Review: Lunar Love

Sometimes a romance doesn’t quite hit all the right notes but is still a pretty good read that you don’t really want to put down and you still need to know how the Happily Ever After will come about. That was how I felt with Lunar Love, Lauren Kung Jessen’s debut novel (which was published back on January 10). I liked it (and expected to like it more) but I also didn’t dislike it and wanted to finish it to see how it all wrapped up.

Here’s the book’s description:

Always a matchmaker, never a match...
Olivia Huang Christenson is excited-slash-terrified to be taking over her grandmother’s matchmaking business. But when she learns that a new dating app has made her Pó Po’s traditional Chinese zodiac approach all about “animal attraction,” her emotions skew more toward furious-slash-outraged. Especially when L.A.’s most-eligible bachelor Bennett O’Brien is behind the app that could destroy her family’s legacy…
Liv knows better than to fall for any guy, let alone an infuriatingly handsome one who believes that traditions are meant to be broken. As the two businesses go head to head, Bennett and Liv make a deal: they’ll find a match for each other—and whoever falls in love loses. But Liv is dealing with someone who’s already adept at stealing business ideas…so what’s stopping him from stealing her heart too?

I should really know better. I have to be very, very careful with enemies to lovers tropes. I don’t love them and I’m very picky about them. So, it’s not really surprising that that’s what was bothering me right off the bat with this book. Kung Jessen had to work really hard to win me back once the enemies part dissipated and Liv and Bennett started to become friends - and then something more. I can handle some enemies to lovers books but with this one, I was really upset with how Liv acted. She was rude and was not behaving like a business owner (or a decent person tbh). I was really disappointed in her. Bennett wasn’t much better but somehow his behaviour wasn’t quite as upsetting. Maybe because I was feeling like the story was very much Liv’s and she was the one who was doing really problematic things.

For those who aren’t aware, I’m white so I can’t talk too much about Liv and Bennett’s Chinese American culture and how they feel about their heritage. I do know, however, how extremely important it is for Chinese American (or Canadian, etc.) readers to see themselves in books like this, for those who don’t identify as Chinese American to read books like this, and for Chinese American authors to have the opportunity to publish books like this. Personally, I really liked learning more about the Chinese zodiac while reading this book and seeing what Liv’s family life was like.

Even with the few issues I had, this book did not read like a debut. It was solid and well-written. It was mostly just my own issues with the trope (that felt like more than the trope’s fault) that had me struggling a bit. I felt connected with the characters (even when I was telling them they were being idiots) and I could really immerse myself in the story. That’s a major win.

Lunar Love is Lauren Kung Jessen's debut novel and, while I didn’t love it, I was pretty invested and I’m really looking forward to what she writes next. I found a snippet of something that told me about her next book (maybe at the end of the egalley?) and it sounds absolutely delightful and I’m definitely going to be picking it up.

*An egalley was provided by the publisher, Forever, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*