Book Review: Old Flames & New Fortunes

When I read the synopsis for Old Flames & New Fortunes by Sarah Hogle, I knew I would like it but I was not expecting to love it so much. It unexpectedly has become most likely my favorite read of the month, but there’s still another week left to October so I don’t want to make any promises!

This second chance romance romcom has everything I love – humor, love, love that makes your heart ache, and some spice. The novel follows Romina Tempest, a flora fortunist, living in the quirky small town of Moonville, Ohio. What is a flora fortunist you ask? Romina comes from a family of witches and her speciality is flowers. She gets intuition with them and they sort of speak to her about what kind of flowers are needed for certain occasions and for certain people. She bundles together flowers for fortunes. So if a customer is hoping for a proposal from their boyfriend she knows which flowers to put together to bring that fortune to them etc.

Romina and her sisters run The Magick Happens, a store that sells her flowers, her sister Luna’s candles, and her sister Zelda’s books. When their business partner, Trevor, gets invited to lunch by his wealthy father who is in town visiting, they think he’s meeting with them for a business meeting. The Tempest sisters and Trevor need a loan from his father to make some much needed renovations to the lot next door that they spontaneously bought. Romina tags along with Trevor to convince his dad to lend them the money, but when they arrive at the restaurant they see lots of Trevor’s extended family including his cousin who immediately starts to poke fun at him about his dating history so Trevor and Romina do the most logical thing – pretend they’re dating. The only problem is when they enter the restaurant they realize this is not a business meeting but a lunch to announce the surprise engagement between Trevor’s dad and his girlfriend. And his girlfriend is the mother of Romina’s ex, Alex King, whom she hasn’t seen since they broke up 10 years ago and it made her swear off romance for herself. Now Alex is back in town since his mom is getting married and although the sparks are still there between him and Romina, she’s got a “boyfriend” now who is going to be his new stepbrother.

I loved this book so much. The ridiculous funny moments, especially with Trevor and Romina pretending to date and Alex trying to catch them because he suspects they’re not a real couple were so entertaining. The story between Alex and Romina is so good – it’s a beautiful love story but has moments that make your heart ache which are always my favorite moments as long as I’m guaranteed a HEA. Their past and their revelations about their love for each other both then and now is so special and beautiful. I just love them so much.

I’m looking forward to returning to Moonville for book 2 about Zelda next year!

Read this book if you want a spicy, witchy romcom with the second chance romance trope. I’m not going to categorize it as fake dating since the fake daters are not the main couple of the book!

*This post contains affiliate links.*