Release Date - July 25, 2017
Publisher Social Media - Twitter
Pages - 333 pages
My Rating - 3.5/5
**received for an honest review from publisher**
Can’t buy me love…
Maddie’s not impulsive. She’s all about hard work and planning ahead. But one night, on a whim, she buys a lottery ticket. And then, to her astonishment—
She wins!
In a flash, Maddie’s life is unrecognizable. No more stressing about college scholarships. Suddenly, she’s talking about renting a yacht. And being in the spotlight at school is fun…until rumors start flying, and random people ask her for loans. Now Maddie isn’t sure who she can trust.
Except for Seth Nguyen, her funny, charming coworker at the local zoo. Seth doesn’t seem aware of Maddie’s big news. And, for some reason, she doesn’t want to tell him. But what will happen if he learns her secret?
Everyone has had that daydreamof what they would do if they suddenly won the lottery. Most people just fantasize about how they would spend the money. The reality of what winning the lottery would be like is something that rarely intrudes on these daydreams. I expected Kasie West's Lucky In Love to be more like the daydream kind of lottery winning. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find a lot of weight to the story mixed in the typical Kasie West cuteness.
Maddie's experience with winning the lottery is a mix of those dream moments we are all familiar with. She wants to buy herself a few things she's always wanted, and help out her family. She also includes more practical things like paying for her college education. While it highlights the upside of having enough money to do these things, it also is careful to showcase the ways in which her life changes that are not so great. She learns that money doesn't fix things. The problems she had that she thought were money related all turn out to be more complex than she thought. She has people who approach her that sometimes do not have her best interests at heart, and even has people using her for what she can now do for them. It is an aspect of this that hardly anyone really things about, mostly because it is so unlikely that you would ever actually win the lottery. However, with Kasie West's balance between lighthearted and serious it captures, what I feel, is a good mix of fantasy and reality when it comes to this situation.
The changes in Maddie's life are numerous and monumental. People treat her differently. Her family and friends are no exception. Having Maddie's family be such a large part of her story arc, and what she had to come to terms with, was a great touch. They were not immune to the changes Maddie's windfall brings, and it grounded the story in a way I was not expecting. There are issues dealt with that are tied to her lottery win within many of the relationships she has with both friends and family members.
The romance is typical Kasie West. It is filled with wonderfully sweet moments and is my favourite part of the novel. Fans of the 'friends to more' trope will especially appreciate the natural progression and the bond that is formed between Maddie and Seth. I also felt that the big moments of the romance were entirely realistic.In a novel where literally money was no object, at least for Maddie, the gestures were heartfelt, and realistic. It was simple in a way that a lot of other things in Maddie's life were not, and that is what made it so enjoyable.
My only real issue was that the other stuff outside the romance didn't feel as wrapped up, or explored as I wanted it to be. I wish we had gotten more time with the closure to that storyline. I recognize that what Maddie learns about herself and those around her would naturally lend itself to the ending that was given, I just wanted something from that entire storyline.
A fun, quick read that is guaranteed to leave you smiling. If you're a fan of Kasie West's previous novels, you'll finish this one entirely satisfied. Those who have yet to discover her, I urge you to pick up her books as I predict you'll be charmed by them all, including this one. I feel like she is a must read for contemporary young adult fans, and feel like younger teens will especially love her novels.
Maddie's experience with winning the lottery is a mix of those dream moments we are all familiar with. She wants to buy herself a few things she's always wanted, and help out her family. She also includes more practical things like paying for her college education. While it highlights the upside of having enough money to do these things, it also is careful to showcase the ways in which her life changes that are not so great. She learns that money doesn't fix things. The problems she had that she thought were money related all turn out to be more complex than she thought. She has people who approach her that sometimes do not have her best interests at heart, and even has people using her for what she can now do for them. It is an aspect of this that hardly anyone really things about, mostly because it is so unlikely that you would ever actually win the lottery. However, with Kasie West's balance between lighthearted and serious it captures, what I feel, is a good mix of fantasy and reality when it comes to this situation.
The changes in Maddie's life are numerous and monumental. People treat her differently. Her family and friends are no exception. Having Maddie's family be such a large part of her story arc, and what she had to come to terms with, was a great touch. They were not immune to the changes Maddie's windfall brings, and it grounded the story in a way I was not expecting. There are issues dealt with that are tied to her lottery win within many of the relationships she has with both friends and family members.
The romance is typical Kasie West. It is filled with wonderfully sweet moments and is my favourite part of the novel. Fans of the 'friends to more' trope will especially appreciate the natural progression and the bond that is formed between Maddie and Seth. I also felt that the big moments of the romance were entirely realistic.In a novel where literally money was no object, at least for Maddie, the gestures were heartfelt, and realistic. It was simple in a way that a lot of other things in Maddie's life were not, and that is what made it so enjoyable.
My only real issue was that the other stuff outside the romance didn't feel as wrapped up, or explored as I wanted it to be. I wish we had gotten more time with the closure to that storyline. I recognize that what Maddie learns about herself and those around her would naturally lend itself to the ending that was given, I just wanted something from that entire storyline.
A fun, quick read that is guaranteed to leave you smiling. If you're a fan of Kasie West's previous novels, you'll finish this one entirely satisfied. Those who have yet to discover her, I urge you to pick up her books as I predict you'll be charmed by them all, including this one. I feel like she is a must read for contemporary young adult fans, and feel like younger teens will especially love her novels.
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