Rich and tender in the best of ways, Lunar Love wraps an enemies-to-lovers story around a tale of family devotion and love. An appealing narrative voice and a relatable look into what it means to be biracial add on to an already great book.
Matchmaker Olivia Huang-Christenson is stepping into the limelight and taking over her grandmother’s matchmaking business. Lunar Love has been successful for decades in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, and all Olivia wants to do is equal her Pó Po’s level of excellence. But while the Huangs have been matching people by using the Chinese zodiac for decades, app-related dating and other sorts of virtual experiences have definitely begun to pose an intimidating challenge to the business. And when one of those apps – ZodiaCupid – tries to boil her Pó Po’s tried and true formulas down to algorithmic sciences, she’s ready to spit nails.
The person behind the app is the handsome Bennet O’Brien, Los Angeles’ most eligible bachelor. Going head to head at a panel, their tempers flare, they immediately declare each other enemy number one and launch a bet to determine whose method works best for matching people together. But the more time they spend together, the clearer it becomes that their own charts are aligned.
This is a lovely, spare romance featuring good food, beautiful flower imagery and a very nice dive into the difficulties of being a biracial person trying to balance all of the pieces of ‘you’ that dwell within your heart. I was deeply fond of Olivia, and I really enjoyed the warmth of her family. Something terrible happens to one of them, and the book does a good job setting this up and making you care when the big moment finally arrives. I’d have almost rather spent more time on the relationship between the various Huang-Christensons than on the romance.
Not that the love story here is any sort of slouch – it’s a beautiful slow-burner of a tangle. Bennet isn’t a bad hero, either – he and Olivia are each working from different sides of the same kind of chart-making, the heart versus the head. The romance builds along these rivalrous lines, and has a sense of humor about how ridiculous the two of them can be.
The setting is expertly done, and Los Angeles’ Chinatown feels beautifully vibrant. In the end Lunar Love is beautifully rapturous, and easy to sink your teeth into.
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Grade: A-
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Kisses
Review Date: 13/01/23
Publication Date: 01/2023
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