much after a while. Also, the romance between Vanessa and Marc could have been amped up more. After their first three days, they didn’t really have much interaction before the falling-out and the getting back together. Apart from these, I highly recommend this book for a light “escape”.
Magic, art, love, and Paris seamlessly combined in a book that is a perfect read. There is so much in this book about food and about paintings and about family and it’s all stitched together in a way that makes you want to not stop reading. This is the first book I have read by Roselle Lim. I highly recommend it.
Warning: You’ll be hungry if you read this book. All those yummy food descriptions!
I loved being whisked away to Paris. If anything, I liked this novel more than Lim’s debut because I got to explore a new country. It was so magical seeing France described through the commonplace and fantastical details woven into the book.
Vanessa’s character was sweet but strong, and I loved getting a sense of her family, including all those conniving aunties. The central romance is a lovely journey, and I just got swept away by the beauty of it all. Additionally, the clairvoyance thread was interesting to me, so I enjoyed seeing that played out.
A luscious book filled with treats about love, family, and destiny.
Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop
By Roselle Lim
What is it about books with Paris in the title that I navigate to and just absolutely want to read. This one is no exception and such a fun read too! Reading a previous book by Roselle Lim, I know that I would be in it for some swoon full of romance, and a magical adventure. Lim does not disappoint and delivers in this amazing story that whisked me away to an entertaining adventure through Paris.
When you can see the future is that a gift or a curse? Vanessa “Van” is able to foresee the future and blurt out these information at the most uncanny times. She works as an accountant and forces herself to look at life as an observer to prevent causing trouble to others. Until aunt Evelyn comes to turn her life around and asks Van to help her out in opening her tea shop in Paris.
Lim’s writing is always so fun and refreshing. She brings a huge smile to my face as I relate to her stories and the myriads of aunties that abound. I love her stories about love and family, while also spinning it into a magical story.
I really enjoyed this read.
4.25/5 stars!
When Vanessa Yu made her first fortune-telling at the age of three, she had hated that she had this power. After one fortune-telling of the bride at her cousin’s wedding, she decided she needed help from her aunt, the other person with the same power. By going to Paris to continue her lessons, Vanessa encounters love, revelation, and secrets from her aunt’s past that brings an epiphany and change for herself and her outlook in life
I enjoyed this book because of the heroine’s self-discovery, the descriptions of scrumptious food, family dynamics, and romance. I would have liked some more details of certain characters and the future of a set of siblings in relation to a certain situation. Overall, the book has a nice vibe and I look forward to more Roselle Lim books.
**Thanks to the publisher and Harlequin Junkie for the copy.**
This was a nice story but a bit basic? The language didn’t flow and there was a stiffness in the characters that was a bit distracting. The resolution of Vanessa’s gift also seemed very easy compared to how they couldn’t figure any of it out before. I loved the aunties, and learning a bit about the culture. Overall an enjoyable enough read but nothing that created a red thread in my heart.
This book is just what I needed in these tumultuous times! Author, Roselle Lim, provides such vivid descriptions of Paris–the food, the art, the weather. It’s like I was whisked away on a vacation with the main character! Toss in a some family drama and a little romance, and the reader has the perfect recipe for an escape from reality!
I love reading books set in Paris. The city, the culture, the people, what is there not to love about Paris? In Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop, I am taken to Paris by Vanessa in her quest to be able to control her gift of predicting the future. A gift that she wishes she did not have.
Vanessa and Evelyn must work together to be able to control Vanessa’s gift of predictions. While Evelyn embraces her gift, Vanessa does not. They butt heads, argue, and fight all while loving and protecting each other. The aunts, left-back in the states, still find their ways to meddle. The families still show their love and support.
What would a story set in Paris be without some romance? Both Evelyn and Vanessa find some romance. The twists and turns in these relationships had me wondering if they really could find their red threads and their happy ever after. I enjoyed meeting the men in their lives, seeing how they would be able to have relationships with all that was happening around them, and I was thrilled with how it all played out.
I recommend picking up your own copy and enjoying this wonderful story of love, family, magic, and Paris.
Just like her Aunt Evelyn, Vanessa can see people’s future just by looking at their drink. Believing herself to be cursed, especially since fortune tellers are destined to never marry, she has spent her life suppressing her abilities. Until one prediction rattles her and Evelyn whisks her away to Paris so she can teach her while she opens her new tea shop. Vanessa has never felt more cursed than when she meets charming Marc Santos, who shows her the city and the food. If only she can get her gift under control. Or get rid of it.
The Characters: A Close-Knit Family
I adored the characters. Being also Chinese with plenty of nosy aunts, the characters felt both fun and familiar. They definitely reminded me of my family, with all the good and the annoying. They were fun, enthusiastic, and incredibly protective of each other. I loved how close they were as a family even though it’s really a very massive one. I loved that they were there for each other. It was nice to see Vanessa leaning on her family instead of friends, as is so often seen in books. Her family was both a source of strength and annoyance, but there was so much love.
Vanessa was a fun character. In her late twenties, she’s basically cornered by her mother and aunts as the oldest unmarried cousin. But, with her gift of seeing the future, a match isn’t in the cards for her. I loved how she wanted love so badly she tried to shun her gift. She’s head strong and stubborn. But also meddlesome just like almost all of the women in her family. It was nice to see the family traits come out in her even as she tried to pave her own way. It was fun to see her dedication to getting her way, though it did hurt some of the people around her. But it also showed her strong family ties and the goodness in her heart to try to help those around her.
My favorite character has to be her Aunt Evelyn. She’s so classy and beautiful, and reminded me a lot of two of my own beloved aunts. I loved how self-assured she was, and admired how she was able to keep her secrets close to her heart despite the meddlesome family. There was also an undercurrent of sadness to her throughout the whole novel, one that really struck me in the heart. She seemed so perfectly confident and self-assured that the sadness and stubbornness made her feel real.
The Setting: Paris, With Food
Most of the story takes place in Paris. There were times when I struggled to remember it’s set in Paris, but the bits of French and the restaurants bearing French names always reminded me. There was a general air to it that said Paris, but it was as light as the perfumes Vanessa sniffed. I didn’t feel like I was walking the streets of Paris and enjoying the sights, but I definitely felt like I was eating my way through the city.
The story does hit on some touristy spots like Versaille and some of the art museums, but they’re not a big focus. Instead, most of it was about Vanessa and Marc getting to know each other and enjoying some good food. It was nice to get a peek at some of the iconic sights through the eyes of a tourist and someone who had lived in the city for a few years, but this was a relatively small part of the story.
I don’t think it said “Paris” to me, but I felt the setting was mostly set through food. It was diverse and always sounded delicious. There was so much food talk it might seem off-putting, but it also reminded me of stories my aunts and grandmother used to tell where almost all of them revolved around food. It plays a big role in Chinese families, so it was actually kind of comforting to read so much about food. There’s a lot of love in it, which feels quite fitting in the City of Love.
Even though I struggled with remembering this book mostly takes place in Paris, there was still a nice waft of it floating through the book. It poked in here and there, but I felt it really was more to support the characters and their stories. It was both romantic and beautiful, and really the perfect location.
The Plot: A Love Story
This was a fun, easy read about a woman trying to learn to control a gift she hates while trying to find love in Paris. It moved at a nice pace, feeling more or less organic. There were a few pieces, especially when it came to some of the side romantic stories, that felt a little contrived, but, as a whole, it was a sweet story full of heartache and hope.
I liked the story of Vanessa trying to control her gift, but I also felt it came in second to all the food. Honestly, this felt more like a book about food than anything else. It seemed she was always eating, if not taking a moment here and there to enjoy some piece of art. It was fun reading her predictions and I kind of wish there had been more of them. I really liked the tension her gift caused as she tried so hard to live a normal life and fought against the bounds her aunt laid out for her as a fortune teller.
Overall, though, this felt more like a love story. There’s more than one love story and Vanessa was involved with all of them. But it’s largely the story of two women who know love is out of the question for them no matter how much they long for it. One has accepted it and the other actively fights against it. Paris is the perfect backdrop for it as it felt incredibly romantic and it was impossible to think there couldn’t be a happy ending for anyone.
This was a fun story, easy to read and very sweet. There’s a lot about food and a lot about romance, but it’s also a beautiful story about family and the lengths they will go for the happiness of one of their own.
Overall: All About Family, Food, and Love
The characters were clearly the stars of this book for me. They were fun and familiar to me. The setting was also lovely, though I think it’s more accurate to say I enjoyed “eating” my way through Paris. It all sounded so delicious, and I think I come away from this book thinking more on the food and the romance than about Vanessa’s struggles with her gift. But it was a fun story, a light read with some heavy bits as racism played a role in causing some problems. Still, I really enjoyed this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Berkley Publishing Group, for a free e-copy. All opinions expressed are my own.
Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews “Vaness Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop” by Roselle Lim, Berkley, August 2020
Roselle Lim, the author of “Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop” has written an entertaining, delightful, witty, intriguing, magical, and enthralling novel. The genres for the story are fiction, women’s fiction, fantasy, and Magical Realism. The timeline for the story is set in the present and only goes to the past when it pertains to the characters or events. The story takes place in Paris, and talks of California. The author describes her colorful cast of characters as complex, and complicated. The themes within the story are finding your path or destiny, finding oneself, and love. The author discusses the importance of family, love, and hope.
Vanessa Yu has had a special talent since she was 3 years old. She is able to predict some events for other people while studying the tea leaves. Make no doubt about this, Vanessa doesn’t like the ability to see what will happen for people and doesn’t know how to control when this will happen. As she gets older, she gets headaches if she sees a glimmer of unfortunate news. The only other person in Vanessa’s family with this ability is her Aunt Evelyn, who is going to Paris and opening a tea room. Vanessa really doesn’t want to be a fortune teller.
The Yu family is very close, and they are determined to find a husband for Vanessa, who works as an accountant. They call in the best fortune teller of matchmaking that money can buy, and the matchmaker is perplexed why Vanessa doesn’t show a red thread for love.
Vanessa is now determined to go to Paris for a while and learn from Aunt Evelyn how to deal with her fortune-telling power. Another one of Vanessa’s special talents is finding love matches for others. Will Vanessa ever find her own true love? I recommend this amusing and entertaining novel for other readers to enjoy!
Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim is one of those fun reads that entertains while adding a bit of thoughtful messages to contemplate. There’s a magical element to all of this with fortune telling and matchmaking in line with Chinese fairy tales and folk lore. It’s quite interesting in reading about the strong family dynamics of a big Chinese family, which is a bit different than those in say Kevin Kwan’s The Crazy Rich Asians Trilogy Box Set series. Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop more down to earth and focused more on the second, third or even fourth generation Chinese Americans.
In terms of romance, I pleasantly enjoyed the fact that they play second fiddle to the theme of finding and controlling one’s own fate, yet still provide readers that enjoy romance in books an adequate and pleasing amount of it. The secondary characters are quite enjoyable and provide the humor of the story, while our main characters, Vanessa Yu and Aunt Evelyn provide readers a relevance to our own lives, for young and older readers.
In all, a good and easy read that any reader will breeze through. I sure did.
Disclaimer: I received an ecopy of this book from the author/publisher. I was not required to write a positive review, and have not been compensated for this. This is my honest opinion.u2060