This is a truly delightful cozy fantasy novel. I loved the characters, the prose, the charming way that the characters' lives unfolded and their friendships blossomed over the course of the book. It was full of sly winks to the fantasy genre in general, which I greatly enjoyed. Highly recommended!

Thank you to Berkley and Ace Publishing for the free book. These opinions are my own.

The Teller of Small Fortunes is a slow-paced cozy fantasy that grows more intriguing over time. It highlights Tao, a traveling fortune teller. She never stays anywhere for long, as she avoids the ramifications when people learn her fortunes are accurate.

As she travels, she slowly gathers a group of people, including the warrior bard, rogue, mage, and more. They become an adventuring party with a quest and various potential side quests. And they also travel with great animal friends. This felt like such a love escape and reminded me of D&D games.

At the same time, it raise some big topics including questions of predestination and fate. And it also spoke to themes of immigration and racism. I had seen the author speak and knew that a big part of her own motivation in writing this book was grappling with her father's illness. And I found those themes as well.

The book was thoughtful and helped me to slow down and reflect as well.

A warm, gentle cozy fantasy story of kindness and found family. Magical elements infuse the story with a sense of fun, but it's the characters who truly shine. This is a sweet and lovely read.

A someone who historically has not been a cozy fantasy fan, I find myself with mixed feelings (though overall positive) on this one. There were a lot of individual elements and moments that I really enjoyed in this book but particularly in the second half, I found myself a bit dissatisfied by elements in the plot and some of the side characters.

What I enjoyed most in The Teller of Small Fortunes is the wry sense of humor that underlines it all and the almost Pratchett way that it points out the foibles of humans and society via underdog characters just trying to make their way in the world. Tao herself is very sympathetic, even when she's making a choice to run away from rather than confront what scares her. I also really appreciated that despite being cozy fantasy, Tao is dealing with racism and layers of class structure and some trauma relating to her family so it never felt like there weren't at least personal stakes. And unlike most cozy fantasy, I actually really enjoyed following Tao on the road with her band of fellow unlikely travelers who become found family.

Where I struggled with the book is in the second half, when the larger world stakes start to come into play. I don't mind there being a larger world threat in cozy fantasy (mostly because truly no stakes is just boring to me) but the downside is that it feels sort of in between cozy and more traditional fantasy and thus left me feeling like it was too convenient and surface level.

Leong touches on how these larger ruling systems can leave people on the ground confused and scared by what they're not being told and doing things for "the greater good" gets challenged, which I appreciated. It just felt too neat at the end for a story that's tackling these elements. Though honestly, that might just be a disconnect in what I want as someone who doesn't love cozy fantasy versus what the book is trying to provide.

Overall, for a cozy fantasy, I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to. I really liked Tao, I loved the humor and the commentary on humanity and power and I even enjoyed the quieter moments. Despite my dissatisfaction with parts of the plot, it's still one I'd recommend for fans of cozy fantasy that don't need truly no stakes.

This was so cute and heartwarming, but with a bit more substance than your average cozy fantasy. Tao is a traveling fortune teller who stumbles upon a band of misfits and ends up traveling along with them. The unexpected found family includes a father searching for his daughter, a "former" thief, a baker of ugly but delicious goods, and a feisty cat. The tale becomes a bit episodic as they have several adventures on their quest to find Leah, including Tao's own journey to reckon with her past. Definitely recommend!

The Teller of Small Fortunes is a cozy fantasy reminiscent of A Psalm for the Wild-Built, what with the traveling wagon, only with a bit more actual plot and the added bonus of found family. The characters are likeable and their little group of travelers has a D&D adventuring party vibe to them. The plot isn’t what you’d call action packed (though it has its moments of excitement) but the story is still interesting. And best of all, it lives up to the “cozy fantasy” subgenre, with warm fuzzy feelings aplenty. Five stars!

Representation: POC characters, LGBTQ+ characters

I've been browsing the cozy fantasy genre and have found that I tend to have one of two reactions to it, Either it missed the mark and is more aesthetic than substance, or its themes go deep, and I know I need it for my shelf to reread when times get hard.
This book is the latter.
Themes of found family, choosing to be gentle, forgiveness, and acceptance, all guided us through this poignant novel. I don't want to tell you how, I just want you to read it.
You deserve to pick it up when things get difficult too.
Lovely book. Can't recommend enough.

Thank you to netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong is a debut fantasy with cozy mystery elements.

Tao is an immigrant and a fortune teller, though she will only tell "small" fortunes like whether it will hail next week or who the barmaid will kiss. Thanks to a very bitter experience, she doesn't tell "big" fortunes anymore. Travelling around on her cart from town to town has been a pretty lonely experience, until she meets an ex-mercenary and (semi) reformed thief, a baker, and a slightly magical cat.

This was a really cute read! I really needed something light and cozy and thankfully it fit the bill nicely. I'm always a big fan of the found family trope, especially when that family includes a mangey cat who shows up via the Cat Distribution System. Also, this cover is amazingly beautiful!

You may end up hungry while reading this, because there is a lot of tea--reading the leaves is one of the ways Tao tells fortunes--and various baked goods from our uninspired baker to decides to travel to see the world. There's a bit of a mystery element as well with our ex-mercenary looking for his missing daughter.

It definitely reminded me of scenarios that my friends and I have had while playing Dungeons & Dragons. There's a lot of slice-of-life moments, which is one of the hallmarks of cozy fantasy for me--and the growth of each character throughout the book is really well done. Many of our characters spend the book learning who they actually are, instead of trying to fit into boxes they were placed into by others. That hit home for me in many ways.

If you liked books like Legends and Lattes or Can't Spell Treason Without Tea you should absolutely pick this up.

CW: racism, political conflict, death parent (prior to book), parental neglect, grief

4.25⭐️s
Cozy Fantasy WITH stakes... like middle ground stakes, nothing stressful.
The Teller Of Small Fortunes was a warm and charming tale. The characters are flawed yet loveable. Its adventurous, sweet, and lighthearted, serving empathy and love.
Though there's magic and fantastical elements, it offered very poignant discourse around some of our worlds biggest issues (racism, immigration), while somehow still being a very comforting and hopeful read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group | Ace for the eARC!

Thank you to @prhaudio for my complimentary audiobook and to @acebookspub @berkleypub for my complimentary eARC.
All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Available Now
The Teller of Small Fortunes is an absolute gem. It is a delightful story of magic and found family.
I paired the audiobook with the digital arc and I am so glad I did. Phyliss Ho's narration is calm and soothing. It was just what I needed to get through a crazy day.
If you enjoyed Legends & Lattes you need to read this one.

This review was originally posted on <a href="https://booksofmyheart.net/2024/11/07/%f0%9f%8e%a7-the-teller-of-small-fortunes-by-julie-leong/" target="_blank"> Books of My Heart</a>


<i>Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.</i>

4.5 hearts

I never know what I'll get when reading a fantasy book. <strong>The Teller of Small Fortunes</strong> was described as cozy and that seems right.  There isn't a big war.  The setting seemed rather historical as much fantasy does.

Our heroine, Tao, has a wagon with her treasured mule, as she travels around Eshtera.  She is Shinn, from Shinara, but after her father died, her mother brought her here with her new husband.  So while she is seen as of another country, she hasn't been there since she was a small child and doesn't really speak their language.  She ran away from home when her parents wanted her to go into the magic gild.  So she only tells small fortunes, using very little magic, to stay beneath the radar.

Her fortunes are true and people don't always like that. Another reason to tell only small things.  It is a lonely life until she meets two men. She tells one his fortune that he will give a kitten to a small girl, only to learn they are hunting for his lost girl.  So Tao joins them in the search.  A bit later, another woman who wants to see the world comes along. She is a baker.  They become close and loyal friends as they travel.  It's not about romance.

The heart is about finding yourself and your purpose in life. Sometimes that requires striking out on your own or taking a risk and trying new things.  Each of the four experiences some real growth and the joy of a found family.

The magic gild catches up with Tao. Her friends help her escape and when she is taken away by the gild, they go to rescue her again.  Tao learns about the gild and why they want her.  But she wants some thing from them as well.

I love this story and these characters.  They were fun and thoughtful, loyal and hard-working.  Anyone would want to travel with them!

This book was vibrant and magnificent and an incredible look at found family. If you like low stakes character stories with magic and found family look no further. I adored all the characters and what brought them together. I was rooting for each and every one of them

AND LOOK AT THAT COVER!!!

This book was charming, and I enjoyed it. It wasn't QUITE the warm hug in the form of a book that I was hoping it would be, but it was good. I was hoping for something really warm and cozy like I get from Becky Chambers or Travis Baldree, and while this was definitely Cozy Fantasy, it wasn't quite on the same level of heartwarming. I am not certain what it was missing for me because when I look at the things I love about those other authors, this book had many of the same ingredients: found family, charming locales, lowish-highish stakes adventure. I think I just didn't connect to any of the characters on an emotional level. All of that said, this was a sweet, charming book, and I do recommend it to readers of Chambers and Baldree. It just wasn't as emotionally cuddly to me as the others.

Tao is an immigrant wandering fortune teller. She knows it’s important to stick to small fortunes like when it will rain or if someone should expect good news. She is used to being alone and independent. Along the way she meets up with two men searching for a child. They meet up with brilliant if messy baker who joins them.

This cozy fantasy is filled with themes of friendship and found family. There’s a hero’s quest to find the missing girl. There’s a difficult and heartwarming mother-daughter relationship to parse. And of course there’s a grumpy cat!

It’s definitely a slower, lighter read for fantasy and at times the plot dragged for me. It was almost too low key even for me. A random side quest almost seemed out of place for the story as a whole. The conclusion wraps things up neatly in a satisfying manner.

The characters had no depth to them. The story, while imaginative, seemed too simple. For me, this book was just barely OK. Thank you to NetGalley and Ace for the complimentary digital ARC. This opinion is my own. Disappointing.

I read somewhere that The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong was a book in a new subgenre, being a cozy fantasy book. No matter what it is called it is a captivating story with characters that you love. A created group as such with a common goal to begin with, then finding that they are now a family. Despite some of the heavy topics and ideas this is a delightful book. New beginnings, past coming to haunt, forgiveness, acceptance are just some of the themes that spoke to me. From a new-to-me-author, I will eagerly be looking for more from her.

This is definitely different from my typical read but the beautiful cover and description caught my attention. This book was seriously just so cozy. If you like found family, I really enjoyed that element to the book. Tao’s character development was my favorite part of the story. The book also touches on the struggles of identity and explores Tao’s immigrant experience. This was a low stakes, cozy adventure fantasy read. Great for this time of year. Congrats on getting chosen for Book of the Month!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ace for letting me read an e-ARC of The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong!

I’ve been in a pretty bad reading slump for the majority of October, but after tearing through this book, my heart feels more restored. Leong brings Tao’s world to life with vivid imagery, baked goods that float off the page, and realistic everyday people just trying to find their way through life. Tao’s journey of vulnerability and opening up to people is one that I think will resonate with many readers. Especially as she tries to reckon with her life as an immigrant who has had to leave her home country behind and adopt the language and practices of a new, foreign country. It's not just Tao who grows throughout the story, though. All of her companions in one way or another come to learn about themselves -- their values, their hopes and dreams, their goals -- all because their paths crossed and they chose to travel together. Friendship and family are heavily explored themes and will pull on your heartstrings throughout the entire book.

There is so much to talk about with this book, but if you are a fan of cozy fantasy with the lowest of low stakes, this is probably the book for you. It’s recommended for fans of Legends & Lattes, but I think many will love this slice of life story even more. I can’t wait to see what else Leong will cook up in her career!

This cozy fantasy debut is a gem. And I LOVED it! Beautifully written, it conveys an aura of magic and myth with gentleness and heart, and I was drawn in from the start. Then, I fell in love with the characters and did not want the book to end! Heartwarming and sweet, the story has depth as it touches on themes like found family, personal growth, healing and forgiveness, and immigrant experiences.

The character development is very well done, with nuanced characters that come to life on the page. Tao, a wandering immigrant fortune teller, is about to embark on an unexpected adventure. A seemingly ordinary small fortune will lead her to travel with a former mercenary searching for his missing child, a semi-reformed thief, an apprentice baker hungry for new experiences, and some fabulous animals. As they travel and open up to one another, they show tremendous growth across the story, and you can't help but root for them. I loved this and cannot wait to read what Leong writes next! Fans of cozy fantasy don't miss this one!

Phyllis Ho's narration of the audiobook is delightful. She brings a sense of wonder to the world-building and expertly embodies the various personalities and emotions of the characters. Her narration kept me fully immersed in the story, even when I couldn't read the physical book. I alternated between the physical and audio, and the story is entertaining in either format.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing, Ace Books, Penguin Random House Audio, and Netgalley for the gifted book!

The Teller of Small Fortunes felt very whimsical in its delivery especially listening to the audiobook which was perfectly done by the way. I loved listening the narrator!

Tao, with the ability to tell big fortunes, chose to only tell small fortunes. She did this because with granting big fortunes comes big consequences. Underneath the whimsical feel, this book has a true message of friendships, found family, forgiveness, believing in yourself and more! There is an emotional pull as we follow Tao’s adventure and those friends she finds along the way. It made me think of friendships I’ve made through the love of books and sharing on social media, ones that I would not have made if not for this adventure on social media. The fantasy adventure followed in this story is one that would be great for a novice fantasy reader, or first time fantasy readers who want to dig into the genre. This could just be my thought, but at one point I got The House on the Cerulean Sea vibes which I know is a bookstagram favorite of many!