With a Little Luck by Marissa Meyer (Fortuna Beach book 2)

 

SPOILER ALERT! Readers of the first book in the Fortuna Beach series have already met the Barnett family. Jude is the brother of Pru from Instant Karma and her best friend Ari is the other main character. Failure to read the first book will not hamper your enjoyment of this one.

“Jude is determined to fly under the radar. He just wants to draw his comics, host regular D&D night with his friends, work at his parents’ vinyl record store, and escape high school as unscathed as possible. That is, until the night he comes across a mysterious twenty-sided dice and finds himself inexplicably gifted with a bout of supernatural good luck.

Suddenly, everything Jude has ever wanted is within reach. His first art submission is accepted to his favorite fanzine. He helps his friend’s song become a finalist in a songwriting competition. And he’s the 100th caller to a local radio contest, winning him a pair of coveted concert tickets, which he uses to ask out the popular girl he’s been crushing on since elementary school. For a few blissful weeks, he feels invincible.

But when he loses the magic dice at a local music festival, his luck takes a turn for the worse. He struggles to reclaim his good fortune while fighting off long-buried feelings for his best friend―who is definitely not the girl he’s supposed to be in love with. Can Jude risk stepping into the spotlight long enough to win the true girl of his dreams? Or is he doomed to be unlucky in love forever?” - taken from Goodreads.

Jude is hopelessly in love with a girl, Maya, who is completely out of his league and everyone at school knows it. One night while working at his parents’ record store, Jude finds an expensive D&D die and suddenly his luck changes for the good. With everything going his way, Jude asks Maya to go with him to a popular concert that he won tickets to and she agrees. Jude’s good luck goes horribly wrong when he loses his lucky die. Down on his luck, he soon realizes that maybe his longtime crush isn’t the girl of his dreams. But when Jude finally opens his eyes and listens to his heart, will he be able to change his luck?

Visit Marissa Meyer’s website.

Lucky In Love by Kasie West

“Maddie doesn't believe in luck. 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?” - taken from Goodreads.com

I LOVE Kasie West’s book. The romance is always so sweet between the main characters. I don’t know if my problem was that I read a similar book about a female lottery winner from another one of my favorite romance writers, Jennifer E. Smith’s Windfall, just six weeks earlier but it did take me awhile to get into the groove of this book. Although both books are about how life changes after a major lottery win, Lucky In Love, is told from winner’s point of view as she deals with her sudden influx of money. Once I really got into the story, I just couldn’t put it down.

Visit Kasie West’s website.

Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith

“Let luck find you.

Alice doesn’t believe in luck—at least, not the good kind. But she does believe in love, and for some time now, she’s been pining for her best friend, Teddy. On his eighteenth birthday—just when it seems they might be on the brink of something—she buys him a lottery ticket on a lark. To their astonishment, he wins $140 million, and in an instant, everything changes.

At first, it seems like a dream come true, especially since the two of them are no strangers to misfortune. As a kid, Alice won the worst kind of lottery possible when her parents died just over a year apart from each other. And Teddy’s father abandoned his family not long after that, leaving them to grapple with his gambling debts. Through it all, Teddy and Alice have leaned on each other. But now, as they negotiate the ripple effects of Teddy’s newfound wealth, a gulf opens between them. And soon, the money starts to feel like more of a curse than a windfall.

As they try to find their way back to each other, Alice learns more about herself than she ever could have imagined…and about the unexpected ways in which luck and love sometimes intersect.” - taken from Goodreads.com

Another cute read by Jennifer Smith that will wrap readers into Alice’s story as both she and Teddy struggle with what winning the lottery means to their lives. Alice also must come to grips with her parents’ death and how it has affected her choices in life. The growth of both Alice and Teddy into adulthood is a journey that readers will devour.  

Visit Jennifer E. Smith’s website.

Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes

“What happens when the girl who’s lost everything meets the boy who has it all?”

“Maguire is bad luck.

No matter how many charms she buys off the internet or good luck rituals she performs each morning, horrible things happen when Maguire is around. Like that time the rollercoaster jumped off its tracks. Or the time the house next door caught on fire. Or that time her brother, father, and uncle were all killed in a car crash—and Maguire walked away with barely a scratch.

It’s safest for Maguire to hide out in her room, where she can cause less damage and avoid meeting new people who she could hurt. But then she meets Jordy, an aspiring tennis star. Jordy is confident, talented, and lucky, and he’s convinced he can help Maguire break her unlucky streak. Maguire knows that the best thing she can do for Jordy is to stay away. But it turns out staying away is harder than she thought.” - taken from Goodreads.com

What could have turned out to be a sad book based on all that has happened in Maguire's life, it’s not. As she is leaving a session at her therapist's office, a cute boy waiting takes notice of her and speaks. Not really wanting to get involved with him, she doesn’t play at hard to get, she is. It’s not until Maguire decides to try out for her new school’s tennis team at the suggestion of Dr. Leeds that she learns who the boy is. Jordy Wheeler is a tennis prodigy and making the team brings the two of them together. Soon, Maguire not only finds herself drawn into Jordy’s world, but also the girls on her team. Starting to make new friends and working on a bucket list of fears to overcome before heading to Ireland on a plane, Maguire learns from Jordy that maybe she isn’t a walking curse.

This is a book of overcoming one’s fears, making new friendships, a first time relationship, and opening up to your family to see that life can overcome tragedy. A definite read!

Visit Paula Stokes’ website.