Opposites attract in this charming debut from Lauren Kung Jessen. In the midst of taking over her family’s well-established—but now struggling—matchmaking business, Olivia learns about a new competitor on the block: a matchmaking app that also utilizes a traditional Chinese zodiac approach—with some modifications. Adding fury to her fire is the app’s attractive owner, Bennett, who Olivia really does not want to like. She sees them as competitors, but he sees them differently. They may not be compatible according to the Chinese zodiac, but maybe—just maybe—there is something there.

Give yourself a few chapters to let this one hit its stride, and then I promise you will be sucked in like I was. There’s an adorable and feisty meet-cute. There are rivals-to-lovers vibes. There’s a bit of corporate espionage. We see family and friendship, love and grief. We see the importance and continuation of traditions—and how they are redefined over time. And prepare yourself for all of the drool-worthy food descriptions. (Bonus: there are recipes included in the back of the book.)

I hope Lunar Love captures your heart like it did mine. I look forward to seeing what Lauren Kung Jessen writes next.

I received an advance copy of the book from Forever and NetGalley. All review opinions are my own.

I have always had a soft spot for books where the matchmaker needs to find a match. This is a sweet opposites attract, enemies-to-lovers story that will warm your heart.

Olivia has just taken over her grandmother's matchmaking company, Lunar Love. She finds out that Bennett (the sexy guy she bumped into at the bakery and had instant chemistry with) is creating an app - ZodiaCupid - to rival her company. There's a bet to see who can get the other person to fall in love first and, as they're both trying to set each other up on the perfect date, sparks start flying.

I think my favorite character in this book was Po Po - Olivia's Chinese grandmother. She's sweet, supportive, and reminded me a lot of my own Nana. Throughout the book, it's obvious that she only wants Olivia to find love and be happy.

I was surprised that I learned quite a bit about Chinese culture and the Zodiac through Olivia and Bennett. Both being mixed-race, they're learning as the story progresses and it was fun to be along for that ride. My heart went out to Bennett as he started talking about his mother and losing her.

As with many rom-coms, I loved the banter between Olivia and Bennett! You can tell right from the start that they're made for each other, even though Olivia is set in her belief that they're incompatible because of the Zodiac. They get to know each other throughout the book and their interactions felt so easy and natural.

Lunar Love is definitely a slow-burn but I enjoyed the journey these two characters went on. This was such a refreshingly original story and has placed Lauren Kung Jessen firmly on my auto-buy list.

TITLE: LUNAR LOVE
AUTHOR: Lauren K Jessen
PUB DATE: 01.10.2023 Now Available
SYNOPSIS: Swipe Above

Liv is set to take over a family business that has been in their family for generations, Lunar Love - a matchmaking business in LA based on the Chinese Zodiac. But, Bennett O’Brien takes the basis of Lunar Love and creates an app risking the business that has been in Liv’s family for generations.

I loved the journey it took for Liv and Bennett to find their love for each other - though it started rough, I loved the banter, the themes about identity, and the importance of tradition while also being able to adapt. I also loved the setting since I am from Los Angeles, so this made for a wonderful read for me. As a Chinese American I felt seen reading this book, and also feel that this will resonate with many readers who just want to find love and our own happy ever after.

This is a super-cute rivals-to-lovers romance perfect for this time of year. Olivia has recently taken over her family's matchmaking business. Lunar Love was started by her grandmother, passed down to her aunt, and now passed on to her. She's thrilled at the opportunity to take the reigns as matchmaker until she meets Bennett. Bennett has recently started an online dating app, Zodiac Cupid, which Olivia sees as direct competition. Worried for the stakes of Lunar Love she feels the stakes couldn't be higher.

I adored Bennett. He is sweet, funny and thoughtful. Watching him try to get to know Olivia and woo her was an absolute delight. There are funny mishaps, dates that weren't supposed to be dates, and secret admissions whispered in the dark under the moon. The representation of mixed-race America is wonderful in this book. I loved the discussions Olivia and Bennett had about carrying on family traditions in the modern world while also staying true to themselves and the other parts of their culture. The food in this book is salivating and talk around the Chinese Zodiac intriguing. I really enjoyed it.

With the Lunar New Year upcoming followed quickly by Valentine's Day, so much of this book is perfect for seasonal readers. That being said, it can be read and enjoyed any time of year by all romance lovers. It's a wonderful read.

|| 𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒:
Olivia knows how to make the perfect couple. It is her job, her family business, and her legacy at Lunar Love as the new Chief Matchmaker. When a new company rivals her business around the Chinese zodiac can she break tradition to see things from his point of view? Will she learn a new definition of compatible even if their zodiac signs say otherwise?

|| 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄:
🌌 Learning about the Chinese Zodiac
💗 Sweet and clean romance
👫 Dating competition
🤔 Traditions vs Trying new things
👵🏻 Learning from older generations
🇨🇳 Chinese American heritage and learning about bridging the gap about learning about both of your cultures

|| 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒:
I really enjoyed this book! I learned quite a few things about the Chinese zodiac which is always fun and about matchmaking! Which honestly I went back the scene in Mulan and how that didn’t work out for her 😂 I thought the take on modern matchmaking vs using dating apps was very interesting. I loved the little competition that Olivia and Bennett had. I was ready to give this 3 stars, because it’s not super romancey which I wanted. Then Olivia had these moments with her grandma Po Po and I got a little teary eyed at the end. The relationship seemed to rush in the epilogue, but the last few chapters were just so sweet and really focused on how Olivia was Chinese and American and how she was still learning so much from her grandma and family and how important it is to accept who you are.

“Maybe there is beauty in opening yourself up to the love you don’t expect and the traits that will keep you guessing. Because compatible or incompatible, we’re all just trying to love and be loved, however that might look.”

🐉Blurb:
This sweet, enemies-to-lovers debut rom-com filled with Chinese astrology will undoubtedly prove to be a perfect match with readers of Helen Hoang, Jasmine Guillory, and Helena Hunting.

💭Thoughts:
Congrats to @laurenkjessen on a fantastic debut novel! I loved this book so much! A sweet, lighthearted romance with a great mix of family and culture.

I enjoyed learning about Chinese culture and the Lunar New Year. I found the part about the afterlife to be especially interesting. The story intrigued me to start looking up even more information about Chinese astrology. I think these topics really added a special uniqueness to the story.

Bennett is lovely. He was so smart, caring, and steadfast. At times I almost thought he was to good for Olivia, but after awhile I started to think they were very cute together. The perfect opposites attract romance.

I’m looking forward to making the recipes included in the back of the book. Swiss roles and dumplings sound amazing!

Overall, I highly recommend this uniquely adorable romance.

✨ Review ✨ Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen

Olivia Huang Christenson just took over her family's matchmaking business, Lunar Love, right as she bumps into Bennett O'Brien, at a bakery where they banter over the last pastries left that day. It turns out he's heading up a new Chinese Zodiac-themed dating app, one that threatens her own business. She quickly sets up another encounter between them through his dating app to scope out his business.

I really loved the magnetism of these characters and there was something about it that charmed me. This was a really sweet closed-door f/m contemporary romance. While that's not usually my favorite sub-category of romance, this one reminded me more of women's fiction with a key romance thread. I think maybe because I leaned a lot about Chinese zodiac and matchmaking, along with other Chinese traditions around weddings, deaths, and the Lunar New Year. I thought this was a sweet read and I flew right through it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: contemporary f/m romance; closed door; sort of enemies to lovers (but new enemies?)
Location: Los Angeles
Pub Date: out now!

Read this if you like:
⭕️ sweet f/m contemporary romances
⭕️ matchmaking stories
⭕️ really fun date concepts
⭕️ debating around matching through traditional dating vs. dating apps

Thanks to Forever and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!

Read if you like:
♥️ Opposites Attract
♥️ Rivals to Lovers
♥️Enemies to Lovers
♥️ Making a Bet Plots
♥️ Reading Diversely

I absolutely adored this one! Matchmaking is one of those plots that I will always get behind because I’m such a sucker to see if the matches will work out or not and whether it’s due to the match or the people fighting their match. And this one definitely delivered on that for me!

I love reading diversely and about other cultures so this one a fantastic one for me to get immersed in the AAPI culture and get to see more about their traditions and beliefs. I also loved the plot discussion around tradition or innovation and where that fits in with Honoring your family and culture.

If you are looking for a sweet, cute, diverse read this one should definitely be on your list!

I received a copy of Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen from Forever in exchange for an honest review.

In Lunar Love, Olivia is the new owner of the successful matchmaking business that was first started by her grandmother. While she is so excited by this new role, Olivia also finds herself in competition with a new dating app that seems to also be based on the Chines Zodiac approach. Except that the dating app doesn't take in all the details and considerations for a good match that has always been the approach that Lunar Love is known her. In fact, Olivia is sure that the use of the Chinese Zodiac is just a gimmick that the dating app is using in order to get more customers. As fate will have it, she runs into the man who is behind the dating app, and Olivia is determined to figure out and perhaps sabotage this dating app through Bennett O'Brien, no matter how charming he may seem.

I loved that this contemporary romance was giving all the vibes from meet cutes to undercover dates to matchmaking - all with the Chinese Zodiac and culture in play. I enjoyed the interactions and development of the relationship between Olivia and Bennett as they both tried to prove that their approaches to matchmaking works. The author was also able to work in some of the issues that people of mixed heritage also faces through the two main leads. I enjoyed the representation in this novel - sign me up for any romances that feature Asian main characters. I've also loved reading romance since I was a teenager and back then, all the novels featured only white characters. I think part of me had internalized that such great romance stories just didn't happen to people who looked like me. And it is books like Lunar Love that is changing that mindset and bringing back the joy of reading romance novels to my life.

Lunar Love is a sweet and fun romantic comedy centered around Liv and Bennett, two rivals battling over astrological matching to find love. The premise of Lunar Love was so fun, and I actually felt like I learned a lot about Chinese culture and the Chinese zodiac. What a fabulous way to introduce people to something they may not know about with the backdrop of love to seal it all together. Olivia's family relationship was sweet, and I really loved the dynamic with the women in her family, especially with her sister Nina. Female relationships are so wonderful, and it's nice to see them portrayed without much tension or feuding between characters.

A romance debut to love and share and hold. I'm thrilled to be sharing the same city as Jessen, and I can't wait to discuss this book further at a local bookstore event to celebrate this debut!

Lunar Love, by Lauren Kung Jessen, is a sweet romcom with rival Chinese-zodiac matchmaking agencies. There are multiple meet-cutes for our couple, with Chinatown run-ins, matchmaking industry run-ins and a little catfishing on both sides.

In the Chinese zodiac, the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig all ran a race, and their special traits came out in how they cooperated or backstabbed to win the race across the river. The Chinese zodiac is a little different from a western horoscope, because everyone born in that lunar year shares the sign, instead of by month. But a lot of it is similar, with good and bad romantic matches by horoscope sign.

In Lunar Love, Liv becomes the new head of the Chinese zodiac matchmaking company started by her grandmother. A new startup dating app, ZodiaCupid, is moving in on what Liv considers her territory, and the tech founder is handsome, single Bennet. It’s this blend of modern romance-novel standards with Chinese zodiac and Chinese-American culture that makes this novel so fun.

When Liv and Bennet find themselves on the same podcast, they make a bet, which is immediately picked up by the podcasts hosts and promised a prize. Whoever can find a better match for the other person is clearly using the better matchmaking system, and will win the prize. This is one of those OTT romcom eyeroll moments, when it’s insanely obvious that both methods are leading Liv and Bennet to a matchmaking draw and a perfect match with each other. There are a few moments of romcom zaniness in Lunar Love, like Bennet causing a ridiculous baking distraction, as if their cooking class date wasn’t romcom cute enough. But a little goofiness is basically required in a romantic comedy, isn’t it? In general, the storyline was believable, sweet, and fun.

I didn’t think the obligatory romcom arguments were that bad, because it made sense that Liv would want to protect her grandmother’s legacy and traditions. But Liv is a bit too hostile to Bennett at times. A lil forced conflict is part of the genre, but there were a few moments when she seemed like a jerk and he seemed like a doormat, and no one’s really rooting for a jerk-doormat romance.

I loved all of Liv’s Scottish-Chinese family and their relationships to each other, maybe even more than I liked the romantic storyline. There’s a really special grandmother-granddaughter relationship, making this another reason this is a good read for fans of The Matchmaker’s Gift. (Did I fall down an absolute rabbit hole trying to figure out why I learned wai po but Liv calls her mom’s mom PoPo? Yes, of course I did. And the answer I found is basically some that people say Grandma and some say Grammie.) Olivia and Bennet are both half Chinese, which led to some interesting conversations about identity.

Overall, this was such a fun read. I enjoyed the setting (Chinatown snacks!) and the characters so much.

Adorable! I loved my time spent in Lunar Love. I loved Olivia’s family. It dragged a little in the middle for me but the descriptions of food, the Chinese culture, etc kept me going

A sweet, emotional, and funny enemies-to-lovers story that I thoroughly enjoyed! I absolutely loved the character of Bennett, and LUNAR LOVE definitely made me intrigued about the Chinese zodiac. I even looked up the traits of my sign (rabbit) and who I might be compatible with ;) Overall, I had a great time reading LUNAR LOVE, and I'll for sure be checking out more of Lauren Kung Jessen's books in the future!

(Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change upon final publication.)

This debut rivals-to-lovers / opposites-attract title was such a delight! Two matchmakers, one with a business based on the traditional Chinese zodiac and the other an app that uses data to determine who should fall in love. Liv and Bennett have one of the best, banter-filled meet-cutes I've read in a long time that will leave you hungry for more, in more ways than one! After many run ins with one another they realize their businesses are in direct competition, sparking a friendly competition that makes for such a fun setting.

Be ready to crave ALL the treats as you read this delectable romance that was SUCH a great book to ring in the new year! I loved learning about the zodiac animals, and how compatibility is determined based on their traits, it was fun to learn about the culture and I especially enjoyed how Kung Jessen wove it all into her characters and their love story. The connection between the characters and their love for tradition and family comes together in a beautiful, light-hearted, and fun book that made for an impressive debut, highly recommend this one!

Thank you Netgalley + Forever Publishing for the chance to read and review an advance copy!

With chemistry and sparks flying from the beginning, you might be thinking, "what could go wrong?" But as Liv and Bennett soon discover, they are in competition as matchmakers with different approaches. Conflict soon arises as Liv has taken a chance on this new business and can literally not afford for it not to succeed. As business rivals, can Bennett and Liv ever act on their attraction? Or is going to be a war between traditions and technology, old and new?

Is their love doomed before it even begins? Must it be a battle to the very end? Lunar Love has a fantastic premise before it even begins, and I could not help but falling in love with Liv. While she doesn't always make the best decisions, she's trying to keep her family's legacy alive. With everything at stake, competition is about to get messy.

Thank you so much to Forever and Netgalley for an Arc of Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jesse .

I loved this book! As a fellow half Chinese, half Canadian individual it was so amazing reading about people and a family that shared this background. I really enjoyed the writing and spending time with the characters. I also enjoyed learning more about the Chinese Zodiac and especially loved reading about all of the food!

While I am not usually a fan of deception in romance novels I saw the purpose with this in the start of the novel and loved seeing how the characters developed. I was rooting for them the entire way.

I highly recommend this book !

Olivia has grown up with a traditional matchmaking business in the family and after failed relationships hasfully sank into the comfort of tradition as she prepares
to take over for her grandmother. There’s just one issue, a new dating app is hitting the market based on the zodiac animal attraction and less about traditional compatibility.

This was a read that was packed full of cultural
references, food, family structures, and of course zodiac. I found navigating two characters who are biracial and are navigating that line of modern versus traditional cultural identities was tense and filled with personal struggle. Bennett and Olivia were very much opposites that had more similarities than it would’ve
appeared.

Oh Olivia, you prickly and stubborn lead you. I’ll be the first to admit I love a male lead who is that grumpy, set in their ways, stubborn character so why is it so hard to read female leads in this way? While it wasn’t a
complete turn off for me, I found Olivia’s manipulation and close-mindedness to leave me feeling the relationship almost completely one sided. The baseballdate did save that quite a bit though, iykyk.

The banter and dynamic along with the family cast of characters wrapped this story up neat and tight and the love within the family was beautiful. I loved getting to sneak an inside look and really learn some new things about a culture I wasn’t completely in tune with.I’d classify this more leaning toward women’s fiction
rather than romance because it came across to me that the story was focused more on Olivia’s growth and navigation with just a dash of romance trying to help her break out of her comfort zone and traditional
ideals.

📚Delightful RomCom📚

Thank you @netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for my ARC copy for an honest review!

Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen is a delightful romcom about mixed raced main characters who are enemies to lovers!

Olivia just took over her Pó Pó’s matchmaking business and is determined to put her personal touch to the business while still keeping it traditional.

Bennett is LAs Most Eligible Bachelor who saw an opportunity to showcase his love for his heritage and also help people find love with his new app called ZodiaCupid.

What happens when both of these businesses collide?

Olivia is determined to prove that traditional matchmaking is superior while Bennett is determined to show that traditions are meant to be challenged.

This story hooked me with the cultural significance of matchmaking and seeing the funny curveballs that are thrown at the characters at every turn!

This book is definitely worth the read if you are looking for a book that reminds you of the classic romcom movies!

4.5 stars.

I do love a great meet cute and Lunar Love had an adorable one.

There’s a bit of an enemies-to-lovers feel going on, as Olivia is taking over her family’s Chinese zodiac Matchmaking company while Bennett is launching a dating app inspired by the zodiac. But Bennett never really feels like an enemy. He’s honestly one of the sweetest and nicest characters I’ve read in a while. Thus, he makes Liv seem like a monster in comparison, when she’s really just a little desperate.

One of the main misgivings I had early on was Liv keeping secrets from Bennett (and vice versa!), but happily, they came out early on and were discussed between them.

But what I think I enjoyed most was the sense of family. Liv’s grandmother, Po Po, was a wonderful character. She loved her family and supported them. Learning about the zodiac and their cultural traditions was one of the most interesting parts of this story.

Lunar Love was an adorable, heartwarming read that I couldn’t put down.

Thank you to Forever and Grand Central Publishing for the review copy.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This romcom follows the story of two matchmakers, Olivia and Bennett.

Olivia comes from a 50-year tradition of matchmaking using the Zodiac signs to find compatible matches for couples. It has been handed down by family and it’s now her turn to take over it.

Bennett is starting a new app that takes concepts of the Zodiac Signs but with a modern twist. Loved his patience and determination. Such a lovable character, even after receiving some unexpected actions from Liv.

Both characters are half Chinese and we see their struggle to find their identity. I enjoyed seeing them overcome that challenge and grow individually through the book. Loved the author's take on portraying the culture throughout. Loved immersing in the many family moments and celebrations.

Liv drove me mad at times 😅 Man she’s stubborn! But I enjoyed seeing her move away from being stuck in tradition, with a positive take on it.

Definitely a book I would recommend!