by Julie Leong
336pp (Trade Paperback)
My Rating: 6/10
Amazon Rating: 4.5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.25/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.05/5
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The Teller of Small Fortunes, Julie Leong’s debut novel, is a standalone cozy fantasy book following a traveling seer who tells of small events that will come to pass rather than dramatic, life-changing ones. It’s a warm, feel-good story about creating found family and doing as much good as one possibly can, and it may be a great book for readers looking for hope and happiness right now. As for my experience, I thought it was a decent book with some charm, but it was also a bit too light to be a novel that stuck with me.
It’s told from the third-person perspective of Tao, a wandering fortune teller who has learned firsthand that it’s best to avoid seeing the big truths about what will happen in the future—and to avoid staying in one place for too long, given people tend to be suspicious of her Shinn heritage and sightseeing ability. She travels the land with the company of her mule, earning coin by telling people’s “small” fortunes, like how they’ll soon catch a large tuna or burn their hand working with candles.
Tao is used to solitude, but she has to get used to company after she meets two men who help her clear a blocked roadway: a warrior who composes poetry and a thief who would like to leave his roguish ways in the past. After she tells the former’s fortune where she sees him with the missing daughter he’s been in search of for months, the two decide to accompany her on her journey. Soon, the small group is joined by a baker who makes delicious but ugly concoctions and a cat (who, like all such creatures, is slightly magical). As they continue the search for the missing child, Tao also tries to avoid being found by the mage’s guild, who would like her to use her sight for the bigger events she’d prefer to leave unseen.
The Teller of Small Fortunes has a great premise, and there are some fun sequences such as a quest to find treasure and an encounter with a philosophizing troll. But I found I was ready to move onto another book as I got further into it, despite the delightful beginning and some charming parts. It just didn’t have much dimension, and I especially would have liked more from the main characters. The warrior and thief had some entertaining banter and a bit of personality, and I did enjoy how Tao’s friendship with the former developed as she came to realize how soft he was underneath all the armor. However, there’s not much more to the main characters a few primary traits, and the baker in particular was thinly characterized: she can be summed up as having a good heart, a desire to see the world, and a love of experimenting with food.
This novel may not have the type of depth or nuance that suits me as a reader, but it may suit you if you’re seeking a story that’s about putting as much good into the world as one possibly can, main characters who are basically decent people doing their best, and a focus on platonic relationships rather than romance. Though Tao encounters racism in her travels and has an arc involving past trauma that negatively affected her relationship with her mother, The Teller of Small Fortunes is ultimately a lighthearted, optimistic story where goodness and happiness prevail.
My Rating: 6/10
Where I got my reading copy: Finished copy from the publisher.
