Review // Old Flames and New Fortunes
Author: Sarah Hogle
Published On: April 23, 2024
Publisher: Putnam
Genre: Romance
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Synopsis:
A small, magical town tucked away in rural Ohio, Moonville is the perfect place for flora fortunist Romina Tempest to expand her shop, where she uses the language of flowers to help the hopeful manifest their love lives. After giving up on her own big romance eleven years ago, at least she can bask in the promise of others’.
So, when the shop’s potential financier shares news of his wedding, Romina jumps on the opportunity to discuss buying the business. What better place to negotiate a deal than at a wedding, even if she has to fake-date her chaotic colleague Trevor to get an invitation? But all hell breaks loose when she discovers Trevor’s soon-to-be stepbrother is none other than Alex her high school sweetheart. Her greatest love. The boy who, eleven years ago, broke her heart, and who now thinks she and Trevor are dating.
What starts as an innocent misunderstanding becomes a week-long fake dating scheme, as Romina resolves to make Alex pay for breaking her heart. The only issue? She can’t deny their still-burning connection. Caught between proving to Alex what he lost, and coming clean and risking her business, Romina must decide whether giving Alex another chance means going back on herself, or finally releasing her hold on the past.
Wow, do I just adore Sarah Hogle!
Once again, this woman proves that she simply does not miss. I would read her grocery list, and I would probably giggle and kick my feet while doing so!
- The characters. Sarah Hogle does such a wonderful job at creating characters that are lovable in all their witty, flawed glory. Romina was such a treat! She’s witty, adorable, and self-aware, which are three of the BEST traits for me to read in a female lead. She was unapologetically herself, not afraid to embrace magic and witchiness and all the things that people might look down on her for. She had some great jokes and one-liners that had me out-loud cackling, which I’ve come to expect from my beloved Sarah Hogle books!
- Moonville is just the best. Originally skeptical of this magical, make-believe Midwestern town, it didn’t take long for me to fall headfirst into the world that Hogle creates. With the backdrop for much of the story being the ‘The Magick Happens’, where Romina and her sisters sell candles, fantasy books, and flora fortunes, it’s not hard to get lost in this whimsical world. I could imagine myself with legs slung over the arm of a worn leather armchair, cup of tea in hand and magical love candle burning as I listened to Romina and her sisters rib on each other in the room over.
- Speaking of sisters, this has the BEST sister dynamic. The youngest of three, Romina lives nearby her oldest sister, Luna, wishes her middle sister, Zelda, would move home so they can all run their cozy little shop together. The dynamic between Luna, Zelda and Romina is so sweet and supportive with some good lighthearted banter thrown in for good measure. Usually I shy away from strong family dynamics because I resent them for taking pagetime from the love story itself, but I was not at all begrudged to read these three interact with each other!
- Alex King. Yet another home freaking run in the Sarah Hogle male lead department (and I’m freaking including Hal, the spirit of Christmas given corporeal form, in this list! Can you even believe!) No one does male lead pining like Sarah Hogle does. From the teenage flashbacks to a bumbling, lovestruck Alex to the jealous, sensitive grown Alex, every single version of this man is perfect and I simply will not hear otherwise.
- It’s hard for me to criticize anything about a Sarah Hogle book, but if I had to pick one thing, it’d probably be the extreme use of flowers as a way to convey thought and emotion. Don’t get me wrong, I do think this helped to paint the scene and build Moonville and this story into something quite charming, but there’s a ton of detail into the history and mysticism of flowers and I probably could’ve done with maybe 10% less!
All in all, this was a home run for me and I truly, desperately hope that we get to come back to Moonville for the stories of the other Tempest sisters, Luna and Zelda. Given the easter eggs that Sarah is leaving across her social platforms, I have a good feeling!
My rating:
Have you read Old Flames and New Fortunes? What did you think?
