Romance
Lunar Love
Debut
We love supporting debut authors. Congrats, Lauren Kung Jessen, on your first book!
Quick take
While helping clients achieve #RelationshipGoals, two matchmakers learn the most amazing love story may be their own.
Good to know
LOL
Tech world
Foodie
Enemies to Lovers
Synopsis
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?
Free sample
Get an early look from the first pages of Lunar Love.
Lunar Love
CHAPTER 1
In my almost eight years of matchmaking, there’s one thing I know to be true: love is like the moon.
Case in point: love moves in phases. New love is a barely there whisper in the night sky, a slow burn into brightness. The relationship matures in the first quarter, advancing into full illumination—two compatible people becoming whole. The immediate passion wanes but doesn’t disappear. Instead, the initial flash evolves into a steady glow. Like the moon, love is dependable. You don’t have to see the moon or love to know they’re there.
Both the moon and love are romantic and enchanting, can be moody and mysterious, possess dark sides, and have gravitational pulls on us that we just can’t control, no matter how hard we try. The moon was formed when a large object collided into Earth, a happenstance so cataclysmically devastating that produced something so beautiful. When two people collide, there’s the possibility that love will be created. There’s also the potential for us and everything we’ve ever known to be thrown out of orbit.
As a matchmaker at Lunar Love, my family’s Chinese zodiac matchmaking business, it’s my duty to keep clients and their relationships rotating on their axes and revolving in orbit. I make thoughtful and personalized matches based on people’s compatible animal sign traits. My years of hard work have paid off because I’ll officially be in charge of Lunar Love in just a few hours. By the end of today, its legacy will be my responsibility.
Why I love it
Carolyn Huynh
Author, The Fortunes of Jaded Women
You’ll never look at the moon the same again. Or a cocktail bun. Or a Swiss roll, for that matter.
Just head straight to Chinatown, find a local Asian bakery, load up your tray, and wait for your own meet-cute to unfold. Magical things happen in bakeries—and no one knows this more than Lunar Love’s heroine, Olivia Huang Christenson, a stubborn, mixed race Chinese American matchmaker.
When it comes to love and matchmaking for her clients, Olivia’s principles and business are guided by the Chinese Zodiac, which she learned all the ins and outs of from her grandmother. Why bet against something that’s been around for 2000+ years? Enter Bennett O’Brien, a tech CEO of a new dating app also based on the zodiac, who actually would like to make some minor adjustments . . . In fact, he’s got an algorithm or two (with a side of charming banter).
The push and pull romance between Olivia and Bennett will leave you feeling like you’re the best friend who just wants to tell them to shut up and kiss already. It’s the type of impatience that’ll make you eat a bun fresh from the oven, even when you know it’ll burn you. Because sometimes the risk is worth it.
Lunar Love will leave you seeking out rats and snakes when it comes to love (and yes, please take that out of context). After all, animals can’t ghost you, can they?
Member ratings (8,564)
Shauney B.
Conroe, TX
I couldn’t help but giggle aloud as I read Lunar Love. It is such a cute story with awkward moments that are a result of Olivia’s ways of spying on her “nemesis”. Which isn’t a “nemesis” after all…
CELYN C.
San Francisco, CA
A good rom com where it’s not quite enemies to lovers and the heroine is definitely an imperfect human being. You know she loves her family and food and you know she’s been hurt. A great holiday read.
Jennifer W.
Winooski, VT
I read the first few paragraphs and was instantly loving the book. I read it in two days, I couldn’t stop reading it. It’s a book also filled with traditions which I found so neat to read and learn.
Giovanna R.
Winter Park, FL
An amazing rom-com story with rivals-to-lovers story w/ great discussions about culture, traditions, and family - & a super fun premise! Lots of yummy food & I can’t wait to read more from this author
Rose F.
Ames, IA
Loved!!!!! Great enemies-to-lovers & great banter! Loved the matchmaking, learning about the Chinese Zodiac, astrology, & Chinese culture. Loved Liv and Bennett & Po’Po’. Favorite book of the year!!