The Enchanted Atlas of Fortune and Fate by Ciara Blume — ARC Review

Read time: 5 minutes

📱📖 Read on Kindle | 📃 446 pages
⏱ Duration: 6 hours | Genre: Fantasy
ARC by NetGalley
🏷️ Publisher name: Storm Publishing

Book Blurb:

When Tempest Glass loses the bookshop she believed should have been hers, she takes what she can carry and hits the road: a bus full of secondhand books, an opinionated parrot, and an enchanted atlas plotting its own route across the country. Book four of the bestselling Natural Magic series, this installment follows Tempest as she chases trivia competitions from town to town, uncovers a stolen inheritance, and stumbles into found family and a slow-burn shifter romance along the way. Cozy fantasy with a mystery running underneath it all, this one stands comfortably on its own, even for readers new to the series.

Let’s talk about the book:

I was fascinated by the cover of the book and the blurb and requested it without realizing it is part of a series. Even while reading, it’s only till I reached about 30% of the book that I realized there’s a backstory to this book and that there are 3 other books prior to this. Fortunately, I had read the first book, so I had a bit of context, and this book doesn’t require the past story to follow the current story. Tempest Glass is a person of her own, just like this book, and you’ll be able to comfortably follow her story without knowing what had happened previously with Maida and her family. However, for purists like me, maybe it will help to go back and read through in order.

Coming to the book:

Anyway, Tempest really does have a talent. She can remember trivia from various books. I feel like I do too. There are some random things that I remember from books, like you shouldn’t put too much pressure while pooping or you could have a heart attack. I don’t know why I know this but I do, and I am always careful while pooping.

The journey that Tempest has after leaving the bookstore that she feels she was destined to, and finding a destiny for herself, is a journey we all wish for. Not only the bookstore one, but the one where you feel everything you ever wished for is gone, only to realize that what’s come instead is what your heart actually wanted.

There are also journeys that we take with Dan and Amrita, and although those journeys are fun too, I was more fascinated with Tempest’s journey. Dan’s journey doesn’t take much time in the book. Amrita does go on a very strange adventure where she ends up being separated from Buffalo for a long time, but embarks on something never done before. Those journeys are nice, but not as engaging as Tempest’s. Along with Fortune the parrot and a school bus filled with books, going to various towns for trivia competitions, that is one journey worth listening to.

It’s slow, it’s too much details, but it’s fun and if you just give it enough time, it’ll grow on you.

Would I recommend it?

I’d recommend The Enchanted Atlas of Fortune and Fate if you’re the kind of reader who doesn’t mind a slow build, because once Tempest’s story gets going, it really does grow on you. The road trip structure, the trivia competitions, Fortune the parrot, all of it adds up to something genuinely fun even when it takes its time getting there. Mark your calendar for October 15, this one’s worth adding to your TBR before it drops.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

5 book recommendations

• Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
  If Tempest’s love for her lost bookshop hit you, this one’s a prequel to Legends & Lattes and centers a bookshop of its own, same cozy, low-stakes comfort with a genuine heart underneath.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
  For the found family and slow, comforting pace this book asks you to settle into, this is basically the genre’s blueprint, an orc mercenary opening a coffee shop instead of chasing one more fight.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
  An atlas that matters as much as any character in the story, if that hook got you here, this one takes maps and turns them into something genuinely strange and magical.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
  Another found-family story built around someone rebuilding a life she didn’t expect to have, with a warmth that matches what Tempest is chasing after losing the bookshop.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
  A quieter, more meditative road trip than Tempest’s, but the same core question sits underneath it: what do you actually want once the thing you thought you wanted is gone.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

Where would your enchanted atlas take you?

If you had a bus, a talking parrot, and a map that plotted its own course, where would you let it take you? Drop your dream destination (real or made up) in the comments.

Book Links

Want to purchase this or any of your favorite books while supporting a local bookstore? Consider purchasing using the sites below. These sites work with independent local bookstore owners to fulfill your book orders. #SupportLocal

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert
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