Ill-Fated Fortune: A Magical Fortune Cookie Novel

by Jennifer Chow

Felicity Jin grew up literally hanging onto Mum’s apron strings in their magical bakery in the quaint town of Pixie, California. Her mother’s enchanted baked goods, including puffy pineapple buns and creamy egg tarts, bring instant joy to all who consume them. Felicity has always been hesitant in the kitchen herself after many failed attempts, but a takeout meal gone wrong inspires her to craft some handmade fortune cookies.

They become so popular that Felicity runs out of generic fortunes and starts making her own personalised predictions. When one customer’s ill-fated fortune results in his murder, Felicity’s suspiciously specific fortune has the police focusing on her as the main culprit. Now Felicity must find a way to turn her luck around and get cleared from suspicion.

• ISBN10: 1250323037
• ISBN13: 9781250323033
• Publish Date: 18 March 2024
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Minotaur Books,US
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English
• URL: http://melia.co.uk/page/detail/?k=9781250323033

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Ill-Fated Fortune is a charmingly whimsical light paranormal cozy mystery series starter by Jennifer J. Chow. Released 20th Feb 2024 by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in paperback, mass-market paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is a well written, engaging, series starter by a consistently productive *readable* author. The series features a young Asian American protagonist whose family bakery bakes slightly magical sweets. Felicity falls under suspicion when the police find one of her custom fortunes on the body of a murder victim.

The character driven plot moves along at a good pace, and the mystery is well engineered and appealing. She has a fun relationship with her bestie who runs the neighboring florist shop and is on-board with helping her clear her name. It's nice that the local police detective isn't incompetent or antagonistic, and they semi-bond over the microaggressions and racism-lite that people of color live with every day in the USA. 

Four stars. Eminently readable and pleasant. The language is clean, and there's no on-page graphic violence. The author/publisher have also included some crafty recipes (fortune cookie, floral arranging, and candle/meditations) at the back of the book in classic cozy mystery style.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[chymerra]

Important things you need to know about Ill-Fated Fortune:

Pace: Medium

POV: 1st person (Felicity)

Trigger Warnings: Ill-Fated Fortune contains themes that include racism, anxiety & anxiety attacks, dead bodies, asthma, murder & attempted murder, and physical assault.

Language: There is mild swearing in Ill-Fated Fortune. There is also language used that might offend some people.

Sexual Content: There is no sexual content in Ill-Fated Fortune.

Setting: Ill-Fated Fortune is set in Pixie, California. There are also some scenes in Fresno.

Plot Synopsis (as spoiler-free as I can get):

Growing up in a magical bakery and witnessing her mother use her magical power to bring happiness to their customers, Felicity waits for her to manifest. After many failed attempts, Felicity has given up. That changes the day she gets an awful fortune cookie from a take-out Chinese cookie. After making a batch of homemade fortune cookies, Felicity’s magic manifests. She makes delicious fortune cookies and writes handmade fortunes that come true.

But her happiness is short-lived. A rival enters her shop, gets a cookie and a fortune, makes a scene, and leaves. The following day, Felicity finds his body in the dumpster behind the bakery, holding her handwritten fortune. Now, Felicity is the number one suspect in his murder. Desperate to clear her name, she starts sleuthing. Will Felicity find out who killed that customer and why?

My Review

I enjoy a good cozy mystery. I also enjoy cozy mysteries that incorporate magic (or paranormal) themes into the storyline. But, lately, I have found those types of cozy mysteries lacking. Either they were too over the top, or I found them boring. So, I did go into reading Ill-Fated Fortune with the mindset that it could be either of those types. And I was pleasantly surprised when I started reading this book and realized it was good.

The main storyline centers around Felicity, her magic (or lack of it), the murder, and her investigation. It was a well-written, humorous storyline that kept me guessing who the killer was and the motivation behind it.

I did like Felicity and felt a little bad for her throughout the book. Her bad luck didn’t start until after the murder, and it just snowballed. I did think that the detective had tunnel vision. But I also felt that Felicity made herself a target by not doing what the police asked. It was a “damned if she did, damned if she didn’t” type of situation.

The mystery angle was interesting. I say interesting because there were a bunch of people who wanted that guy dead. So, I thought everything was good until I realized how much I had left in the book. The author didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what happened. I was shocked when the true motives and the real killer were revealed. Someone wasn’t even on my radar until the very last minute. And even then, I was a little iffy if it was that person.

The end of Ill-Fated Fortune was a nail-biter. I am concerned about how Felicity will cope in the upcoming books (if you read the book, you understand). Also, I can’t wait to read the next book (for the above reasons).

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, NetGalley, and Jennifer J. Chow for allowing me to read and review this ARC of Ill-Fated Fortune. All opinions stated in this review are mine.