Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lim follows Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune with another picturesque fabulist rom-com, though readers may be frustrated that the romantic story line overpowers the magic. Vanessa Yu accountant, aspiring artist, and reluctant clairvoyant is a much-loved member of a sprawling Chinese American family. She is also the oldest cousin of her generation who's yet to be married. Unlike her elegant Aunt Evelyn, the other clairvoyant in the family, Vanessa sees her ability to predict the future as a curse; particularly objectionable is the supernatural rule barring clairvoyants from finding true love. After a lifetime of rejecting her gift, a series of tragic predictions sends Vanessa to Paris with Evelyn for lessons in controlling her ability. Lim flexes her descriptive powers in her evocative (if perhaps excessively detailed) portrait of Paris and its many artistic and culinary attractions. The eccentric and lovably meddlesome Yu family are a constant delight, but Vanessa's single-minded focus on her love life overpowers the other story threads especially after she meets handsome artist Marc Santos. Still, the characters sparkle, the magic successfully enchants, and Lim skewers the anti-Asian racism the Yus face in France with pointed and timely commentary. This feast for the senses will especially appeal to hopeless romantics.
