Review for Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim

Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim 

 publication: August 4th 2020 by Berkley

Become enamored with the splendor of Paris in this heartwarming and delightful story about writing one’s own destiny and finding love along the way.

Vanessa Yu never wanted to see people’s fortunes—or misfortunes—in tea leaves.

Ever since she can remember, Vanessa Yu 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.

The day before her matchmaking appointment, Vanessa accidentally sees her own fate: death by traffic accident. 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 America and bonjour to Paris. While working at Evelyn’s tea stall at a Parisian antique market, Vanessa performs some matchmaking of her own, attempting to help reconnect her aunt with a lost love. As she learns more about herself and the root of her gifts, she realizes one thing to be true: knowing one’s destiny isn’t a curse, but being unable to change it is.

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. 

** Thank you Dache J. Rogers at Berkley for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review. 

 

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Meet the Author

Roselle Lim was born in the Philippines and immigrated to Canada as a child. She lived in north Scarborough in a diverse, Asian neighbourhood.

She found her love of writing by listening to her lola (paternal grandmother's) stories about Filipino folktales. Growing up in a household where Chinese superstition mingled with Filipino Catholicism, she devoured books about mythology, which shaped the fantasies in her novels.

An artist by nature, she considers writing as "painting with words."

Find her website HERE