The teller of small fortunes by Julie Leong

Format: 352 pages, Paperback

Published: October 16, 2025 by Hodderscape

Cozy fantasy/own

Awww, another cute one. I do admit, at first I was a little hesitant, cozy fantasy is just so sweet, and slow. Is this for me? But then I was swept away by this pleasant story. Easy to read, fast to read.

Tao travels around in her wagon telling small fortunes. Those are easier for people to handle. The big ones, yeah people are not good with those. She also moves on fast as people have a tendency to want one thing and when it does happen, kind of scary.

She meets a thief and a mercenary that is tracking bandits who stole the mercenary´s child. Then she also comes across a baker who wants to see more of the world, and maybe try new things. A cat shows up and suddenly they do need more wagons. They travel to villages, selling fortunes, baked goods, searching for a missing daughter.

There is some danger, two countries heading into war, and she is originally from the other one. And why is she travelling alone?

But this is a cozy fantasy, only good things happen. And things work out as this is one book. No cliffhangers. I enjoyed it a great deal.

Tao is an immigrant fortune teller, traveling between villages with just her trusty mule for company. She only tells "small" whether it will hail next week; which boy the barmaid will kiss; when the cow will calve. She knows from bitter experience that big fortunes come with big consequences…

Even if it’s a lonely life, it’s better than the one she left behind. But a small fortune unexpectedly becomes something more when a (semi) reformed thief and an ex-mercenary recruit her into their desperate search for a lost child. Soon, they’re joined by a baker with a knead for adventure, and—of course—a slightly magical cat.

Tao sets down a new path with companions as big-hearted as her fortunes are small. But as she lowers her walls, the shadows of her past are closing in—and she’ll have to decide whether to risk everything to preserve the family she never thought she could have.