A spoilery review about a contemporary novel set in a magical small town, complete with a second-chance romance from author Sarah Hogle
Hello everyone, and welcome back to my book blog! Today I’ll be reviewing one of my many built-up ARC’s on my Kindle, “Old Flames and New Fortunes” from author Sarah Hogle. She’s written a few romances before this one, but this will be the first one I’ve read of hers. This one caught my eye during my travels through NetGalley because I’m obviously a sucker for a good romance and I like the idea of magical realism. One of my favorite books I’ve read this year (so far) was a YA romance with a hint of magic and fantasy, “Ruthless Vows”. If you’re not familiar, I just so happen to have a review of that book on my blog, so check it out when you’re done here!
A short synopsis: “Old Flames and New Fortunes” tells the story of Romina Tempest and her small town of Moonville, Ohio, which feels like it’s been kissed with a bit of magic from the Tempest family. Romina works at what was formerly her family’s shop, The Magick Happens, creating beautiful bouquets of flowers as a flora fortunist: “creating floral arrangements using the language of flowers to magically bring a person’s romantic hopes to fruition.” She thinks she’s doing a pretty good job, thank you very much.
When an opportunity arises to buy the shop back through the current owner – and good friend Trevor’s – father, Romina, Trevor, and Romina’s sister Luna jump at the chance to woo the wealthy man and finally have the magical shop they’ve always wanted. However, things hit a snag when a simple misunderstanding leads to Romina and Trevor pretending to be together. This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that Trevor’s father is getting remarried… to Romina’s ex-boyfriend’s mother. An ex-boyfriend that she hasn’t seen in over ten years. What are the chances?! Now Romina has to continue with the fake-dating scheme with her friend Trevor, all the while pretending she still doesn’t have feelings for her high school sweetheart Alex. (And the love of her life.)
My star rating is as follows: 4 out of 5.
Okay y’all, I got into this, in spite of the clunky title. It felt cozy and sweet. A perfect spring rom-com if I ever read one. I loved all the talk of flowers and their different properties and what they mean. I’m kind of a sucker for that kind of thing. I’m hoping to get a floral tattoo soon that incorporates daisies, lilies, and roses. (Which have the same meanings as my three grandmothers’ names.) Flowers are pretty, smell good, and are all around adorable. I just wish I didn’t have the dreaded black thumb and kill them all the time. Okay, moving on.
While there were funny parts – I personally loved the banter between the two main characters, Romina and Alex – there was also a good deal of angst and drama that made the characters feel real and didn’t leave the book with a squeaky clean shine on top.
THE CHARACTERS. I really enjoyed Romina and Alex, both together and separate. It’s always a breath of fresh air in these romance novels where at least one of them knows what they want and isn’t hiding it away. While Alex isn’t full-on going, “I’m still in love with you, please let’s try again,” it’s pretty close. But the only reason it’s not like that is because he thinks Romina and Trevor are dating. But he has his suspicions that it’s not quite as it seems. Since, you know, he knows Romina so well and all that jazz, and Trevor is so not her type!
Alex has this air of confidence about him, and it was pretty amusing to see him try and trap Trevor and Romina into admitting they weren’t together, however there were some times where the confidence went a bit too far and I would roll my eyes like, “Okay dude, calm down.” But it’s what makes him interesting as a character; lack of flaws make characters fall flat people! But his back-and-forth with Romina was amusing and cute; it kept me rooting for these two. Their chemistry was wonderful.
I loved seeing Alex slowly bring the love between him and Romina back to life. Over the course of the book he tended to it, nurtured it, watered it, (like a flower, if you will!) just so Romina could feel comfortable with him and their relationship, since it’s been years and they didn’t end things on the best of terms. They were fresh out of high school, so that would make sense. Emotions are right there on the surface! But I like how the progression of their second chance was depicted with him doing that.
Romina has a fair amount of baggage; we learn over the course of the book about her previous relationship with a man named Spencer who had a daughter that Romina fell absolutely in love with. Don’t want to say too much, but things didn’t end well between them and Romina was heartbroken at the loss of that little girl in her life, since Spencer wouldn’t let Romina see her again. She fell in love with this girl, treated her as if she were her own flesh-and-blood child, and her ex-boyfriend goes and does that to her. Just, “We’re broken up, and also her biological mother came back into the picture, so we don’t need you anymore.” That just gutted me reading that; she had a relationship with that little girl, and to just snatch it away because things didn’t work out romantically is just cruel. Because of this, Romina’s keeping her heart way more guarded. Throughout the book she felt raw due to the big heartbreak of Alex several years ago as well as the big breakup of Spencer, who took his little girl away never to be seen again. It’s a wonder she could even do her job as a flora fortunist, trying to find love for others but not herself.
The side characters are all a hoot, and I honestly wouldn’t mind if the author wrote a series within this small magical town. I’m sure there could be love found for both of Romina’s sisters, Luna and Zelda. I especially loved Luna’s adolescent daughter, Aisling. Her character, not so much the name. She wasn’t in it nearly as much as I would’ve liked, but when she was she was super extra, but not in an overly obnoxious way. That’s why I would love to see more from this universe; have a book where Luna finds love and have her daughter in it more pleeeease. Again, I love lively and fun side characters. It brought more to the world of Moonville, Ohio.
There was a… “plot twist”, if you will, a little more than halfway through the book that threw me a bit, and for a while after reading it I wasn’t sure I liked it and was afraid it spoiled the first part of the book for me. But the more I read the more I became okay with it and accepted it. Maybe if it was closer to the end it wouldn’t have been the best, but the fact that it was early enough helped. I don’t want to put any more spoilers than I already have for this, so I’ll leave it at that. But it was something that bothered me because it was something that was an issue for Romina, so for her to be blindsided by it was kind of uncool.
Overall, a sweet romance with a twist of magic and angst that made my heart happy and sad and happy again as I read it. I enjoyed it and will most likely read more of Sarah Hogle’s novels. Fingers crossed for more in the Moonville universe!
Have you read “Old Flames and New Fortunes” yet? Still on your TBR? Loved it? Let me know down in the comments!
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. “Old Flames and New Fortunes” was published on April 2, 2024 and is available now.
Until next time, my lovelies!
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