Review: Lunar Love

Title: Lunar Love
Author: Lauren Kung Jessen
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Forever
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: January 10, 2023
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

This sweet, enemies-to-lovers debut rom-com filled with Chinese astrology will undoubtedly prove to be a perfect match with readers of Helen Hoang, Jasmine Guillory, and Helena Hunting.

Always a matchmaker, never a match…

Olivia Huang Christenson is excited-slash-terrified to be taking over her grandmother’s matchmaking business. But when she learns that a new dating app has made her Pó Po’s traditional Chinese zodiac approach all about “animal attraction,” her emotions skew more toward furious-slash-outraged. Especially when L.A.’s most-eligible bachelor Bennett O’Brien is behind the app that could destroy her family’s legacy . . .

Liv knows better than to fall for any guy, let alone an infuriatingly handsome one who believes that traditions are meant to be broken. As the two businesses go head to head, Bennett and Liv make a deal: they’ll find a match for each other—and whoever falls in love loses. But Liv is dealing with someone who’s already adept at stealing business ideas . . . so what’s stopping him from stealing her heart too?

Review:

Olivia Huang Christenson is excited to take over her grandmother’s matchmaking business, Lunar Love. They match people with their ideal partner based on their Chinese zodiac sign compatibility. Just as Olivia is taking over the business, she discovers a new matchmaking app that uses a Chinese zodiac algorithm to make matches but without the human connection that Lunar Love provides. Bennett O’Brien is the creator of ZodiaCupid, the matchmaking app. When Bennett and Olivia meet, she instantly doesn’t like him. She sees him as competition and a threat to her business. They keep getting thrown together so they make a bet to match each other using their own methods and whoever wins will get media exposure and more clients. However, Bennett and Olivia often end up spending time together on the dates that they set each other up on. Though their zodiac signs aren’t compatible, Olivia may need to accept that compatibility isn’t always necessary for love. 

This is such a cute rom com! Both Bennett and Olivia were mixed-race, and they were influenced by the relationships in the past generations of their families. Olivia wanted to make her grandmother proud by continuing to make compatible matches. Since Olivia had had a bad experience with a boyfriend who’s zodiac was incompatible with hers, she thought that compatibility was the most important thing with matchmaking. Bennett forced her to see if differently, using an algorithm with his app. Though this was an enemies to lovers story, Olivia and Bennett did have a lot in common, with similar backgrounds and similar professional goals as matchmakers. 

Lunar Love is a great new rom com!

Thank you Forever for sending me a copy of this book.

What to read next:

Have you read Lunar Love? What did you think of it?