Love Fortunes and Other Disasters
by Kimberly Karalius
♦publisher: Swoon Reads
♦release date: May 15th, 2015
♦paperback, 368 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
Love is real in the town
of Grimbaud, and Fallon Dupree has dreamed of attending high school
there for years. After all, generations of Duprees have successfully
followed the (100% accurate!) love fortunes from Zita’s famous Love
Charms Shop to happily marry their high school sweethearts. It’s a
tradition. So she is both stunned and devastated when her fortune states
that she will NEVER find love.
Fortunately, Fallon isn’t the only student with a terrible love fortune, and a rebellion is brewing. Fallon is determined to take control of her own fate—even if it means working with a notorious heartbreaker like Sebastian.
Will Fallon and Sebastian be able to overthrow Zita’s tyranny and fall in love?
Fortunately, Fallon isn’t the only student with a terrible love fortune, and a rebellion is brewing. Fallon is determined to take control of her own fate—even if it means working with a notorious heartbreaker like Sebastian.
Will Fallon and Sebastian be able to overthrow Zita’s tyranny and fall in love?
Review: Fallon Dupree lives in a town where Love rules the hearts, superstitions, and lives of its people. Every person puts all their faith in Zita’s love fortunes, good or bad. But when Fallon is doomed with the fortune of a completely loveless life, she is brought into a small secret group of others with bad fortunes and they start the wheels turning on a revolution against the fates they’ve been dealt.
This was such a fun read! I was completely surprised by the amount of magical realism here as I admit I was expecting something a little more straight-forward contemporary. The writing style was a little hard to get used to at first, but once I settled in, I loved the unique and quirky style and found it suited the story and its characters so well. A sweet and slow burning love story builds as Fallon sorts out her reluctant feelings for Sebastian, a boy she only knows previously from the string of crying girls he leaves in his wake. He’s hesitant to reveal his fortune and why he has joined the rebellion, but as they grow closer and the truth comes out, their mission to overthrow Zita becomes a dangerous matter of life or death.
There is an absolute heap of interesting characters wound into this story, and a wonderful array of different love stories among Fallon and her friends. I think my favorite was the story of Nico and Martin---the story of how he first started crushing on him was the most swoon-worthy of all! I also loved how they even reached out to the group of spinsters and bachelors who gave in the fortunes they’d been dealt long ago---and sparked something in them as well!
This one is such a charmer. Magic and mystery, danger, deception, and love---this was not the light fluffy love story I thought I was getting into it—it’s better!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
If
you gave her a wish bone, Kimberly would wish fervently for snow in
Florida. Her love for 90s cartoons (or any cartoons, really) knows no
bounds. She might be the only person you know who can be completely
engrossed in watching silent films. Being in Florida certainly has one
big perk: going to Disney World. Which she does. Frequently.
Kimberly
holds an MFA in fiction from the University of South Florida. Her
fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Luna Station
Quarterly, The Medulla Review, and Hogglepot. Her chapbook, POCKET
FOREST, was published by Deathless Press in August 2013.
GIVEAWAY!
The awesome people at Swoon Reads are letting me spread the love!
Enter the giveaway to get your own lovely copy! :D
•US mailing addresses only please.
•Ends May 15th, 2015
Don't forget to pop around to the rest of the tour stops!
5/1:
Stories and Sweeties
5/4:
Endlessly Reading &
Word Spelunking
5/5:
Lost in Literature
5/6:
The Escapist
5/7:
Jasmine Pearl Reads
5/8:
Book Rook Reviews
5/11:
Bumbles and Fairytales
5/12:
Books & Cleverness
I would love to read this book because it sounds like the book I have been waiting to read my entire life! :)
ReplyDeleteOh I'm so excited to read this one! I'm loving the cover
ReplyDeleteI am SUPER excited for this book, it sounds all sorts of cute I would enjoy :) Lovely review! and thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteOoh I've not heard of this before, but it sounds really fun and magical! I love the cover as well, so adorable.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds absolutely adorable! ANd, it LOOKS adorable too! Thanks for the chance, and I am so glad you enjoyed the book!
ReplyDeleteThis book seriously sounds so adorable! I'm glad you enjoyed it, definitely can't wait to pick it up! Thanks for the review, Becky!
ReplyDeleteGreat review, I haven't heard of this book before, but I'll keep my eye on it because of your review :)
ReplyDeleteExcellent! I read another review of this book that was unfavorable, so I am glad to see that you liked it. :) As a fairy tale lover, I was instantly inclined to pick this up, and now my faith in it has been restored!
ReplyDeleteGreat review Becky. <3 So happy you mostly loved this book :D I think it sounds so cute. Sigh. Just wishing someone would buy it for me, lol :D Getting it one day. <3 Thank you for sharing about it sweetie :)
ReplyDeletesounds cute
ReplyDeleteEek, I didn't read your review because I haven't written my own yet, but wasn't it adorable??? And I seriously can't get over that cover. I need to get a copy just because the version of it on the ARC is just too small. :D
ReplyDeleteThis book seems really great and fun! I'm definitely intrigued, I want to read it!
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