2.5 stars

Love Charms and Other Catastrophes was… unexpected in many ways. I enjoyed the first book in this series to a certain extent but companion sequels can be either a hit or a miss. In this case, I think keeping Karalius’ debut as a standalone would not have been such a bad idea! I just did not connect to the characters as much as I would have liked and I really, really struggled to get on-board with the romance.

I think my entire problem with this story stems from my problems with the romance. While I was not a die-hard Fallon and Sebastian shipper in Love Fortunes and Other Disasters, their romance was still entertaining and it weaved into an overarching plotline that captured my attention. In this, however, Hijiri and Ken’s relationship was just… odd. I understood Love’s need for Hijiri to take over the love-charm making in Grimbaud. I can even see why Love believed making her fall in love would consequently help her to understand her own heart and make her a stronger love-charm maker in return, but I didn’t quite understand how that translated into bringing Kenato into her life. I really did not like the fact that he was in love with her before they had officially met. His affection for her felt entirely fake. How can you love someone without knowing them? I never for a second believed that Ken’s love or even personality was genuine… which is obviously a massive problem. Why would I want to ship Hijiri with - what we are led to believe is - a fake/charmed boy? It didn’t make sense to me and even now, after finishing this book about five minutes ago, I still have no idea what Love was trying to achieve by putting Ken and Hijiri in this situation. It probably didn’t help that I was just not a fan of Ken in general. He was defined by his love for Hijiri and that bothered me. I think I could have warmed up to him more if he was actually lovable as a character but that was just not the case.

Hijiri’s obsession with her “small heart” did not help this. All it did was confuse me further! Was it meant to be a metaphorical/literary thing or did she truly believe her physical heart was literally smaller than average and, hence, it was stopping her from falling in love? If that’s the case, why the heck would she think that? I understand she had never fallen in love before - or even been interested in a boy - but she’s a teenager in high school… that’s hardly a big deal! You’ve barely meet anyone or been exposed to that many types of people at that age. You haven’t even had the time to pursue your career path or find out about yourself at that age (and I feel qualified to say this not as a judgy adult reader but a teenager myself). I just did not understand why Hijiri was so caught up on this and so adamant she was unable to fall in love.

If the romance and Ken’s characterisation had not been so messy, the plotline could have made the overall storyline really shine. It was silly and random at times but I did really enjoy the whimsicality of Grimbaud and I am still in love with the idea of its magical system (which we got to explore in much more depth this time around). The competition storyline would have been right up my alley if there had been apt levels of suspense and tension but sadly, it was a little underwhelming for the most part. While the competition was not as frightening or deadly as the Triwizard Tournament, it was still crucial to the town’s recovery and I would have liked to see Karalius capture the almost terror-like emotions of being involved in such a crucial competition like Rowling did. The pressure on Hijiri to win the competition and not allow another Zita-like charm maker gain influence in her town did not quite translate onto the page as I would have liked. It would have also been good to explore how Hijiri’s anxiety affected her performance in the competition and to focus on really making sure readers felt her desperation. The final round was incredibly disappointing. I would have liked that to been expanded on and not have been quite convenient as it felt. I did like that the charm-making aspects answered some of my questions from the first book as well.

Overall?

Love Charms and Other Catastrophes was a mostly disappointing companion/sequel. I think the idea of this romance was a little too weird for me. Ken was not a particularly likeable character due to his intense instalove for Hijiri. It made their entire relationship feel one-sided and off. The plotline was fun but I would have liked it to have been way more intense and tension-filled. I think I enjoyed the first book as a whole a lot more and am so glad that Karalius has decided to move on from the Grimbaud world in her next book.