If Sarah Hogle writes it, I’m going to read it. She won me over in her debut, You Deserve Each Other, and I love her unique story telling abilities.

I went into reading Old Flames and New Fortunes without any notion of the premise beyond magical realism which made for an interesting, but fun reading experience. There is so much about this book that I loved. I loved the language of flowers explored through Rowena and her magic, and how she used her gift to help others find their true love while her own heart was broken. I enjoyed the small town vibes and quirky side characters of Moonville. And I loved the banter between Alex and Rowena as they pushed each other’s buttons and challenged each other. My heart broke for them as details from their past were revealed and the multitude of ways their younger selves hurt each other was made known. As a second chance, I think this novel works really well to highlight mistakes that we make as a teen and how that affects us into adulthood. Like in her other novels, Hogle does a great job writing messy characters with relatable themes while remaining hopeful and engaging. I laughed out loud and I also felt teary with emotions which is what I expect in her work.

Overall this was an enjoyable read and will look forward to what she writes next. 4.5 rounded up for review, thank you to the publisher for this copy!

This book is full of fun, friendship, family and magic. It felt a bit chaotic at times but big family gatherings can do that to me. When the past comes back. big feelings that never really went away must be faced and decisions must be made. The characters are quirky and delightfully flawed.

Charming and whimsical! "Just Like Magic" was my favorite Christmas book last year so when I saw this new one by Sarah Hogle coming out, I was so excited to get my hands on it. This one didn't quite live up to "Just Like Magic" but it was still a good one! It was very creative and original. The main character, Romina, is a flora fortunist at a magical, enchanting shop called The Magick Happens where her 2 sisters work, too. I enjoyed the strong and loving bond between Romina and her sisters. This book was quirky and eccentric, with second-chance love and fake dating tropes. The magical realism isn't quite as good as "Just Like Magic" but it still was there and added some whimsical vibes to the book. Some of the banter was really immature which I wasn't crazy about. I saw that this book is being made into a series and I will definitely check out the next book. I also was very drawn to the cover of this one, it's so pretty and aesthetically pleasing! 3.5 stars!

Thank you, Penguin Group Putnam, and Net Galley for a copy in return for my honest review.

4.5/5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley & Penguin Group for sending me an ARC of Old Flames & New Fortunes in exchange for this honest review.

WHAT CAN I SAY, I am a sucker for magical realism and silly little second chance romances ♡

Old Flames and New Fortunes brings that pain of "where did we go wrong" and pure joy of finding each other again from You Deserve Each Other, but with the language of flowers and a lovely splash of witchiness. On top of this, there is so much cringe/feral girl behavior that is so reminiscent of my childhood that this felt like a warm embrace of being the weird girl.

Romina creates romantic floral fortunes by using different languages of flowers and the feeling of magic snapping into place. She longs for a family of her own, but still carries the weight of losing love and family in the past. When a business proposal turns out to actually be an engagement reveal, Romina finds herself face to face with her high school sweetheart, Alex.

Alex has been avoiding Moonville since going off to college, afraid to run into Romina and see her happier now without him in her life. But a scavenger hunt together along with a good old fashion fake-dating trope that leads to some serious jealousy brings Romina and Alex together to face what they have always known.

I will be needing more, and that fortune at the end is definitely pointing to more more more!

This book was so much more fun than I expected! I loved the characters and their journey even though I’m not usually a second chance romance fan, but I thought this was done very well. It was a good mix of funny, swoony, and deep!

Gosh, I don't think I could dislike the MMC more if I tried! I hated the secret he kept for much of the book, and it really spoiled what was a cute (if slightly forgettable) story. I loved the magical elements, especially the flowers. But the dialogue was so immature at times that I thought I was reading about teenagers.

I'm really glad I discovered Sarah Hogle's You Deserve Each Other out of pure chance. I fell in love with her writing immediately. I was thrilled to see Old Fames and New Fortunes. It was fun, easy, cute, and even with a fake-relationship trope (that I'm so tired of), I had so much fun reading this!

"𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘷𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘰𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘦𝘵."



It's quite serendipitous that I finished this book this weekend, since it was almost exactly 3 years ago that I listened to my very FIRST Sarah Hogle book (You Deserve Each Other) on my trip to and from the Outer Banks!

I really enjoyed this magical and witchy second-chance romance!

Romina has been through a lot - years after calling off her engagement to her high school sweetheart, she falls for the father of one of her pre-school kids and after a short time, finds herself once again heartbroken. In the present day, she's working selling flower fortunes, living in the cottage house of the flower shop and desperately craving a life with a husband and kids.

So, when she thinks she's heading to a business meeting but ACTUALLY is the announcement of her friend's father's re-marriage... she's already off her game when she's pulled into a fake dating scheme. She's absolutely NOT prepared to run into that aforementioned high school sweetheart, who's mom happens to be the bride.

I went through so many emotions throughout this book. I LOVE these Tempest sisters and I can't wait to head back to Moonville for the rest of the series. I also really loved learning so much about flowers and all their meanings!

Also, AMAZING job by @valerieroselohman on the audiobook! She absolutely brought everyone to life!

A big thank you to @putnambooks and @netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for this review!
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This novel was sweet of two kids who dates in high school, break up and are reconnected at a wedding where she pretends to date someone else to make her ex jealous. Along the way they recognize that they have feelings for each other and start to explore that.

I've tried multiple times to finish this book. It just wasn't for me sadly. I can see why others love it. Thank you for the arc.

Sarah Hogle knows what she’s doing. This was book was magical small town perfection. It’s quirky, weird, and wonderful. I can’t wait to read more of her work in the future.

Old Flames and New Fortunes by Sarah Hogle is an adult contemporary romance. All the main characters have a 21st century mindset and the candid, often crass, language that goes with that mindset. Hogle creates conflict between the heroine, Romina Tempest, and the romantic hero, Alex King, that audiences will relate to and can picture themselves in their roles. A cozy, small town read, Hogle's story is loaded with arousing dialogue and hot sex.

Tempest has a paranormal ability as a floral whisperer who understands the language of flowers, using her magic to channel the unique emotions that her customers mean to incite. She has a flower shop with her friend Trevor. Though Tempest is a staunch advocate for love and romance, she suffers from a broken heart made by the breakup with her high school sweetheart, Alex King.

In the vane of second chance tropes, Alex King comes back into Tempest's life in the role of Trevor's soon-to-be step-brother as King's mother is engaged to Trevor's father. Impulsively, Tempest wants to make King jealous by fake dating Trevor. King takes on the role of a sleuth, trying to unravel Tempest's well-crafted lies, and Tempest works diligently at weaving lies as a shield to protect her heart.

It's a story that is easily conducive to the original content found on TV channels like Lifetime and Hallmark. The tale is both simple and complicated, eliciting both joy and anger aimed at the main characters who engage in such game playing. It is a story that a contemporary audience will relate to and discover something more about human nature.

I really enjoyed this book and with the nineteen days between me reading it and now, I think I've actually just grown even more fond of it. Essentially, this book involves Romina, who is a plant witch, and Alex, a construction worker. The two of them were extremely serious in high school and things ended and they haven't talked to one another since until Romina gets thrust into the surprise role of pretending to be her boss/friend's girlfriend right as she is introduced to her friend's dad and his fiancee, Alex's mom. Turns out there's about to be a wedding!

The forced proximity, the shenanigans associated with this wedding, the way that Romina commits herself to TERRIBLY pretending to date her friend while Alex clocks every single thing that's wrong with this picture... Iconic, honestly.

There's also though a rather serious backstory where Romina, during the intervening decade or so, was in a relationship with a single father and that relationship dynamic wasn't particularly healthy. However, Romina was basically the child's mother. So when they broke up, she thought she would still be able to be in the kid's life, except ex-boyfriend is pretty much a trash can, so nope. Anyway, Romina is sort of grieving that loss throughout this book and it flares at certain times.

Overall, I loved the loose magic system in this book, the sisterhood vibes, the found family situation, and the romance in this book. I'm really hoping Sarah Hogle gets a chance to write about Romina's sisters in her next couple of books because I think we should get a chance to hang out in Ohio for a little bit longer.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC!

Old flames and new fortunes by author Sarah hogle was so cute I have always loved her books and this is no exception thank you so much netgalley

This was the most fun and bewitching book I’ve read in a while. I wasn’t sure I’d like the premise but miss Sarah has surprised me in the best way. This was lovely.

Alex + Romina. The couple that made everyone believe that HS sweethearts really can last forever. This book perfectly illustrates and captures that innocent hope and the magic of when first loves really are forever loves. Though they separated and took detours away from each other, the connection never died. It was just dormant. Sleeping. Until the time was right and a set of circumstances brought the love right back to the surface.

I loved the small-town setting and hints of magic. I'm especially excited that this seems to be the first in a trilogy of the Tempest Sisters and am hopeful for Luna and Zelda's stories to equally entrance readers.

My two points of contention are only that It did seem a bit longer than it needed to be, and I felt like throwing in that Alex has a child 300 pages in to the book was a bit of an unnecessary bombshell. That said, I did enjoy the story overall.

This is my second book by Hogle, I have read and liked "Just like Magic" this one however I found hard for me to connect with the character. I loved the magic of the flower shop, but I was hoping there would be more magic and funnier. I will read this next one in the series as I love this small magical town.

I always love a good fake dating romance, so I will continue on.

Romina is flora fortunist and wants to expend her shop and continue to use the language of flowers to help the hopeful manifest their love lives. She gave up on her own love life long ago when he broke her heart. But then he is back in town for a wedding that she will be doing, so she decides to fake date her chaotic colleague Trevor who will soon be stepbrother to ex Alex. Things start to get crazy, and it is becoming very hard to keep up with the scheme and also keep her heart intact.

Loved this one! However, it drug on once Alex moved to town.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own

A quick romance just in time for the season where escapist fiction is the remedy! Perfect for fans of witchy, slow burn romances, our main characters are old high school sweethearts who have found one another at their second stage of adulthood. Does love last? Do they truly hold grudges after a painful years-ago breakup?

Flora fortunes and entrepreneurial pluckiness were my favorite traits in my main character. There have been many good novels where the language and symbolism of flowers are the strength of the main character and it is a fun trope to indulge in! Alex, the love interest, came on way too strong in the beginning, in my opinion, but I think it was meant to grow tension. Dialogue seemed a bit forced in places, but overall an easy and fun romp of a read!

Meet Romina Tempest, current Flora Fortunist in the small town she grew up in. Romina loves to create magical creations with her flowers to help her customers in their life. Along with her sisters and friend/current owner of the shop, the group along with other shop owners in town, love to give a magical spice to everyone's life. Enter the ex-boyfriend who comes back into town for a wedding. Confused that Romina chose this path because she denied it growing up, Alex tries to get back into her life since they were both each other's person who got away and probably why they aren't able to find love and romance in their life now.

Old Flames and New Fortunes is an enjoyable and quick read which reminds you that you never know what could happen in your life when you least expect it. I'm definitely looking forward to the sequels for this series to see what happens next for each of the characters and getting to know them more.

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Putnam Books and Sarah Hogle for this ARC!

All reviews and opinions of this book are my own. Thank you!