I've been browsing the cozy fantasy genre and have found that I tend to have one of two reactions to it, Either it missed the mark and is more aesthetic than substance, or its themes go deep, and I know I need it for my shelf to reread when times get hard.
This book is the latter.
Themes of found family, choosing to be gentle, forgiveness, and acceptance, all guided us through this poignant novel. I don't want to tell you how, I just want you to read it.
You deserve to pick it up when things get difficult too.
Lovely book. Can't recommend enough.

Thank you to netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong is a debut fantasy with cozy mystery elements.

Tao is an immigrant and a fortune teller, though she will only tell "small" fortunes like whether it will hail next week or who the barmaid will kiss. Thanks to a very bitter experience, she doesn't tell "big" fortunes anymore. Travelling around on her cart from town to town has been a pretty lonely experience, until she meets an ex-mercenary and (semi) reformed thief, a baker, and a slightly magical cat.

This was a really cute read! I really needed something light and cozy and thankfully it fit the bill nicely. I'm always a big fan of the found family trope, especially when that family includes a mangey cat who shows up via the Cat Distribution System. Also, this cover is amazingly beautiful!

You may end up hungry while reading this, because there is a lot of tea--reading the leaves is one of the ways Tao tells fortunes--and various baked goods from our uninspired baker to decides to travel to see the world. There's a bit of a mystery element as well with our ex-mercenary looking for his missing daughter.

It definitely reminded me of scenarios that my friends and I have had while playing Dungeons & Dragons. There's a lot of slice-of-life moments, which is one of the hallmarks of cozy fantasy for me--and the growth of each character throughout the book is really well done. Many of our characters spend the book learning who they actually are, instead of trying to fit into boxes they were placed into by others. That hit home for me in many ways.

If you liked books like Legends and Lattes or Can't Spell Treason Without Tea you should absolutely pick this up.

CW: racism, political conflict, death parent (prior to book), parental neglect, grief

4.25⭐️s
Cozy Fantasy WITH stakes... like middle ground stakes, nothing stressful.
The Teller Of Small Fortunes was a warm and charming tale. The characters are flawed yet loveable. Its adventurous, sweet, and lighthearted, serving empathy and love.
Though there's magic and fantastical elements, it offered very poignant discourse around some of our worlds biggest issues (racism, immigration), while somehow still being a very comforting and hopeful read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group | Ace for the eARC!

Thank you to @prhaudio for my complimentary audiobook and to @acebookspub @berkleypub for my complimentary eARC.
All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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The Teller of Small Fortunes is an absolute gem. It is a delightful story of magic and found family.
I paired the audiobook with the digital arc and I am so glad I did. Phyliss Ho's narration is calm and soothing. It was just what I needed to get through a crazy day.
If you enjoyed Legends & Lattes you need to read this one.

This review was originally posted on <a href="https://booksofmyheart.net/2024/11/07/%f0%9f%8e%a7-the-teller-of-small-fortunes-by-julie-leong/" target="_blank"> Books of My Heart</a>


<i>Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.</i>

4.5 hearts

I never know what I'll get when reading a fantasy book. <strong>The Teller of Small Fortunes</strong> was described as cozy and that seems right.  There isn't a big war.  The setting seemed rather historical as much fantasy does.

Our heroine, Tao, has a wagon with her treasured mule, as she travels around Eshtera.  She is Shinn, from Shinara, but after her father died, her mother brought her here with her new husband.  So while she is seen as of another country, she hasn't been there since she was a small child and doesn't really speak their language.  She ran away from home when her parents wanted her to go into the magic gild.  So she only tells small fortunes, using very little magic, to stay beneath the radar.

Her fortunes are true and people don't always like that. Another reason to tell only small things.  It is a lonely life until she meets two men. She tells one his fortune that he will give a kitten to a small girl, only to learn they are hunting for his lost girl.  So Tao joins them in the search.  A bit later, another woman who wants to see the world comes along. She is a baker.  They become close and loyal friends as they travel.  It's not about romance.

The heart is about finding yourself and your purpose in life. Sometimes that requires striking out on your own or taking a risk and trying new things.  Each of the four experiences some real growth and the joy of a found family.

The magic gild catches up with Tao. Her friends help her escape and when she is taken away by the gild, they go to rescue her again.  Tao learns about the gild and why they want her.  But she wants some thing from them as well.

I love this story and these characters.  They were fun and thoughtful, loyal and hard-working.  Anyone would want to travel with them!

This book was vibrant and magnificent and an incredible look at found family. If you like low stakes character stories with magic and found family look no further. I adored all the characters and what brought them together. I was rooting for each and every one of them

AND LOOK AT THAT COVER!!!

This book was charming, and I enjoyed it. It wasn't QUITE the warm hug in the form of a book that I was hoping it would be, but it was good. I was hoping for something really warm and cozy like I get from Becky Chambers or Travis Baldree, and while this was definitely Cozy Fantasy, it wasn't quite on the same level of heartwarming. I am not certain what it was missing for me because when I look at the things I love about those other authors, this book had many of the same ingredients: found family, charming locales, lowish-highish stakes adventure. I think I just didn't connect to any of the characters on an emotional level. All of that said, this was a sweet, charming book, and I do recommend it to readers of Chambers and Baldree. It just wasn't as emotionally cuddly to me as the others.

Tao is an immigrant wandering fortune teller. She knows it’s important to stick to small fortunes like when it will rain or if someone should expect good news. She is used to being alone and independent. Along the way she meets up with two men searching for a child. They meet up with brilliant if messy baker who joins them.

This cozy fantasy is filled with themes of friendship and found family. There’s a hero’s quest to find the missing girl. There’s a difficult and heartwarming mother-daughter relationship to parse. And of course there’s a grumpy cat!

It’s definitely a slower, lighter read for fantasy and at times the plot dragged for me. It was almost too low key even for me. A random side quest almost seemed out of place for the story as a whole. The conclusion wraps things up neatly in a satisfying manner.

The characters had no depth to them. The story, while imaginative, seemed too simple. For me, this book was just barely OK. Thank you to NetGalley and Ace for the complimentary digital ARC. This opinion is my own. Disappointing.

I read somewhere that The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong was a book in a new subgenre, being a cozy fantasy book. No matter what it is called it is a captivating story with characters that you love. A created group as such with a common goal to begin with, then finding that they are now a family. Despite some of the heavy topics and ideas this is a delightful book. New beginnings, past coming to haunt, forgiveness, acceptance are just some of the themes that spoke to me. From a new-to-me-author, I will eagerly be looking for more from her.

This is definitely different from my typical read but the beautiful cover and description caught my attention. This book was seriously just so cozy. If you like found family, I really enjoyed that element to the book. Tao’s character development was my favorite part of the story. The book also touches on the struggles of identity and explores Tao’s immigrant experience. This was a low stakes, cozy adventure fantasy read. Great for this time of year. Congrats on getting chosen for Book of the Month!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ace for letting me read an e-ARC of The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong!

I’ve been in a pretty bad reading slump for the majority of October, but after tearing through this book, my heart feels more restored. Leong brings Tao’s world to life with vivid imagery, baked goods that float off the page, and realistic everyday people just trying to find their way through life. Tao’s journey of vulnerability and opening up to people is one that I think will resonate with many readers. Especially as she tries to reckon with her life as an immigrant who has had to leave her home country behind and adopt the language and practices of a new, foreign country. It's not just Tao who grows throughout the story, though. All of her companions in one way or another come to learn about themselves -- their values, their hopes and dreams, their goals -- all because their paths crossed and they chose to travel together. Friendship and family are heavily explored themes and will pull on your heartstrings throughout the entire book.

There is so much to talk about with this book, but if you are a fan of cozy fantasy with the lowest of low stakes, this is probably the book for you. It’s recommended for fans of Legends & Lattes, but I think many will love this slice of life story even more. I can’t wait to see what else Leong will cook up in her career!

This cozy fantasy debut is a gem. And I LOVED it! Beautifully written, it conveys an aura of magic and myth with gentleness and heart, and I was drawn in from the start. Then, I fell in love with the characters and did not want the book to end! Heartwarming and sweet, the story has depth as it touches on themes like found family, personal growth, healing and forgiveness, and immigrant experiences.

The character development is very well done, with nuanced characters that come to life on the page. Tao, a wandering immigrant fortune teller, is about to embark on an unexpected adventure. A seemingly ordinary small fortune will lead her to travel with a former mercenary searching for his missing child, a semi-reformed thief, an apprentice baker hungry for new experiences, and some fabulous animals. As they travel and open up to one another, they show tremendous growth across the story, and you can't help but root for them. I loved this and cannot wait to read what Leong writes next! Fans of cozy fantasy don't miss this one!

Phyllis Ho's narration of the audiobook is delightful. She brings a sense of wonder to the world-building and expertly embodies the various personalities and emotions of the characters. Her narration kept me fully immersed in the story, even when I couldn't read the physical book. I alternated between the physical and audio, and the story is entertaining in either format.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing, Ace Books, Penguin Random House Audio, and Netgalley for the gifted book!

The Teller of Small Fortunes felt very whimsical in its delivery especially listening to the audiobook which was perfectly done by the way. I loved listening the narrator!

Tao, with the ability to tell big fortunes, chose to only tell small fortunes. She did this because with granting big fortunes comes big consequences. Underneath the whimsical feel, this book has a true message of friendships, found family, forgiveness, believing in yourself and more! There is an emotional pull as we follow Tao’s adventure and those friends she finds along the way. It made me think of friendships I’ve made through the love of books and sharing on social media, ones that I would not have made if not for this adventure on social media. The fantasy adventure followed in this story is one that would be great for a novice fantasy reader, or first time fantasy readers who want to dig into the genre. This could just be my thought, but at one point I got The House on the Cerulean Sea vibes which I know is a bookstagram favorite of many!

A wandering fortune teller finds herself on an unexpected adventure as well as befriending unlikely people... yet when her real magic catches the eyes of others she'll have to rely on her new friends in this soft found family fantasy read. Tao is a wandering fortune teller, she travels from town to town offering "small" fortunes, refusing to ever veer into bigger ones after the terrible consequences of the big fortune she once told. Tao is lonely... and when one of her small fortunes leads to her being swept up in helping an ex-mercenary and reformed thief search for a lost child she can't say no, and along for the way is a baker and a slightly magical cat. This was a really warm hearted and sweet adventure that focuses on friendship and found family. It's a easy read and just feels like a cozy time.

Release Date: November 5,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group | Ace for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

This is a lovely cozy book. It is a fantastical story about a young woman who can tell fortunes, but she refuses to tell any fortune outside of a small one. Something simple that will not cause people to feel like their life is dictated for them. On her journeys she finds three other friends who join to form a merry gang, each hoping to find something along the way. This book is very easy to read, and the characters are simple, but still have vibrancy of their own that shines through the pages. If you’re looking for a book that has good characters and a decent plotline look no further.
Thank you to Berkly Publishing Group and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

#TheTellerOfSmallFortunes:⁣
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Thank you @prhaudio @berkleypub @acebookspub for my free copies! #PRHAudioPartner #BerkleyPartner⁣
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“There’s no such thing as greater good—there’s just good, and the more of it we can do, the better.”⁣
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I’m telling you, cozy fantasy just tugs at my heartstrings and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and I never want this feeling to go away.⁣
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This gave me Wizard of Oz feels as we are literally just picking up random people along the way. It’s truly a merry little band of misfits and I adored it. I had a soft spot for Mash, that grumpy ole rut. I couldn’t help but have a soft spot. ⁣
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The audio was decent by Phyllis Ho. It wasn’t my favorite, but it was easy to listen to as I went through and put away Halloween decorations. It wasn’t terrible either. I’d say a definite happy medium. When I had the option to read the physical book, I did choose that instead. ⁣
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Overall, a solid cozy fantasy for all the snuggly feels. A definite recommend and I can see why it’s a @bookofthemonth pick this month!

Unfortunately this one wasn't my favorite. I was really hoping to connect with the characters more but it didn't quite work out that way. The story had potential, and I appreciated the author's creativity but this one fell flat for me.

Cute, gentle. Definitely a book for those looking for cozy fantasy. A found family story rather than a romance and it kind of reminds me of the gentler Studio Ghibli cartoons. Also goes into the immigrant experience but not in a super deep way, more an acknowledgement the character moved to the country as a child and doesn’t remember her country of birth or the language very well. Good book and I’ve marked the author to follow in Goodreads because I’d 100% read another by the same author.

The Teller of Small Fortunes is a cozy fantasy following Tao, an immigrant fortune teller. Tao only tells small fortunes, not the big life altering fortunes. She travels through small towns and villages, with her friend (and Mule) Laohu. Laohu is a character in his own right, and I love it!

Tao is an endearing protagonist who is used to traveling alone. She’s joined by a cast of quirky adventurers, including a one-eyed cat. Each character is well-developed, bringing their own quirks and stories that add depth to the story.

I am a sucker for a found family, especially when that family includes animals. I really enjoyed this book. It was cozy and wholesome and fun to read.