Ill-Fated Fortune

• Author: Jennifer J. Chow
• Genre: Cozy Mystery
• Publication Date: February 20, 2024
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Series: Magical Fortune Cookie #1

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The first in the heart-warming and deliciously mysterious Magical Fortune Cookie series from Lefty Award-nominee Jennifer J. Chow.

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.

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.

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