Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop

by Roselle Lim

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 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.

• ISBN10: 1984803271
• ISBN13: 9781984803276
• Publish Date: 4 August 2020
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Berkley Publishing Corporation,U.S.
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781984803276

Reviews

[mrs_mander_reads]

I loved this little, magical romance. The fantasy elements were sprinkled liberally, but not in a way that made it disingenuous. This is a must-read for folx who like romance, but prefer closed-door or clean reads.

[Heather]

Vanessa Yu is part of a huge and successful family.  She's an accountant in the family firm.  She's been able to make prophecies since she was a child.  She's also the last of her cousins to be unmarried.  All of her aunts are now able to focus their attention on her.  

She's been fighting her prophetic abilities.  She refuses to learn from her similarly-gifted aunt.  She hates the way that predicting misfortune drives friends away.  When she blurts out a prophecy about her cousin's upcoming divorce - while at that cousin's wedding - it is decided that she needs to get herself under control.

Her aunt is opening a tea shop in Paris.  Vanessa is sent with her to help with the opening and to have time with her to resume the training that she has rejected all her life.  

This is a book centered around food. In this family food equals love so we are treated to luscious dinners in California and Paris.  There are Chinese wedding banquets, Parisian bakeries, creperies, and bistros.  The tea blends described in the book also sound magnificent.  I want to try them all.  

The family is super controlling but it is written so you can tell that it is coming from a place of caring.  This is a family where saying you are dating someone means that a private investigator will be hired immediately.  In Vanessa and her aunt Evelyn we see different ways of coping with that.  Vanessa leans into it while Evelyn has always maintained her distance. They both learn to bend a little during the course of the story.

There is a touch of magical realism (besides the prophecies). Certain couples are followed by blue butterflies.  Flowers fall at romantic moments.  

This is a cute book about learning who you are as opposed to who you have been assumed to have been. This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story

[Sam@WLABB]

Vanessa never saw her clairvoyance as a gift. Rather, it was a plague which kept her from forming any meaningful relationships outside of her family. After the very unfortunate timing of one of her visions, Vanessa decides it is time to get her "gift" under control. That means lessons with Aunt Evelyn, the other fortune teller in the family. Though she was not looking forward to being under Aunt Evelyn's tutelage, she was excited that her lessons would take place in Paris. Maybe even she could find love there.

Once again, Lim delivered a feel-good story which was beautifully written and included a bit of magic. Filled with full-bodied descriptions of the sights, sounds, and flavors of Paris, I found myself transported to the City of Lights, and I delighted in every moment I spent there.

I was also charmed by Vanessa's family. The Yu clan was large and very tight knit. There were close friendship between the cousins, never ending meddling from the aunties, and an abundance of love. The interactions between Vanessa and her family members were full of fun and warmth, and they never failed to bring a smile to my face.

Though I enjoyed Lim's previous book, I was left wanting a bit more from the romance. Therefore, I was happy to find romance played a bigger role in this book. In fact, there were several romances spotlighted. Each came with smiles and swoons, but there was a bit of drama too. Needless to say, I was excited about all the pairings.

This was a beautiful story of self discovery made even better by blending in family, food, romance, and a little magic. I was enchanted by Vanessa's story and really appreciated being transported out of my world, even if just for a few hours.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

BLOG | INSTAGRAM |TWITTER | BLOGLOVIN | FRIEND ME ON GOODREADS

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

I loved Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea shop. The characters were delightful. I love learning more about Asian culture and the pressures descendants of Asian immigrants experience finding their way in the world.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.