Fortune's Kiss, Anne Conley

A prophecy and a dream will have the power to bring two people together.  But will they have the strength, determination, and enough love to stay?

From the first moment that London sees the fortune teller's tent she knows something is different, real.  She's drawn to it and when she hears the prophecy about her dreamer she immediately makes the life choices she thinks will bring her to him.

Elliot wakes from a dream knowing the girl who saved him from his nightmare is the woman who will be his life.  But when you're homeless at 18 there's not a lot you can do about creating the kind of life his dream girl will want.  Trusting fate to guide them together he draws, dreams, and survives.

Twenty years later a nephew and a mugging bring them together.  It's difficult for both of them to admit to one another their "crazy" thoughts to explain how invested they are in an "us" after only a few brief moments of tense conversation and it's their hesitation that cause them to lose sight of what they've spent the last two decades longing for.  Their secrets almost cost them their destiny.  

Elliot and London have a great connection, though fast when they finally meet, it feels real because it's got a sense of fate and destiny.  Elliot's youth was rough and his responsibilities are heavy.  He's scared and feels ill-equipped to handle everything weighing on his shoulders but he's trying.  His priorities are to his nephew even when he finds London and his struggles are compounded by the lack of time to build something solid with London and to help his nephew heal and adjust.  Despite him pulling a runner when the pressure becomes unbearable, I truly like him and feel for him.

London is a full character with hopes, aspirations, motivations, history, etc. but there's a disconnect for me.  There's a constant reiteration about her age but she still feels 15 in a lot of ways.  Especially the reassertion by her and others that the runner interpretation is still the same and valid from a 15 year old's perception though she's seeing him figuratively running from her (well, it's literal too, but not in the marathon running sense) is a bit annoying.  Also, the dependence on the fortune teller's words from half a lifetime ago and then seeing her again but pretty much dismissing her second counsel doesn't fit with the picture painted of London or Elliot's acceptance of his dreams.

There are some slightly confusing sentiments near the end.  The reunion was a bit hurried.  Not rushed like going from one moment to the next didn't line up or had a too-quick escalation, but it felt like some middle ground was necessary instead of going from sitting on the bumper to the intense moment of confession in the motel.

The custody issue is casually taken care of after the relationship drama is settled and that's fine, if it were any larger it would have taken focus away from the point of the story.  I wish it had been used as a tool to bring the three of them closer together.  That one consultation, however, did put a ton of Elliot's situation out for London and avoided a ton of secrecy, angst, and misunderstandings at the outset.  Not all of it, obviously, but it cut down on the number of possibilities those frustrations could come from.

Overall this was a cute story that had amazing potential even if the reality was a bit lacking.  The characters were multi-faceted and the external drama was relatively low.  With a solid support cast and some introductions that are absolutely intriguing for another series, it was a solidly enjoyable story.

*$2.99 on Amazon!