Title: Storm in a cup of coffee
Author: Keren Or
Genre: Contemporary, Women’s Fiction
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Can Eli accept the man who psychic Lena insists is her love destiny?

“…I am feeling that his last name has something to do with a stone, some type of stone… If I’m right…Lucas will be your destiny.” On hearing for the first time that Lucas is to be her husband, twenty-five-year-old Eli initially encloses herself within a black cloud of stubbornness. She flatly rejects this insistent prediction of Lena’s, a psychic who reads coffee grounds. Eli cannot accept that fate has determined that she should have a relationship with a divorced single father.

And if Eli believes Lena, what will it take to make Lucas fall in love with her?

But after guaranteeing her a unique love and a fulfilling and enduring life as a couple, Lena manages to get through to Eli. Determined to conquer Lucas and bring the prophecy to fruition, Eli begins a most purposeful journey, aimed at making Lucas fall in love with her. But this could turn out to be… an impossible mission!

Eli’s captivating story brings us a moving tale of love, determination, and faith.

When 25-year-old Eli hears from a psychic in Storm in a Cup of Coffee that her destiny is to wed Lucas, a divorced single father, she can barely believe it. Even more, she refuses to accept it in her typical stubborn fashion. Still, the psychic Lena manages to convince Eli by telling her that they will have an unique love that will transcend anything Eli has ever felt before.

Still, Eli will have to find a way to make Lucas fall in love with her if she wants the psychic’s prediction to come true. Making Lucas fall for her is far harder than Eli could’ve ever thought, though, and she’ll need all her determination to make her own destiny come true.

Eli’s whole life is one failed relationship after another, most of that due to the fact she always chooses the wrong guys. And when a genuinely good guy shows interest, she practically runs away. Believing the psychic’s fortune-telling even makes her chase after a man and try to get him to marry her, even though he doesn’t show much interest in her at the start. The journey takes Eli on a quest of self-discovery though, allowing her to discover things about herself she otherwise would’ve never figured out, and find some of her own hidden strength.

Title: A Breath She Took
Author: Ilan Amit
Genre: Contemporary, Women’s Fiction
Rating: 3,5 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A shocking announcement prompts Inbal to just get up and run out of the house

Inbal is an attractive independent woman, a biology researcher who hides the fact that her father disappeared under strange circumstances when she was only ten. He left her, her mother, and her sister struggling in a home turned upside-down. When one morning Inbal’s husband suddenly announces he wants to separate, reality strikes, the walls that she has built around herself all her life begin to crumble, and she runs out of the house and through the city.

But where does she go, and what mysteries does she unravel along the way?

The pointless run gradually becomes a strange voyage toward her past, confronting life-changing secrets, as she tries to unveil the mystery of her father’s disappearance so long ago. This is the story of the tense, strange, and sometimes funny relationship that she has with her sister and mother, both past and present. This is a story about losing one’s old self and finding a stronger, clearer new one.

In “A Breath She Took“, Inbal has struggled her entire life with coming to terms with her past. When she was ten years old, her father disappeared under mysterious circumstances, leaving her, her mother and her sister behind. Now, Inbal has put up walls all around her, to protect herself from the outside world.

When her husband declares he wants a seperation, the walls around Inbal collapse. Panicking, she runs outside, to the city, seemingly aimlessly running from the terrible truth. However, the run soon becomes a voyage, a trip down memory lane, as she tries to unveil the mystery of her father’s disappearance and comes to terms with the past.

This is a compelling, emotional read about the journey to discover one’s true self, to deal with one’s past, and become a stronger person. I found it very inspiring, and a solid read, but the only downside for me was the lack of action in the present – the journeys into the character’s past are interesting, but they don’t hold enough excitement for the “here and now”.