Review: Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius

Title:Love Fortunes and Other Disasters
Author: Kimberly Karalius
Source/Format: Won, Paperback
More Details: Young Adult
Publisher/Publication Date: Swoon Reads, May 12, 2015

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

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?

Literally as I was finishing my review for Save Me by Jenny Elliott, this book arrived in the mail. My last tango with a Swoon Reads novel left me a little disappointed; however, that wasn't the case this time. I read the prologue of this book and I was hooked. Thankfully, this time around it was better and I ended up loving Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius.

Karalius' book presented the idea of what could happen if fortunes proven to be 100% accurate about love and relationships started to go horribly awry. The story basically follows Fallon Dupree after she goes to the town of Grimbaud for school and an almost mandatory visit to Zita’s Lovely Love Charms shop to have her fortune told. It was a tradition that had worked for her family, but sadly for Fallon things didn’t turn out the way she thought they would. And I enjoyed seeing her try to fight her fortune rather than give up and accept the fate that everyone was convinced would happen. The secondary characters in the story were just fantastic, and I enjoyed how everything worked together—and how the seemingly miscellaneous details ultimately played a role in what happens to the characters.

Romance was a big part of this novel and I have to say that it was cute. I liked the way Karalius handled the relationships in the novel, and developed the characters in a way that it felt natural instead of forced despite the circumstances that brought them together.

Another aspect of this novel that I enjoyed was the writing. There was never a moment that I felt like I couldn’t grasp what was happening, and there was a good flow to the story that kept me engaged. The concept was handled nicely—it seemed like a complete idea, and stuck to the point of the story rather than unraveling. The setting was more or less fitting and there was enough detail so I could easily picture where the characters were going and what was happening around them. I actually really enjoyed how whimsical the novel was.

I had plenty of questions regarding the town and why Zita’s fortunes and charms had such a hold over them. And despite the sunshine and rainbows that constantly hovered over the town of Grimbaud like a fluffy sparkly cloud, I always had that lingering feeling that there was something not right with the pristine, love obsessed town. And as the events gradually unfolded the details became clearer, and I liked the gradual build up to the end.

Basically I was pleasantly surprised by Love Fortunes and Other Disasters. This book is one of my new favorites, and I am looking forward to what Karalius writes next.

**Check back next week for my interview with Kimberly Karalius**