This was very fun! I love cozies and magical realism, so having them both in the same book checked all the boxes for me. This is the first book in the series, so there's a fair amount of world-building, getting to know the townspeople and other businesses, etc., but it didn't feel bogged down in details. There's a lot of information about making fortune cookies, but I had never really thought about hand-made fortune cookies and I found it interesting. I liked the bakery setting and the mother-daughter relationship. All in all, it was an enjoyable, cozy reading experience. I'll definitely check out book 2.

Felicity Jin grew up literally hanging onto Mom’s apron strings in their magical bakery in the quaint town of Pixie, California. Her mother’s enchanted baked goods, including puffy pineapple buns and creamy egg tarts, bring instant joy to all who consume them. Felicity has always been hesitant in the kitchen herself after many failed attempts, but a takeout meal gone wrong inspires her to craft some handmade fortune cookies.
They become so popular that Felicity runs out of generic fortunes and starts making her own personalized predictions. When one customer’s ill-fated fortune results in his murder, Felicity’s suspiciously specific fortune has the police focusing on her as the main culprit. Now Felicity must find a way to turn her luck around and get cleared from suspicion.
What a fantastic cozy mystery that was funny as well. I really enjoyed the cast of characters and the cookies.

#IllFatedFortune #NetGalley

Ill-Fated Fortune

A Magical Fortune Cookie Novel

By: Jennifer J. Chow

Publish Date: February 20, 2024

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books

Mystery and Thriller

#IllFatedFortune#NetGalley

200 Book ReviewsProfessional Reader

I would like to thank both NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for allowing me to read and review this book.

Book Review:

I really enjoyed this book and gave it 4 stars. This is the first book in a new cozy mystery series. This book is about a mother and daughter who own a bakery. This bakery is special because everything is handmade by which there is no special machine to mix the batter. What makes this bakery different is that their feelings are imbedded into the baked goods. So, the customer are able to have a great time or a bad time. Felicity after many tries has finally come up with her special baked item. That is her fortune cookies. She made them because a restaurant had terrible ones, and she wanted to try to make some. Everyone in her family finds one baked product that they are good at, and Felicity finally found hers. One day she discovered that she has another talent and that she can predict their fortunes. Unfortunately, one of the customers she does this with ends up dead in the back alley behind their shop. The police are looking at her for the murder because they find his fortune in his pocket, and it wasn’t a good one. Felicity and her best friend Kelvin start to investigate to clear her name. This isn’t good because they get the way of the police, but their town doesn’t like outsiders, and the police officer is an outsider, so the people don’t really talk with them. As Felicity investigates, she also finds ways to sale her cookies in the stores in the nearby stores and the restaurant that gave her the idea in the first place.

I really like the mom and daughter who work together well and the love they have for each other. I also like how her friend stands by her even when she gets mad at him. The town stands up for them by helping them as things go off around them. I would recommend this book and can’t wait to read book two which I have the luck of having as an e-arc.

Ill-Fated Fortune is a cozy mystery with a magical twist. Felicity and her family make their living in their magical bakery in California, where they serve the needs of a demanding customer base, providing often Americanized versions of Chinese products. Felicity’s special skill is custom fortune writing. When a customer is found dead the same day she writes a fortune for him, she becomes the top suspect. It’s up to her (much to the chagrin of Detective Suni) to solve the murder and clear her name.

I received this advanced reader copy of Ill-Fated Fortune from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review.

A little bit of mystery and a lot of magic! That's what you'll get in his first in series by Jennifer Chow. I enjoyed getting to know Felicity and her mom while they run their magical bakery in Pixie California. Felicity's fortune writing comes to a halt when one of her customers is murdered. With her family shop's reputation on the line, Felicity and her best friend seek out information to find the real murderer. If they don't Felicity will have her own ill-fated future.
I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

3.5 stars

I'm always on the lookout for a new to me cozy mystery series. I was searching my NetGalley backlog (a work in progress for sure) and found this one so decided to give it a try. This was a fun read and a series that I plan to continue on with. What made this book a bit different than your typical cozy is the magical elements. Felicity has been working in her family owned bakery but hadn't found her own magical skills until very recently. As she is trying to get a handle on her magic, she finds herself caught up in a murder investigation and the story goes from there. This was an enjoyable read. It wasn't the best mystery as I managed to figure out the whodunnit early on. Being surprised isn't always the point of cozy mysteries anyways. I thought the characters were enjoyable and I really liked watching Felicity work on coming into her own and finding her magical abilities. It was just a solid read for me. 3.5 stars but I'm rounding up.

Readers who enjoy cozy mysteries or those looking for a cozy but suspenseful read should give this series a try.

Another wonderful cozy mystery by Jennifer Chow! I loved this one and the characters were such fun. I enjoyed the story and the different aspects of the mystery. I can't wait to read more book by Jennifer Chow. If you enjoy a quick and fun cozy mystery this is for you!

I love a good cozy mystery! One that incorporates all of my favorite topics (i.e. genealogy, bookstores, libraries, cooking, painting, inn keeping, animals, etc.), throwing in some action-suspense, a who-done-it, interesting characters, and a plot that keeps me guessing, then you’ve got me hooked. I will say, I am one of those people who like to read a series from the beginning, but I often find you don’t have to… either way I highly recommend reading Ill-Fated Fortune by Jennifer J. Chow.

*I received a complimentary copy of this novel from NetGalley at my request and this review is my own unbiased opinion.*

Ill-Fated Fortune is a charmingly whimsical light paranormal cozy mystery series starter by Jennifer J. Chow. Released 20th Feb 2024 by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in paperback, mass-market paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is a well written, engaging, series starter by a consistently productive *readable* author. The series features a young Asian American protagonist whose family bakery bakes slightly magical sweets. Felicity falls under suspicion when the police find one of her custom fortunes on the body of a murder victim.

The character driven plot moves along at a good pace, and the mystery is well engineered and appealing. She has a fun relationship with her bestie who runs the neighboring florist shop and is on-board with helping her clear her name. It's nice that the local police detective isn't incompetent or antagonistic, and they semi-bond over the microaggressions and racism-lite that people of color live with every day in the USA.

Four stars. Eminently readable and pleasant. The language is clean, and there's no on-page graphic violence. The author/publisher have also included some crafty recipes (fortune cookie, floral arranging, and candle/meditations) at the back of the book in classic cozy mystery style.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

A great start to a new series. In the beginning I thought what is is going on a mother and daughter and magic. Well, it turned out to be a well written book that kept on going and turned her into a baker and she finds like her mother and the rest of the women before her magic. It was a fast paced well written book that just kept on moving and fun and interesting till she found the answer of what was going on and felicity did it YAY!!!! Looking forward to the next book,

This is a cute cozy mystery. Felicity and her mom run a bakery. Each woman in their family have a magic. desert. Felicity still hasn't figured hers out., until now. This is a good thing, Isn't it?
THis was a fun book,and I am really looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

✨️ Ｂｏｏｋ Ｒｅｖｉｅｗ ✨️

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Ill Fated Fortune
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: Jennifer Chow
𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬: 320
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: A Magical Fortune Cookie, Book 1

𝐌𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬: Felicity Jin and her mother own Gold’s Bakery in a small tight knit town called Pixie in California. They have a magical power where they can transfer their feelings into their baked goods. Her mom spreads joy into her pineapple tarts and egg tarts. Felicity has been struggling to come into her own powers. But with practice, she starts making fortune cookies and writing personalized fortunes that predict the future for those eating them. They are so good and everyone wants some. She is so excited until she predicts a murder and becomes the prime suspect!

𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠:Pixie, California with some time spent in Fresno

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝:
• Lovely book cover
• Felicity’s Bestie Kelvin (kinda wish they had a romantic relationship)
• Great supporting characters
• Fantastic character development (her baking confidence & solving the murder)
• The Bunny
• Detective Sun! She was a saint for dealing with Felicity’s meddling into the crime
• Lots of twists and turns to find out Who Done It?

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐃𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞:
• Lots of repetition. I feel that the book could have been shorter without it
• Too many unnecessary characters - got a little confusing (unless they are possibly for future books?)

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐡𝐚𝐬:
Tight-knit Community
Bakery Setting with yummy Asian sweet treats
Cozy Mystery
Magic
Yummy Asian Sweet Treats
Murder
Amature Detective

𝐂𝐖:
Physical Assault
Anxiety
Destruction of property
Poisoning

Thank you to @netgalley & @stmartinspress for the gifted copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Jennifer J. Chow is starting to become one of my favorite cozy mystery authors and I was so excited to read her new Magical Fortune Cookie. The premise is interesting and I love how Chow uses Food and magic. The mystery is interesting and I did love the cast of characters, as each character was interesting. I will say that while I enjoyed this book and can't wait for the next book in the series to come out, I didn't get hooked like Chow's L.A Night Market series did. The pacing felt slower and I like Yale and Celine more than Lissa and Kelvin. I also like that the police in Chow's books aren't incompetent like many of the other cozy mystery books that seem to come out.

Overall, I can't wait to see where Chow goes with this new series.

I am not sure which I enjoyed more, this cozy series starter or the fortune cookie recipe at the end of the story. I should also point out that I was craving pastries, good Chinese food, flower arrangements, and scented candles and all while reading this mystery. This story is a hat trick of magic and has all the aspects of a cozy with a strong protagonist who has supportive friends and family, an ability to get people to talk and magic. Felicity comes from a family of magical bakers; the Jin(which means Gold) family ladies can bake happiness into a pastry. Felicity has struggled to be able to figure out her signature bake or how to infuse it with joy, until she comes across a horrible fortune cookie, that certainly she can make better than the factory where it originated. And all of a sudden, Felicity has her signature bake and the ability to tell an accurate fortune. Unfortunately not all fortunes are good and she almost blacks out when the fortune writing magic takes over, which leads to the murder and Felicity being the top suspect on Detective Rylan Sun’s suspect list. Can you really blame the detective? It is the self-proclaimed Fortune Cookie King Charlie Gong who ends up dead in a dumpster behind the Gold Bakery, with Felicity’s fortune in his coat pocket. Things go from bad to worse but luck for Felicity she has her buddy Kelvin whom you wonder if Felicity truly appreciates all he does for her. Poor guy is stuck in the friend zone, but I have hope for a slow build-up. Felicity starts her own suspect list and with Kelvin’s help starts tracking down clues while trying to bake joy into her cookies even though she feels anything but joyful as the gossip spreads throughout the town of Pixie and starts to have a very negative effect on the family business and her mom. The suspects are wily and the red herrings are plentiful but Felicity has a little luck on her side, seems that a highly usual candle produced a highly unusual event in the way of a white rabbit that just shows on the Jin family doorstep and hops right in like she belongs there. This is one charmed bunny that winks and helps Felicity to see things clearer. You will thoroughly enjoy the character interactions as much as the characters themselves. I imagine that there will be a story arc that has something to do with Felicity’s AWOL dad who left long ago. No one in Felicity’s mom’s side of the family has the ability to foretell the future, they also don’t seem to have the sassy attitude that Felicity can turn on and off. I like my main characters with a little sass, makes them seem more multi-dimensional. The plot was as artfully arranged as I imagined Kelvin’s flower arrangements to be. Last but not least, the recipe looks easy enough to follow and I can’t wait to try it. I give this story 5 out of 5 Felicity Fortune Cookies

A great start to a new cozy mystery series that involves food, which are indeed some of my favorite cozies. I can't wait for more in this series to see where the series goes.

Felicity Jin and her mom own a bakery in a small area of shops in Pixie, near Fresno, CA. She finally discovered her baking gift of writing fortunes that predict the future. However, when one of her customers winds up dead in the dumpster behind the bakery, Felicity becomes a suspect.

Although this book seemed slow moving at first, the plot picked up and became more interesting. The characters were also intriguing and quirky. This is the first in a new series about magical baking, but the emphasis on magic is minimal and fits right in with the Asian heritage of Felicity and her mom. The other shop keepers play minor roles but add a lot of interest to the story.

This is a cozy mystery without violence, strong language, or intimacy. It sets the stage for additional books in the series.

I received this book from the publisher and from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

3.5 stars.
Felicity Jin and her mother don't have a lot, but are happy together. They own and run Gold bakery, where her mother enchants her pineapple buns and egg tarts with joy, ensuring her customers will experience this when eating the baked goods.

Their bakery is located in a cul-de-sac in the quaint, small town of Pixie, California. Their immediate neighbour is childhood best friend Kelvin, who runs Love Blooms, a florist shop that crafts glorious floral arrangements, and across the way is Paz Illuminations, run by Felicity's godmother Alma Paz, whose candles and wisdom attract many a customer.

Felicity has never really gotten the hang of baking, but decides one day that she's going to make fortune cookies, and she succeeds, pleasing even her exacting mother. The fortune cookies become instantly popular, and Felicity creates handwritten, somewhat generic fortunes for them. Intriguingly, when she lightly touches a customer, she experiences dizziness and strange lights and colours, after which she writes a custom fortune for the person, but is unaware of what she's written. These fortunes tend to come true (e.g., You will win $2000.) The one that lands Felicity in trouble is one that a customer receives the same day he's found dead in the garbage bin behind their bakery.

Detective Rylan Sun from Fresno sets her initial sights on Felicity, as the fortune she wrote for him was a little too on point. But soon, she's questioning others, but no culprit is found, and a cloud hangs over the bakery, affecting Felicity's mother's ability to craft her joy-filled pastries.

Felicity convinces Kelvin to help her investigate the dead man, and by talking to his connections, she not only secures more business for the bakery, but also determines that 1) the dead man was not liked, 2) he ran a fortune cookie factory that mistreated its workers and cheaped out on ingredients, and 3) didn't honour his commitments to his clients.

Felicity eventually not only identifies the killer but also gets a better handle on her gift, and sets the bakery on a more profitable path.

This was a nice start to a new series. I've read books in a different series (“LA Night Market”) by this author, which I've quite liked. So I came to this book eager to meet her new protagonist. Though initially suffering from a lack of confidence, the likeable Felicity gains this though her newfound love of baking, but also her successful investigating.

The character interactions are fun, with Felicity and Kelvin demonstrating the easy comfort of a lifelong relationship during their conversations. Most of the people, except for the murderer, in this story are pleasant, though there are a few instances of racism.

Detective Sun is also not shown to be incompetent or stupid, which is a welcome change for a cozy mystery. In fact, through the story, the two women gradually become more comfortable with each other, which was a nice result after the start to their relationship.

As I enjoyed this book, I'd like to read more about Felicity and her investigating adventures. (I am also eager to try the recipe for fortune cookies found at the end of the book!)

Thank you to Netgalley and to St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Jennifer J. Chow is an auto buy author for me and her books just get better and better. I loved the mother/daughter relationship in this one. Can't wait for the next book in this series!

This book started off strong but slowly got repetitive and boring. For one, there were no point in half the characters. For another why were there so many dang chapters after we found out do done the killing? Like what the heck no. ALSO, I saw everything from a mile away. This book was truly awful. Do not recommend.

3.5 stars rounded to 4 stars.

I’m always down for a good cozy mystery, and this book sounded like a great start to a new series. Plus, I was especially excited to see more diversity in cozy mysteries, which is an area that has been neglected for far too long.

In this book, Felicity Jin has grown up in a small town, admiring her mother’s skills in their magical bakery. However, she’s the only Jin woman in her family line that hasn’t inherited the gift of bringing joy to others through their baked goods. But when Felicity gets Chinese takeout with some disappointing fortune cookies, she decides to take matters into her own hands and try baking her own. And they come out so good that she starts selling them in the shop, where people can’t get enough of them.

Felicity turns out to have a magical gift of her own—when her hand makes contact with another person’s, she’s able to write a bespoke fortune that comes true. Unfortunately, when one person is murdered shortly after getting a fortune cookie from Felicity, it puts her squarely in the crosshairs of the police—as the main suspect. Of course, this also puts her as head amateur sleuth trying to clear her name, even as Detective Sun is trying to solve the crime.

One of the things that I really loved about this story was the relationships in it. There’s a really close and heartwarming bond between Felicity and her mother, and I loved seeing how they are so involved with each other yet still respect boundaries for privacy. Felicity and her best friend Kelvin have a great dynamic—he owns the floral shop next to the Jin’s bakery, and while he doesn’t look like the typical florist, he knows his stuff and more importantly, he’s a great friend to Felicity, who he calls ‘Lissa.’ I adored that he alone uses that nickname for her, and that he was perfectly willing to drop everything and become the Watson to Felicity’s Sherlock. Finally, rather than having a completely antagonistic relationship between Felicity and Detective Sun, they turn out to have more of a complementary connection, even going so far as to bond over a microaggression at one point.

The story is a good one, and the plot kept me intrigued. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and trying to solve the mystery on my own. The pace was a little slower than I’d normally like, with a few subplots to keep the story moving along, but there’s also the random appearance of a magical bunny who the Jin ladies decide to keep as a pet. Whiskers actually winds up playing an important role in the story, and I really loved that bunny. This is a good start to the series, and I’ll definitely be tuning in for the next one. There’s room to grow, and I’m really hoping for good things.