ARC Review: Fortune’s Kiss by Amber Clement

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Fortune's Kiss by Amber Clement
Published by Union Square and Co on November 12, 2024
Genres: YA Fantasy
Pages: 368
Source: the publisher
Format: ARC
My Rating:
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Blurb:

The legendary Fortune’s Kiss has returned to Ciudad Milagro for the first time in ten years. The magical gambling house shows up twice a year in a new city during the solstices to lure those worthy enough to wager their souls for wealth, the realization of their greatest desires, and, even, immortality. 

Known by many names throughout the years, it returns to Milagro as El Beso de la Fortuna . . . and the game is Lotería. And best friends Mayté Robles and Lorena (Lo) de León are determined to change their lives, escape the dangerous men who threaten them, and gain riches. 

Mayté, the sole daughter of the disgraced Robles family, wishes to leave her family and become a successful painter, while Lo suffers at the hands of her powerful and abusive father and seeks to find her mother, who escaped to Fortune’s Kiss years ago but never returned. 

When Fortune’s Kiss finally returns to their city, the pair follow on their childhood blood pact to enter the gaming salon. But once inside, Mayté and Lo quickly realize that beneath the marvelous glamour, the salon is hiding dangerous secrets and the house always wins. And the game of Lotería is not the children’s game they grew up playing—it is a deadly lottery of chance.

With the help of a young, handsome croupier, the girls embark on a mission to unravel the mystery of the salon’s magic, find Lo’s mother, and try to win a nearly impossible game as their friendship is put under the greatest of tests.

My Review

This was a unique and thrilling story set in a world where wishes can be won whenever the Fortune’s Kiss shows up in your town. But it’s never known for sure when or where it will show up. Mayte and Luna are best friends who have planned to go and win together. As far as they know only two people can come out the winners. All the reasons they want to go get worse and worse until the day they are actually going, when both feel they are at the point with no other choice.

Once they are taken in and chosen, actually before they are chosen, they learn how steep the risks are. But both know the only way they can get what they want and hopefully be safe is to try. Not only are the risks high, but the games themselves are still basically games of chance. There isn’t really strategy and skill like other competition books, this is literally like a game of Bingo or the Loteria as they call it. Also both girls meet some handsome and mysterious helpers in the house. They learn that the past and how this game came to be, and must figure out how to use that knowledge to win the game.

Of course there are other people they know who show up, since it did come to their town. Some people that they know, respect, and some people that are dangerous or despicable in other ways. I liked the way the author wove both girls’ past stories into how the house worked trying to either help them or keep them from winning at times. A great story that had me speeding all the way through to see how they could win and save themselves as well.