STAR-CROSSED EGG TARTS

The warm glow of a wedding can’t make up for a dead groomsman in this second installment of Chow’s Magical Fortune Cookie series.

As the new co-owner of the Jin Bakery alongside her mother, Felicity Jin feels honored to be spreading happiness to the world—even her surname shines, since it’s the Mandarin word for gold. It’s fitting, then, that the love she and her mother pour into their baked goods leaves the people who eat them with a warm glow of happiness. Felicity’s fortune cookies provide accurate predictions about the future, too. Now, Felicity is planning the perfect dessert for the Leanne Lum–Colton Wu wedding, a “cake” made of tiered egg tarts. She may not get to present it to the guests, though, since things go wrong before the wedding even gets started when groomsman Miles Wu, Colton’s cousin, fails to show up for the ceremony. Maybe the San Joaquin Valley heat has gotten to him, or maybe the bad vibes between the groom’s divorced parents inspired him to make himself scarce. Felicity has no attention to spare for the drama, since she’s been asked at the last minute to help prepare a traditional tea ceremony she knows little about. With the wedding processional seconds away, Colton asks Felicity’s friend Kelvin Love, the florist, to sub for Miles, hoping Miles will show up in time for the reception. When Miles is found dead under the tablecloth-covered cake table, though, the wedding night devolves into a criminal investigation. If that’s not enough for Felicity to contend with, her long-absent father shows up as a guest at the wedding, seemingly eager to catch up on what he’s missed, though Felicity’s mom warns her not to trust him after all this time.

Good things lie ahead in this series.