I was really excited by the premise but it fell kind of flat for me. I found. Myself comparing this book to other romances featuring young people in college or travelling and this one just didn’t live up to my expectations. I did love the bond and connection between Lo and Teller. I feel like it will be the right book for someone else.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I adored Woke Up Like This, so I was happy to get Something Like Fate.

Lo Zhao comes from a family of psychics who have visions of their soul mate. Her best friend Teller Owens has been her platonic best friend for 4 years, but after their 1st year at college, when they barely talked, they see each other just after Lo finally has a vision. She can't see her soul mate, but she believes it takes place in Italy, where she's supposed to go with her friend Bianca. Then Bianca breaks her foot, and Lo gets Teller to go with her instead.

The trip gets off to a rocky start. Lo wanted to retrace the steps her late mom and her aunt Mei's trip 30 years ago. They go to Venice, Rome, Florence, Tuscany, and the Amalfi Coast. I've never been to Italy, so I wanted to live vicariously through Lo & Teller.

Then Lo meets Caleb, who rescues her from a near accident. She's convinced Caleb is her soulmate. I was very doubtful, but I liked the group of traveling people they met at the hostels. All this time, it was so obvious who Lo should date. When it finally happened, I squeed. Then, unfortunately, they got in their own ways. I couldn't understand the characters' insistence in believing this Caleb guy was the One for Lo. Also hard to understand the decision she made before coming home.

I enjoyed the banter and witty writing, though, so I rounded up from 3.5 stars to 4. Available 3/1/25 or earlier through Amazon 1st reads.

I have to be honest and say I DNF this book at 30%. I loved Amy Lea’s previous YA release so I was beyond excited for a chance to read Something Like Fate.

Unfortunately, there was a lot that didn’t work for me. Fore-mostly, my biggest issue is that this is being marketed as YA. However the characters actions and language definitely land it in the NA category instead. I mean, the book opens up with our FMC mid-hook up and we constantly hear about di** pics - like to an absurd degree. Despite them acting like they are grown (but only being 19) I found Lo particularly to be very immature and self-centered.

I think this may work for someone else, unfortunately I found I was not the targeted audience.

Thank you for the chance to read and enjoy early and provide feedback, NetGalley and Amazon publishing.

Out March 1st, 2025

Thank you @netgalley and @amyleabooks for the free digital arc of this one 💖.

✨What it is about:
Longtime high school best friends Lo and Teller, go on a summer trip to Italy where they discover whether true love is up to destiny or free will.✨

💭My thoughts:
I had a really great time reading Loren and Teller’s individual journey to love. I particularly loved the Italian setting and all the food talk. It was interesting to watch Loren be so focused on her destiny, without paying attention to what was right in front of her. She had many internal conflicts regarding school, her connection with her mother, as well as with her family traditions. At her young age I can see how these could have prevented her from grasping the obvious. I loved learning all about her friendship with Teller through the years, their patience with each other, and how even though they were complete opposites, somehow they managed to make their friendship work with not much effort. Their emotional connection was there. The love triangle wasn’t my favorite, but it was handled nicely. Overall it was a very cute read.

4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Read if you like:
🇮🇹 Friends to lovers
🇮🇹 Love triangle
🇮🇹 Italian settings
🇮🇹 Opposites attract
🇮🇹 Invisible string/Soulmates
🇮🇹 Grumpy sunshine
🇮🇹 Closed door romance
🇮🇹 One bed

⚠️CW: Death of a parent off the page.

3.75⭐️ rounded up. This was v adorable! Reading YA romance does not always work for me (is this actually YA? It felt like it) but this was a fun read once I got into it. I loved traveling Italy with Lo and rooting for her to pick the right guy!! I loved the idea of Lo FINALLY having a psychic vision of her soulmate, and grappling to figure out what fate really means.

I enjoyed this book, but it didn’t stand out much from other romcoms I’ve read. The concept of psychic abilities and knowing who your soulmate is seemed interesting, but the execution felt a bit juvenile and cringey at times, though it improved in the second half. The relationship between Teller and Loren was definitely the highlight for me; their friendship turned into something more, and I loved how well they understood each other. I just wished there were more moments of them as a couple before the story ended, and I’m always disappointed when a book doesn’t have an epilogue. Despite its flaws, it was a cute read that reminded me of the joy of romance I had as a teenager. The story follows Lo, who’s struggling in college and seeking her soulmate, which her family’s psychic abilities promise. When she finally gets a vision, she believes she’ll meet him in Italy, and though she does meet him, she also has to navigate feelings for her best friend, Teller. It was fun to travel through Italy with the characters, and while it’s a bit hard to connect with YA romance as an adult, my teenage self would’ve loved it. The ending was really satisfying, and I appreciated the touching conversations Lo had with her family about love and making big decisions.

⭐️: 5
🌶️: 1

✈️ YA
✈️ destination vacation
✈️ childhood best friends to lovers
✈️ psychic visions
✈️ love triangle

Perfection. This was the exact sweet, lighthearted romance I needed to pull me out of my reading slump. It transported me to Italy and made me laugh and cry while following Lo’s heart wishes. This book is labeled as YA but reads more like a clean romance, which I truly appreciated. The characters were young (college aged) and finding themselves, but mature and far from childish.

The love triangle between Lo, Teller and Caleb was done so well. My own heart was unsure which way this book would lead and kept me guessing. I of course knew how I wanted it to end, but I was so torn knowing that’s Lo’s psychic visions lead her the opposite direction. The full circle ending made my heart so so happy.


🌶️ = closed door

♥︎ Thank you NetGalley, Skyscape and Amy Lea for the ARC of Something Like Fate.

This book had such a fun premise with a family full of psychics and a “vision of your soulmate” to tell you who The One is. The whole concept of traveling Europe and meeting “The One” was such a fun romcom vibe and Caleb showing up to save Lo from a runaway trolley just added to the romcom vibes perfectly.

I really liked Lo and how fun she was. Her genuine happiness and loveable nature was so relatable for me and I could totally see us being friends. The anxiety she felt was also super rateable and just clicked with me. I loved Teller. I’m a sucker for a nerdy hot guy and he was so sweet. I loved his friendship with Lo and how the two bantered just complimented each other.

One of my favourite things about Amy’s books are how the minor characters still make up a big role in the book. Lo’s aunts were such important adds to this story and their advice and humour were some of my favourite scenes. I also love a good BFF and Bianca was great for Lo talk with, I only wish we had a bit more of her!

Overall, I really like this story and how it shows that fate isn’t always one dimensional. Free will can change our course, and fate can be interpreted in many ways.

Sometimes a "leave it up to fate" story is just what you need!
This one hit the spot and I loved the overall undertones, main characters, setting and story.

This YA romance from Amy Lea considers the role of fate in our lives – do we choose our destiny, or is it pre-decided?
Lo Zhao-Jensen is part of an extended Chinese-American family where she is strongly influenced by her mother’s sisters and all the family lore. All the women have a gift of psychic ability - except Lo. She’s a bit adrift, unhappy at university, uncertain of what her life will look like, desperate to find her soulmate (she’s nineteen!) and has some unresolved grief about her mother. There’s a Chinese tradition that female family members will have a vision that shows their soulmate, and if they don’t heed it, they will have a life of tragedy and/or misery. This drives the plot, as nearly all of Lo’s decisions are influenced by her vision.

Teller Owens is a great friend of Lo’s. They met when they worked at the local cinema and spent a platonic summer together. Teller is organised and uptight, and so kind, but he and Lo went off to different colleges and have only stayed sporadically in touch.
Lo has a month’s holiday to Italy planned and at the last minute, she persuades Teller to go with her and they backpack through Italy: Venice, Rome, Florence, the Amalfi Coast. There are museums and food and sunshine and Vespas, and it’s everything Lo could want. During the trip, Lo has a vision that fellow backpacker Caleb is her soulmate. He comes and goes, and all the while Teller is there (right there!) and Lo is denying her complicated feelings. She and Teller do have a (closed door) one night stand – which made it harder for me to understand her whole fascination with Caleb.

There’s plenty of detail about Italy, and while it’s evocative and delicious, it’s also touristy and superficial.

Meanwhile, Lo is still holding tight to her belief in the fate/soulmate thing – encouraged by her aunts – even as she tries to find herself. I was reminded of how young Lo is; she relies on phoning home to unload all her issues to her friends and family, to the point that her dad and an aunt come over for the last stage of the trip. The aunts promote the idea of the vision - and nobody encourages Lo to decide her own fate.
I didn’t love how predictable it all is. As much as anticipation is a part of romance, I stopped caring about how Lo and Teller would get together. Lo takes far too long to wake up to herself – I’d been there already for ages. I have some quibbles, too, about some of the Italian detail – locals with names like Noreen, Louis and Robert feel odd – and there are many missed opportunities to infuse the text with the ‘real’ Italy.

Thank you Amy Lea, Skyscape and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are my own.

You haven't read a friends to lovers story until you read Amy Lea's Something Like Fate. It embodies the trope in the most beautiful and touching way.

Lo Zhao-Jensen was born into a family of women who can see the future. More specifically, they can foresee meeting "The One." Lo, however, hasn't had any visions until right before setting off on a trip to Italy in her mom's memory. Her auties are thrilled and they firmly believe Lo will meet her soulmate on this trip. After all, it's fate.

Lo takes along Teller, her best friend, who has just broken up with his longtime girlfriend, Sophie. Teller is the complete opposite of Lo. He's reserved and doesn't jump into situations without having done hours of research. However, Lo and Teller are the same in how much they care for each other. When Lo is saved from being flattened by a runaway trolley in Venice by Caleb, the man Lo thinks her vision was about, it's clear that Teller has been hiding his feelings all these years.

I loved the friendship between Lo and Teller. This book is a rom-com, yes, but it's also a story of friendship and Lo and Teller were the bestest of friends. Their friendship made the ending all the more sweet. Without a doubt, pick up Something Like Fate on 3/1 and fall in love with this friends to lovers story!

The main premise of this book reminded me of another one about fated soulmates in a bit of a family-history type of way and those storylines don't always work for me but the cast of characters in this book including the fun aunties made it cute and believable (for what it's worth!) I think the story is told in a way that feels very realistic for the characters' young 20s age group and how they're just trying to sort through life and feelings and what everything means. Lo's optimism really worked for me and Teller and Caleb both had their merits and moments that made me smile.

This one also inspires a lot of wanderlust because there are vivid descriptions of a trip to Italy and various amazing places and foods and experiences along the way!

This was an easy one to soak up after a few heavier reads and I appreciated that about it a lot! Forget the snow and the world and head to Italy with Teller and Lo!

This book was really fun.
•I'm usually a little hesitant to read friends to more because it can feel like they never will take the leap, the stakes are too high, etc. but this one was well paced.
Ireally loved Teller. He is an interesting character to watch since he has so many irritations and liked things just so. He sort of feels like a more emotionally available Sheldon Cooper (big bang theory, anyone?)
And Lo was a really interesting heroine. Her struggle to connect with her mom, her love for her friends and for people in general, her love for romance, she was very relatable and I really enjoyed her.
Obviously the backdrop of Italy was gorgeous and interesting. And the end left me feeling fluttery and hopeful

The tension is this book!! “Something Like Fate” is the sweetest, slow burn romance that I didn’t want to put down. Lo and her family have always believed in soulmates. Lo goes to Italy for the summer with her best friend, hoping to meet her soulmate along the way. I did not connect with Lo as a main character as much, but I loved Teller. The “will they, won’t they” romance kept me on the edge of my seat!

For those who love:
💕Friends to Lovers
💕Slow Burn
💕Forced Proximity
💕Only One Bed
💕Trip through Italy
💕Young Adult
💕Love Triangle-ish

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Ah this hurts to type. While I have generally enjoyed Amy’s books I could not get into this one. It was way too predictable. I couldn’t look past the age of the characters..which 99% of the time I can. It wasn’t remarkable. It wasn’t memorable.

Lo honestly felt kind of bratty to me. And I get it. I get her age and how young she really is. I loved the concept of going on a trip that her mom went on. But i wish the story focused more on that side of things instead of a brief mention of the mom and aunt doing this trip but she wants to do it totally different to getting upset about losing her moms picture and her dad suddenly joining her.

I couldn’t get past the way she treated Teller and kinda guilted him into coming on the trip and how she treated him during the trip. But Teller was a constant steady presence for her.

It honestly sounded like it would be a fun book but it just wasn’t for me at this time. It’d be a strong 3.5/3.75 ⭐️for me

This book was a fun ride. I loved living victoriously through Lo’s travels and the lore of fortune telling. The side characters also really made this book an enjoyable read.

✨ARC Review✨

3.75 stars

I felt like this story started out strong, but it ultimately fell a bit flat unfortunately. It was cute, and I did find myself giggling at first, but there wasn't enough of the characters actually being a couple to satisfy me, and the way she basically pushed him into another girl's arms for most of the story was just not it for me.

I liked the soulmate aspect of it all, and the travel plot was great too; I definitely want to go to Italy too! I'm not a fan of friends to lovers in general, so this may be why it didn't quite hit the right notes for me. I also felt like the characters should've been younger? It felt YA-adjacent a lot even though they're in their 20s!

Thank you to Skyscape and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

While the premise of Something Like Fate is cute and intriguing, I unfortunately found that the delivery didn't full hold up. There was an incredible opportunity on every page—a month in lush Italy, a family of psychic, and romance galore.

But, though the characters were ~19ish, the writing felt younger and a bit cliche at times. I felt like we were told a lot about Lo's emotions, but weren't /shown/ as much. It was like Amy Lea was 3/4 of the way there but she just wasn't able to translate it beyond saying Lo felt guilt (as an example of any emotion) versus just showing.

I also had a hard time buying the relationships in the novel—both familial and romantic. It either felt very surface level or just completely unrealistic. The dialogue also was, at times, very juvenile and unrealistic.

I think there's a great story here and there will be plenty of readers who eat this up. But unfortunately, it just didn't work for me.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars.

Something Like Fate
3.5 ⭐

Pub Date: March 1st

I'm Lo Zhao Jensen the only woman in my family who doesn't have psychic abilities. I always felt like an outcast until the day came and I had THE VISION and by vision I mean our ability to know our soulmate and it told me that I'm going to fall in love in Venice while I have the best trip of my life backpacking through Italy with my best friend since 10th grade Teller Owens.

Teller is the opposite of me but he also completes me in a way and this trip is about to change our lives forever because sometimes THE ONE could be right beside you, you just have to look closely.

This is a cute YA novel about two people figuring out their life and feelings towards each other. The bonus of course is that it takes place in the amazing Italy.
Make sure to check it out once it's out.

Thanks to @netgalley and the publisher for granting me an ARC of #SomethingLikeFate in exchange for my honest review.

Xoxo 😘

Something Like Fate had a fun premise with forced proximity and a touch of destiny, but it didn’t fully hit the mark for me. The chemistry was there, and Amy Lea’s writing is as charming as ever, but some parts felt a bit predictable, and I wanted more depth from the characters. Still, it’s an enjoyable read with sweet moments and solid banter—just not my favorite from her.

Arc received from the publisher; all thoughts and opinions are my own.