Review: Love Potion Number 10 by Betsy Woodman

I read Jana Bibi's Excellent Fortunes last year. It left me with such a happy feeling that I was thrilled to discover that I would be able to return to the 1960s Indian hill station town of Hamara Nagar, the Jolly Grant House, Jana Bibi, Mr. Ganguly the parrot, and all of the delightful characters and places mentioned in the first novel. And this second novel in the proposed trilogy was just as charming as the first.

In this delightful installment, Jana Bibi has added dream interpretation to her fortune telling. Mr. Ganguly the parrot still assists in the fortune telling and thanks to his notoriety, he ends up the object of a kidnapping plot. A trio of Jana's wealthy friends buy the local hotel with plans to update and modernize it and Jana must carefully straddle her friendship with them and her desire and obligation to the town in keeping the hotel's character intact. In addition to these forces from outside the village, Abinath, of Abinath's Apothecary has created an elixir he's dubbed LPN10 or Love Potion Number 10 which just might, amazingly be what it claims to be. Jana works herself even more firmly into the fabric of Hamara Nagar here, dispensing gentle words of advice and helping her friends and inhabitants of the town to embrace the right future for them. This is another engaging novel from Woodman, complete with the same quirky characters and cheerful tone that pervaded the first one. It's a sweet and cozy treat of a read and if you haven't yet met Jana Bibi, pick up the first one and I promise you'll want to read this one too.

Thanks to the publisher and LibraryThing Early Reviewers for sending me a copy of this book for review.