The writing's not the best, but it's a cute romance. I liked learning about the zodiac signs. ( )

Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen
Contemporary romance. Own voice, Chinese-American. Present tense.
Olivia has just taken over running Lunar Love, her grandmother’s matchmaking business that’s based on the Chinese zodiac signs. She meets a man she may actually be interested in herself, until she finds out he’s a rival, building an app, also using the zodiac signs. Liv and Bennett end up making a bet on who can make a better match.

First let me say I don’t like lies or secrets as a troupe and that’s how this started out. Fortunately they both confessed well before the half way mark, so the story got better for me. The clear attraction and joy Liv and Bennett find in their time together put a smile on their faces as well as my own. There are sad parts in this story that took me by surprise, both because hints were well hidden and it’s unusual in main stream category romance.
In full, the it’s a fantastic love and life story. The baseball game food antics had me laughing.

The text is heavy with traditional food and traditions. There are discussing questions included at the end of the book as well as a list of the characters by their animal and birth year. Also included are a couple of recipes for items made in the story.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley. ( )

The heroine is taking over her grandmother's matchmaking business and has certain ideas about matchmaking. She meets the hero without knowing who he is, but when she realizes that he's behind a matchmaking app that is too similar to her family's legacy. The heroine and the hero make a deal about finding a match for each other, and whoever falls in love first is the loser. The heroine is determined to win, but she doesn't realize that her plans will not fall into place when fate takes charge.

This is a contemporary romance filled with Chinese matchmaking history and told in a first-person viewpoint. I did find the first meeting between the heroine and the hero quite cute, and the plethora of Chinese history quite fascinating. But I did find the story plodded along tediously in some parts of the book. I did like the hero more than the heroine in this book and would have liked to have the hero's point-of-view to enrich the reading experience. I did enjoy the group of secondary characters that surrounded the main couple, especially the heroine's family and co-workers. Overall, a solid romance book.

**Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions and thoughts in the review are my own.** ( )

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Of course the founder of our new competition is a Rat, my exact opposite sign.

Olivia is poised to take over her Pó Po's Chinese zodiac matchmaker business, Lunar Love, from her aunt when she learns that an entrepreneur has developed an app called ZodiaCupid. It's taking the same business of matching people by their Chinese zodiac animal signs but also using an algorithm. Lunar Love has started to struggle with people wanting fast and easy and Olivia is instantly upset at this new app, what she sees as cheapening a system that is very near and dear to her heart and taking potential business away from her.

Many moons ago, I did love being in love. I used to fall in love easily. Too easily. Now I know better. I’m wiser. More careful.

Told in first person point-of-view and present tense, Lunar Love, was a story of rivals-to-lovers and opposites attract. I have a personal problem of it being more difficult for me to fully connect with characters and a story that uses first person pov with present tense, so my overall feelings are colored by that, if other readers have no such problem, their enjoyment would probably be more. With Olivia leading readers, we see that she's nervous but ready to take over Lunar Love and even though her life revolves around love, she definitely takes a more pessimistic view of her personal love life. It's alluded to and then fully revealed why at around midway, that Olivia has been burned before. The situation involved her best friend Colette, a guy Olivia set Colette up with, and an opposites attract guy Olivia was dating. It reaffirmed that only compatible signs should be matched together to Olivia. Olivia also has the habit of meeting someone and then playing out how the relationship would go, in a negative light, as their animal sign traits would have them clashing. Olivia is that character that believes in love, was burned by it, and now is scared to ever put herself out there.

“You pick a match for me, and I’ll let my algorithm pick one for you, and we’ll see who finds love.”

Bennett O'Brien comes into the picture with one of the best meet-cutes I've ever read, they negotiate and flirt over a pork bun and vanilla roll!, and the reader can feel the instant sparks. I will say, with this written all from Olivia's pov, I still felt like Bennett's feelings and thoughts came through in a way that, I the reader, could “see”; I didn't feel like I didn't know where Bennett stood at all times. Olivia learns who Bennett is and decides to game the system on ZodiaCupid and get a date with him, thinking to hide her identity to get insider knowledge of her competition. They go on a couple dates where their chemistry is still evident but Olivia lying for nefarious reasons will have the reader feeling more for Bennett. The jig is up around 35% and Bennett reveals some secrets of his own. With their identities known, a bet gets made and we have Olivia and Bennett trying to find each other love.

I grip his hand tighter and pull him closer. Our cheeks graze as I bring my lips up against his ear. “I hope you’re ready to fall in love.”

They show up at each other's dates and it's obvious that Bennett isn't fully into this because he has feelings for Olivia. Olivia struggles to get past her feelings about being burned and we get some push and pull moments. Around 70% the bet gets called off and Olivia tentatively seems to be coming out of her protective shell but the author gives us that 3rd act break-up and the last 20% has Olivia working through her emotions, Bennett delivering a public act of love, and a sad event that probably puts a dent in calling this a rom-com.

Because compatible or incompatible, we’re all just trying to love and be loved, however that might look.

With this being told in first person pov and present tense, characters other than Olivia didn't shine as well for me, Bennett being the exception. Olivia's relationship with her grandmother delivered some emotion and who she had the best scenes with, other than Bennett. Olivia's sister and work employees Alisha and Randall felt too much to the side of the story, instead of in it and didn't add those dimensions and layers I would have liked. This was also a few kisses only romance, so you're going to have to get your sparks from conversation, Olivia and Bennett do have fun, cute, and some sparking chemistry through their by-play. If you don't struggle with pov and tense choices like I do, this would be a solid debut to pick-up, especially with that very charming and fun meet-cute. ( )