Maddie’s life isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty good – she’s got excellent grades, two best friends, a fun job at the zoo (which means shifts with a very cute boy), and a family she adores. There are only a few things that she wishes she could change, like her parents’ fighting all the time and worrying about paying for a good college. On her 18th birthday, she buys a lottery ticket on a whim… and ends up winning 50 million dollars.
Hands down, the most fun thing about Lucky in Love is the voyeuristic pleasure of reading about someone who has just won an obscene amount of money. Let’s face it – this is not going to happen to any of us, so we might as well root for a heroine who’s luckier than we are! I also felt that author Kasie West was appropriately moderate in spending Maddie’s unexpected fortune. There is one big party and a shopping trip here and there, but for the most part, Maddie is pretty rational about how she spends her money. The drama of Lucky in Love is not about if Maddie’s money is going to run out or not, but how money and notoriety change relationships between people.
If Maddie is fairly sensible with her extraordinary good fortune, the same can’t be said for every person in her life. Suddenly, everyone at school wants to be her friend, boys are interested in her, and her brother decides to buy a condo instead of going back to college. West manages to balance the wish fulfillment of spending a ton of money with the typical high school stress of figuring out who your friends are and who you truly want to be.
All in all, Lucky in Love is a cute romance that should please fans of West’s other novels like P.S. I Like You and The Fill-In Boyfriend.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review.
