The Misfortune Cookie (An Esther Diamond Novel) by Laura Resnick

Paranormal Romance

What Goodreads Says:

Esther Diamond's year gets off to a rocky start when NYPD's Detective Connor Lopez, who slept with her and then didn't call, shuts down her current place of employment and gets her arrested. Once she's out of handcuffs, and with no paying work on the frigid horizon, Esther takes a small role in a grad student's film project in Chinatown—where her friend semi-retired hit man Lucky Battistuzzi, who escaped Lopez's sweep at the Little Italy restaurant where Esther works between acting jobs, is hiding out in a Chinese-Italian mortuary.
Esther and Lucky soon realize that something strange is going on in Chinatown, where beautifully handcrafted fortune cookies are inflicting deadly mystical curses on the hapless victims who receive them as gifts—and before long, Esther learns that Detective Lopez is one of the recipients. As preparations for Chinese New Year heat up in the ice-covered neighborhood, when the streets will be filled with costumed lion dancers, firecrackers, and dense crowds, Esther and Lucky summon the help of their friend Max, a semi-immortal mage and semi-solvent bookseller, to help them save Chinatown and Lopez (with whom Esther is not on speaking terms) from a mystical murderer of maniacal menace.

OK, this is book # 6 for Esther and Conner and they still are not together.  Book 5 finished with it looking like they were finally getting together and then Conner failed to call as promised.  That failure is the basis for much of the interaction between the two in The Misfortune Cookie.

There was not as much of the paranormal is this book.  Someone is putting a death curse in fancy fortune cookies.  That is almost a side story to what is going on between Esther and Connor.  Esther is really unforgiving and poor Connor is really clueless.  As angry as I was with him at the end of book 5 I started to feel sorry for him in book 6.

The cursed fortune cookies do play a big part in the end.  Esther does not have a paranormal bone in her body but does believe in the paranormal powers.  Connor does not believe in anything like the paranormal but does have paranormal powers that appear when he is under stress.  When Connor gets a cursed fortune cookie and Esther saves him for the curse it causes problems between the two so look to see what will happen in book 7.  I will have it on pre-order just like I had The Misfortune Cookie.

The story is set in Chinatown in New York and there is a lot of the history of Chinese in America and Chinatown worked into the story.  At time it is like a history text.   Laura did a lot of research for the book and wants to share what she learned.  The Misfortune Cookie is not as fast paced as previous books but it is a good addition to the Esther Diamond series.  This is a fun series that should be read in order.  If you start with The Misfortune Cookie some back-story is worked in but starting from the beginning is much better.

Daw published The Misfortune Cookie by Laura Resnick in 2013.

Teaser Tuesday November 12, 2013

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:"
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.

My teaser today if from The Misfortune Cookie (Esther Diamond #6)  by Laura Resnick.  This is one of the books I got from Amazon last week and I haven't started it yet so the teaser is for all of us.

"Do you need any ...Oh, right.  Never mind."  The cop grinned again.  "I just love a happy ending."  He was chuckling as he turned and went back the way he had come."

What Goodreads has to say about the book:

Esther Diamond's year gets off to a rocky start when NYPD's Detective Connor Lopez, who slept with her and then didn't call, shuts down her current place of employment and gets her arrested. Once she's out of handcuffs, and with no paying work on the frigid horizon, Esther takes a small role in a grad student's film project in Chinatown—where her friend semi-retired hit man Lucky Battistuzzi, who escaped Lopez's sweep at the Little Italy restaurant where Esther works between acting jobs, is hiding out in a Chinese-Italian mortuary.

Esther and Lucky soon realize that something strange is going on in Chinatown, where beautifully handcrafted fortune cookies are inflicting deadly mystical curses on the hapless victims who receive them as gifts—and before long, Esther learns that Detective Lopez is one of the recipients. As preparations for Chinese New Year heat up in the ice-covered neighborhood, when the streets will be filled with costumed lion dancers, firecrackers, and dense crowds, Esther and Lucky summon the help of their friend Max, a semi-immortal mage and semi-solvent bookseller, to help them save Chinatown and Lopez (with whom Esther is not on speaking terms) from a mystical murderer of maniacal menace.
  

Book Beginnings on Friday December 7, 2012

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include  include the title and author so others know what you're reading.


My book beginning this Friday is from Polterheist, An Esther Diamond Novel by Laura Resnick.   This is the fifth Esther novel and it has been on my TBR pile for several weeks .  I love this series.  I have gotten bogged down with books I received to review and have not gotten to some I want to read.  This week I decided to move some of those I purchased to the top of the TBR pile.  If you love a fun series I recommend the Esther Diamond Novels.  Here is the beginning of Polterheist.

"I became convinced that something strange was going on at Fenster & Co. when a singing tree tried to strangle me."

With that beginning I knew I was in for another fun read.  Here is the Goodreads summary: 

Struggling actress Esther Diamond's latest Manhattan misadventure leads her into the twisted realm of greedy heirs battling over a retail empire, a series of heists pulled off by invisible thieves, and inanimate objects that grow fangs and fly through the air to attack a poor actress who's just trying to earn enough money to pay her rent.

Realizing that magical mayhem is afoot, Esther joins forces with her pal Max, a 350 year old sorcerer whose day job is protecting the Big Apple from Evil. Together they investigate the terrifying manifestations at Fenster & Co., where Esther is working overtime as an underdressed elf.

Meanwhile, Esther's tumultuous almost-romance with NYPD's Detective Connor Lopez runs hot and cold and increasingly strange as he investigates the perplexing heists at Fenster's. Semi-retired hit man Lucky Battistuzzi is also nosing around, since the mob deeply resents being implicated in these thefts which they didn't commit—well, not this time, anyhow.

As an ancient Evil prepares to unleash hell on a night when darkness prevails and dimensional barriers crumble, Esther Diamond battles to save her friends from deadly peril, protect her city from demonic disaster, and collect her paycheck in time to make rent. 

Unsympathetic Magic by Laura Resnick

Paranormal Mystery/Romance

Poor Esther, even when she gets a good role something bad happens.  While she is playing a hooker on The Dirty Thirty TV show zombies, angry spirits and a voodoo curse threaten everything.  Enter Esther’s sometime boyfriend Connor Lopez, a New York City detective and Dr. Maximilian Zadok , a 350 year old sorcerer whose day job is to protect New York City.  Again this is a set up for disaster.  Connor does not believe in magic and Esther is right in the middle of a plot full of good and bad magic.  Will these two ever get together?

This is the third book in the Esther Diamond series.  I found it to be slow going at first but once the pace picked up it was filled with fun and humor.  Unsympathetic Magic can be read as a stand-alone but I recommend starting with the first book.  The other two books in the series are Disappearing Nightly and Doppelgangster.

Unsympathetic Magic was my Tuesday Teaser several weeks ago.  You can look back and read the quote.

DAW Books published Unsympathetic Magic by Laura Resnick in 2010.