cover image Houston, We Have a Problema

Houston, We Have a Problema

Gwendolyn Zepeda, . . Grand Central, $12.99 (392pp) ISBN 978-0-446-69852-8

For single Houston gal Jessica Luna, deciding what she really wants involves searching for signs and sage advice from a fortune-teller in Zepeda's snazzy first novel (after short story collection To the Last Man I Slept With and All the Jerks Just Like Him ). The superstitious Latina becomes devoted to Madame Hortensia, a psychic with questionable abilities (but a good heart) after three eerie predictions come true. So it's with Hortensia's help that Jessica hopes to overcome her professional, personal and romantic woes. Jessica has a B.A. in art history yet unhappily toils for an insurance firm, is torn between two men—one a sexy but flaky artist, the other a rich but snobby businessman—and believes her parents may be on the verge of divorce. Jessica's evolution from self-uncertainty to self-empowerment is amusingly charted, and Zepeda's take on the popular fascination with good luck charms, horoscopes, psychics and unreliable predictions is laced with rueful zeal. (Jan.)