Lucky in Love by Kasie West: Review & West’s Top Ten Addictions (with a Twist!)

Lucky in Love by Kasie West
Published by Scholastic on July 25th 2017
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary
Pages: 333
Source: NetGalley, Blog Tour

In this new contemporary from YA star Kasie West, a girl who wins the lottery learns that money can cause more problems than it solves, especially when love comes into the picture.

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?
With tons of humor and heart, Kasie West delivers a million-dollar tale of winning, losing, and falling in love.

I don’t even know what to say about this book except that it’s adorable and SO Kasie West (which is a very good thing, mind you).

Believe it or not, the themes in this book have been a topic of conversation in our household many times. My husband insists that he would absolutely hate to win the lottery because it would completely change us. And if it somehow didn’t change us, it would, at the very least, change how everyone around us perceives us and acts toward us. He’s probably right (that was certainly the case with Maddie in this book). Actually, I knew someone personally who did win the lottery—when I was in high school, my biology teacher (and her sister) won 17.5 million dollars! And I can say from experience that things actually did change for her a lot—and people did treat her differently. In fact, I had people coming to me asking if they could mention my name and ask her for a donation. Um, awkward? She insisted at first that she was going to keep teaching until the end of the school year, but she didn’t quite make it—we ended up finishing out the year with a substitute. Can’t blame her!

Anyway, onto my actual review of this book…

I thought that Lucky in Love gave a pretty realistic portrayal of the types of things that happen when you suddenly come into a whole lot of money. People suddenly change their attitudes toward you. Some people try to take advantage (sometimes even family members!). You start to wonder who you can trust and just wish that everyone didn’t know. And you often find that money doesn’t solve all the problems you think it would. At least, those were the lessons that Maddie learned in this book.

I loved Maddie because she’s a very practical, down-to-earth person, but even she manages to get swept away a bit by the excitement and drama of being a millionaire. Still, she remains likable, even when she’s making mistakes. The book depicts strong friendships and deep (if complicated) family relationships. And the romance with Seth is all sorts of adorable—I appreciated the cultural aspects that were brought up since Seth is of Vietnamese heritage. I will say that the romance seems to be less of a focus in this book than it is in some of West’s other books, but that was just fine with me. I still got plenty of swoonworthy moments to keep me happy. Oh, and the zoo setting is incredibly fun!

Basically, this is what I’ve come to expect from West—a fun contemporary that explores family, friendships and more. 

***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher via Fantastic Flying Book Club and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***

Today, West is sharing her top ten addictions with us. But as a fun twist on the typical author list that you see around here often, she’s also letting us know how she would indulge in that addiction if she were to win the lottery. (For most of the entries—some of them are harder to spend money on than others. For instance, staying up late. Maybe she could hire a servant to poke her now and again to keep her up? No? Hmmm… you might be right.)

Love this list! Oh, by the way, Kasie, I just read an article today that says you might have your ancestors to blame for being a night owl. So you really can’t help it! 🙂

About the Author

I write YA. I eat Junior Mints. Sometimes I go crazy and do both at the same time. My novels are: PIVOT POINT and its sequel SPLIT SECOND. And my contemporary novels: THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US, ON THE FENCE, THE FILL-IN BOYFRIEND, PS I LIKE YOU, and BY YOUR SIDE. My agent is the talented and funny Michelle Wolfson.