Romina Tempest is a flora fortunist, working with flowers to help others with their romantic intentions. She owns a shop with her sisters and they are looking to expand. When the sisters potential financier announces his wedding and Romina sees the perfect opportunity. With some unexpected turns leading to fake-dating her colleague and best friend Trevor. Barely on board with the plan Romina then learns that Trevor’s new brother in law is none other than her ex- Alex King. Further misunderstanding leads to a whole week of Romina fake dating Trevor and the realization that her connection with Alex has not waned over the 11 years they were apart.
The cover of this book screams whimsical. It isn’t wrong. The writing in this book especially the descriptions are beautiful. I felt that I was transported to another world with these descriptions. All three Temptest sisters work to contribute to the shop. Luna works with candles and the managing of the shop while Zelda is an author and sells books. With the three sisters and the shop it gives off Practical Magic vibes. Except this is a little more cutesy and less dark.
Romina as a character is sweet. The book is written from her point of view and we see that she is caring especially towards her customers, and family. She wants a family but has been scarred in the past not only by Alex but by another past relationship as well.
Alex as a character is very logical and doesn’t believe in the magic that the town and Romina and her sisters have to offer. We don’t get anything from his prospective but I love how competitive and persistent he is. I do wish that I had gotten something from his perspective because I would have loved to have the inner workings of his brain in certain situations.
This is a slow burn, but the initial part of the story happens in one week so that part is fast paced. The fast paced one week works so well for the second half of the book especially because the couple really works to get back together. The twist in the story I was NOT expecting and it works but I can’t decide if I like it. This is a slow burn but some things do happen before the extra spicy scene.
All in all this was a cute book! I loved they whimsy of it and how it made me want to visit the mystical town of Moonville.
Overall 4/5
Spice 3/5

A very surprising and sad 2 stars.

This is very much a case of “It’s not you, it’s me.” Sarah Hogle is my favourite Contemporary Romance author. I absolutely adore all her books! You Deserve Each Other is a comfort re-read and one of my all-time favourite books, period. Just Like Magic is pure happiness in book form and Twice Shy is one of the few books that almost made me cry. I literally squealed when I got approved for the ARC of Old Flames and New Fortunes. I was so excited! But man, purely because of personal preferences, this was very much a miss for me. And I’m so incredibly sad about it. I did not see this coming!

Unfortunately, this book features one of my absolutely least favourite tropes AND on top of that, one of my least favourite female character traits in romance novels. Not even the mysterious Sarah Hogle magic is going to make me enjoy that.

Everything else is magical! The writing is funny, but also heartfelt and a tiny bit sexy! The characters are fun and the banter is amazing. I was rooting for Romina and Alex! The emotional component was as amazing and layered as it always is in her books! And while I prefer more couple-focused romances, the friends, family and small town elements in this were great as well!

It had everything going for it! But I just can’t get over those two - very prominent - elements of the story that I am probably never going to like reading about. I even had a hard time finishing this book because of my dislike for those tropes/archetypes. I’ll still pick up everything Sarah Hogle publishes in the future! But this book just left me feeling disappointed.

Old Flames and New Fortunes by Sarah Hogle is the second chance romance of Romina and Alex.
 
Romina runs her own floral shop, and she does something very unique as she is an expert of floriography and the meanings of flowers. This was so cool to see and my favorite aspect of this story. Because of her business she is in the periphery of weddings and must fake date her co-worker Trevor for one. There is obviously nothing wrong with that, but it gets more complicated when she finds out that Trevor is the stepbrother of her highschool sweetheart Alex. Romina is a bit quirky, and it often added quite a bit of humor.
 
Alex broke Romina‘s heart a long time ago and Romina is still hung up on him. She wants to get back at him, while also reconnecting and this back and forth was a bit annoying at times. Because we don’t get Alex‘s perspective, I had a hard time understanding him. Another aspect I’m torn about is that there is a magical realism aspect to this story, and I would have preferred if Romina would have been an actual witch.
 
Overall, this was a fun read and I’m definitely interested to check out more by this author. 3 stars.
 
(ARC kindly provided in exchange for a review.)

You Deserve Each Other meets Well Met!

I enjoyed this one a lot. I would say it’s my second fav book by the author! There were some things that could’ve been tweaked IMO with Alex and his withholding of certain info but I still enjoyed it (even though he messed up majorly there and never apologized). I would love to read the next one about Zelda!

Kindly received this ARC from NetGalley and Penguin/Putnam.

I’ve read two of Sarah’s previous novels – You Deserve Each Other and Twice Shy, both of which I enjoyed well enough. Old Flames and New Fortunes is a second chance/lovers to enemies to lovers (?) story. Our protagonist, Romina, and her two sisters run a shop with magical/supernatural vibes. Romina is thrust back in the company of her high school sweetheart, Alex, who broke her heart.

Nothing particularly groundbreaking here in terms of story, but a pleasant read. The setting and professions of the characters was certainly different from other stories, but it felt a little silly at times (Romina is a “flora fortunist”, a title she made up for her ability to use flowers as a means to help people find love). Silliness aside, it was refreshing to see something different - how many run of the mill book shop/flower shop/coffee shop owner stories are out there? I definitely got the impression that Hogle was setting the stage for a series – both of her sisters seem likely to get their own books, and I do look forward to reading those.

3.25-3.5 ⭐
First off, I think I'm a Sarah Hogle outlier because I thought Twice Shy and You Deserve Each Other were fine and all, but Just Like Magic was a true gem. A delightfully bonkers holiday rom-com acid dream. Because this book was another magic-y Sarah Hogle, I expected something similar. It wasn't as magical and off-the-rails as Just Like Magic, but the magic element -- while way more subtle -- was well-developed and added to the story. Just enough to make this a great fall-time read.

Romina, the FMC, was well-developed and came with a pretty interesting backstory. The themes of loss and motherhood were explored in unique ways, with Romina having raised a child who wasn't her own and then losing access to the child. It was easy to understand why she'd still be feeling some grief and there probably are people out there who could relate. Part-way through the book, there's a plot twist thrown in that kind of plays on the pain she's feeling from her past step(ish)-mothering situation that probably wasn't necessary. The info. she learns about her love interest (Alex) didn't need to be included as a "twist" just for the sake of forcing conflict with the characters, it could have been given at the beginning of the story. Also, the fake dating element was pretty half-assed and similarly unnecessary. But, it helped that the friend she fake dated, Trevor, was the kind of lovable weirdo that Sarah Hogle writes so well. I think we've all known a Trevor at some point.

Some other reviews mentioned a lack of chemistry between Romina and Alex, and I disagree with that. I felt like it was made super clear that Alex and Romina both still wanted to jump each other's bones. Like at every interaction. And they weren't subtle about it. The thing that bugged me, though, was that they'd apparently not seen or spoken to each other in like 10 years, but Alex seemed overly friendly right away. Not friendly in the polite small-talk kind of way, but friendly in the super familiar way. Not just in the overly-comfortable way they talked to each other, but in their entire interactions. They'd end up in these weirdly written physical situations that seemed unrealistic for two long-estranged ex's. Like with Romina -- still allegedly in a relationship -- grabbing on to his waist and him pinning her against a door or something, just like willy-nilly mid-conversation. Where was the unavoidable awkwardness and surface-level small talk that would inevitably come with seeing an ex you haven't seen in a decade? Seemed unrealistic.

I thought the side characters were sketched out well, meaning I don't think they were fully developed but they were fleshed out enough to make me want to read more. It seemed like they were written to set up the next books in a series. I'd definitely read the next one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for letting me read an eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

To begin, I want to say this is my first Sarah Hogle book. I’ve read other reviews and have come to learn that some things in this book are characteristic of her writing style that I am not familiar with. If I had read a book of hers previously, I might have had different expectations going in.

Let’s start off with some positives! I think Romina’s flower fortune ability was such a cool concept. I only wish it was explored more throughout the story. Her ability to magically weave fortunes throughout floral arrangements really is a unique idea that I haven’t seen before. I also absolutely love the cover of the book and think the title is super clever.

Now for the negatives. There was unfortunately just too much going on! To start off with, the plot was so chaotic I couldn’t follow along for most of the story. Next, I could not stand either of the main characters. They were not fun to dislike either, if that makes any sense. They were both enraging to the point that I just wanted to get the book over with. The “banter” between the two characters didn’t feel like banter at all. They were just straight up being mean to each other! If someone talked to me the way either of them talked to each other I honestly would never speak to them again. Because of this, I did not root for them at any point. Lastly, Hogle’s writing included some very cringey lines that were trying to be funny and relatable, but just fell so flat instead.

Disappointingly, I gave Old Flames and New Fortunes a 2 star rating. If you are familiar with Hogle’s other books and enjoy them, this could be right up your alley! If you are like me and haven’t ever read something by her before, I definitely wouldn’t recommend starting with this one, unless you like a bit of chaos in your books. Though Old Flames and New Fortunes is not a book I’ll revisit, I look forward to exploring the rest of Hogle’s literature.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this ARC of Old Flames and New Fortunes!

A second chance romance about a young, single lady who accidentally encounters her high school sweetheart, with whom she broke up with eleven years ago with long lasting traumatic effects when his mother is in town about to marry. To make things more complicated, his mother is about to marry her landlord's father, In a strange turn of events, Trevor (landlord and friend of Romina) is publicly shamed during his family gathering for the wedding for his love life and out of desperation, he claims that Romina is his girlfriend, and Alex (her high school sweetheart) is right there to see it all.
Romina finds herself in a sticky situation. Alex had broken her heart all those years ago, so she's less than feeling the love. Alex is wary and unconvinced that Romina and Trevor are together, nevertheless, their reunion becomes hostile with the two former flames bantering back and forth, which gets worse when they are paired up in a scavenger hunt for the wedding.
Along the way, her history unravels, and we see all the trauma that came along with the breakup. We see how they first met and fell in love through a series of flashbacks. Romina and Alex's walk down memory lane is like walking barefoot on broken glass, and I find myself wondering more about the circumstances when Romina talks about a past relationship with an older man with a child that she loved as her own, a second major scar in her heart.
Well, along with the love story, you also have another conflict. Romina and her sister run a shop along with Trevor as landlord, and they need a large sum of money in order to grow their business and expand. They need Trevor's father to help them out, but his father as a grudge against his son for making such poor financial decisions. Romina and Trevor feel pressured to maintain good appearances as two love birds to win his father's favor, but it gets very sticky when Trevor's ex Teyonna also shows up to town, throwing eveyrone's lives into chaos that they will have to try to navigate.
There's so much for me to like and not like, and quite a few times, I nearly DNF'd the book and nearly gave it three stars for some of the same reasons I saw with other reviewers. First, the not so good:
-The lack of chemistry between all the love interests.
So, I expected this to be a fake-dating book as a ploy to make a former flame jealous. The former flame is jealous all right, and Alex and Romina are so hostile for a good third of the book that it's hard really convince myself that these two were ever in love. I like Romina, but I found her responses to Alex's brash behavior quite baffling, and I found Alex to be incredibly unlikeable throughout a good portion of the book. Also, this would have been better to me if Romina and Trevor fake dating had a little more tension and steam, which is what I thought and hoped would happen. Instead, it falls flat, though by the end of the book, I could see why, but I felt this lack of emotional investment throughout a good solid part of the story. I also didn't care at all for Teyonna and Trevor, who although seem cute together, the cuteness feels forced and there's really a lack of tension or conflict between the two to make me care. But, they're not the main focus of the story so who cares?
Which brings me to my next point:
-I didn't care much for the supporting characters. I felt that Trevor was so goofy I couldn't take him seriously, and this goes for a lot of the others, so they never feel fully fleshed out. Maybe if Trevor and Romina had better chemistry, even if not romantic, it would keep me hooked more to the story. And throughout most of the book, Alex is a jerk, and I didn't find myself liking him much. Romina and him had no chemistry initially.
HOWEVER...
The Good:
The book salvages itself around the 40% mark when we get to a turning point between Alex and Romina, and more of the story as well as the history between them becomes unraveled and end up explaining a lot. They hash things out between the two of them, revealing alot of truth bombs as well as trauma that resulted after the breakup, bringing the past into more clarity. They both realize all the stupid mistakes they've made in hurting each other because they themselves are hurt.
I also really enjoyed reading up about the witchcraft aspect of the book as well as the meaning and symbols behind different flowers. There's a prophecy brought up by Romina's grandmother that later on becomes very important and integral in the story, and you don't see this until the very end.
What we end up with here is a good thought-provoking second chance romance where two people reconcile with the past and all the detours (including a very MAJOR one that I will not spoil) that life throws at you. They're both almost thirty and have lived quite a bit in between the time they have broken up and decided to get back together. The book brings up a lot hard issues women go through in life, such as whether or not to have kids (and I appreciate the characters who decide not to and why as a child-free person myself), dating a man with kids, and falling in love with a person as who and how they are. It's very realistic in its approach, and I really appreciate how the story handled them, as I could understand both Romina and Alex.
Full of unexpected twists and turns that did eventually taing e me on an emotional journey, I think it's worth finishing. It may not be the perfect, cookie cutter ending you would want or expect, abut that to me was what made it so speical.

I'm starting to think that Sarah Hogle isn't the author I thought she was. Because while I loved You Deserve Each Other, none of her other books have hit the same. This was ok, but it's not anything to write home about. The flower fortunes were fun, and I liked the Night Market plot, but everything else was very meh. I didn't care about the fake dating or the main romance at all. Mainly, I'm happy to be done with this.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review

Romina Tempest is a flower witch specializing in flora fortunes. She runs The Magick Happens with her sisters Luna and Zelda and the shop’s owner, Trevor Yoon who purchased the shop from the sister’s bitter mother after their parent’s divorce. The shop desperately needs room to expand and the group decides to ask Trevor’s investor father for a loan to make the updates. Romina and Trevor accidentally get caught up in a fake dating scheme when they head to what they think is a business meeting, but is actually Trevor’s father’s surprise engagement party. To make things worse, the bride is the mother of Romina’s first love and first heartbreak, Alex King. Alex is also attending the party and quickly inserts himself into Romina’s life in an effort to prove her and Trevor’s relationship is all a ruse. Now Romina is not only trying to make her business dreams come true, but provide flowers for the newly engaged couple’s whirlwind wedding, all while avoiding Alex’s efforts to expose her lies. Alex is persistent and neither he nor Romina have ever gotten over the other, so Romina’s fake relationship quickly starts to unravel. But Romina has been emotionally bruised from her last relationship and doesn’t know if she’s ready to give her heart away again, even to the man she never truly forgot.

Sarah Hogle’s Old Flames & New Fortunes is a whimsical, romantic second chance romance. A flowy, flowery little gem of a book. Romina and Alex are soulmates, destined for each other, but as teenagers managed to blow up their relationship. Hogle allows the characters to grow and mature and live their lives before bringing them back together, a little battered, but older and wiser and ready for the magic of their love. The characters in this book are a trip, especially Trevor! They’re wacky, zany, witty, and wonderful. And the shenanigans they get into are just plain amusing. Hogle builds a strong, magical world that isn’t outrageous or showy, but based in natural, nature magic. It’s soft, calming, and warm. A beautiful start and a solid foundation for the next books in the series,

”romina, i would’ve picked up the sun with my bare hands and moved it if you didn’t like the position of your shadow.” ♡₊˚

ugh sarah hogle writes the cutest second chance romances, i swear! i feel like her works are more lighthearted and not to be read with a really critical lense, because while the plot might be silly and not realistic, it still is a good time and i loved reading this one!

the vibes are definitely small town, cosy cottage witches and everything floral. i thought that the romance was really sweet; i loved the glimpses of alex and romina from the past and all of their scenes together in the present. their banter was really fun and they were just really cute together!

i do wish the fake dating aspect had been more serious/part of the plot for longer, but i still enjoyed the story! it was really fun, filled with pretty whimsical writing, and definitely kept my attention! i hope both of romina’s sisters get their own books, too!

The voice is incredibly distinct and should go over really well with the target audience. I stopped after chapter 1 (5%) but three stars easy and four to five for the right readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC.

Old Flames and New Fortunes by Sarah Hogle

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley for review. My opinions are my own.

5/5 stars

Sarah Hogle is a new author for me and she did not disappoint!

I was drawn to this book immediately because I love magical romance books. This book is definitely lighter on the magic and heavier on the romance. The magic is there but isn’t the defining theme of the book so if magic isn’t your thing, don’t let it deter you.

Read this book if you like second chance romance and slow burn romances.

hear me out… this book is cute. it has the warm feeling of a small town romance with quirky characters and endearing stories. and while i liked reading it i wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to others. for me the mmc had something missing that left me uninterested in his character. he wasn’t really noteworthy. but i did love the setting and female main character!

From the sisters, to the small town, to the magic that enlivens between the space of each word with love and the absolute promise of hope— Sarah couldn’t do no wrong and proves once again why her voice is a mainstay in romance.

Fabulous. Absolutely whimsical and fantastic. Sarah Hogle has done it again. I adored this one so very much and highly recommend it to fans who are looking for their next favorite book. All the stars for Sarah Hogle. Cannot wait for more romance

ARC Review
4.5
My girl has done it again! OBSESSED. It’s like a whimsical cottagecore dream, and the imagery is incredible. You’ve seen fantasy with a romance subplot, but this book was the opposite of that - heavy on the romance with just a sprinkle of magic, set in a modern world but the quaintest little fairytale dream of a small town. I loved the banter, the pining, the one liners, the characters, everything. PRAYING she’s making this a trilogy of the sisters like I’m expecting.

I adored the witchy small town setting of this book, and Romina, her sisters, and the side characters add so much to this story — now that they’ve seen the silver luna moth, I can’t wait until Luna and Zelda get their happy endings!

Like other reviewers, I was thrown off by the secret that Alex keeps from Romina for a large part of the story, especially because there was never any real explanation for keeping it a secret — but I thought that Hogle did a good job of portraying the impact of that secret on Romina, and moving the story forward from that point. The ending is too cute!

Thank you to the publisher for kindly providing this eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sarah Hogle knows how to write banter and I love it. I had a stupid smile on my face throughout the entire book. Romina and Alex's chemistry was so well written. The plot twist got me. I wasn't expecting that surprise and I was worried about how it would cause conflict. I will say I'm happy to see how everything worked out on the end. 10/10 recommend.

Sarah Hogle, you are magic. I don’t know if I can properly convey in words how much I LOVED this book!



Romina Tempest is a flora fortunist working (aka harnessing her magic into her floral arrangements) alongside her sisters in her family’s shop. The only problem? It doesn’t technically belong to their family anymore and the group (landlord Trevor included) may or may not have made some bad financial decisions. An opportunity arises to ask their landlord (and good friend’s) father for a loan to help them out but the opportunity doesn’t quite go as the group plans. Instead, Romina and Trevor end up in a fake dating scheme in the middle of Trevor’s father’s surprise wedding plans. But what neither of them saw coming was the return of Alex, Romina’s high school sweetheart. As the wedding shenanigans get underway, Romina and Alex keep crossing paths and slowly start to remember who they were together all those years before.



This book is the ultimate second chance romance. It was giving Practical Magic meets Charmed vibes filled with Hogle’s distinct brand of humor. It was whimsical, magical, and full of heart. Hogle has such a talent for writing characters that, while deeply flawed and growing, are unapologetically themselves.



But the best part? The banter. Let me tell you, this book has You Deserve Each Other level of banter and I was here for it.



There are just some books that stick with you long after you finish reading them, that you’ll keep coming back to again and again. I know, in my heart, that this will be one of those.



I already cannot fathom waiting until 2024 to get my hands on a physical copy!



Thank you so much to Putnam and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy!