Lucky in Love by Kasie West

Challenge #36 ~ “A book from your TBR you don’t recognise, don’t recall putting there, or put there on a whim.”

luckyinlove

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

My opinion in three sentences:

Lucky in Love was a tale of two halves for me – the “Zoo Maddie” narration was every bit the fluffy romance I’d hoped for, whilst the “School Maddie” storyline was riddled with characterisation challenges. I didn’t not enjoy the tale, but as the book unfolded I found only the Maddie-Seth dynamic holding my interest, and would have enjoyed a book just about this a lot more. It wasn’t ground-breaking or mind-blowing as a work of young adult literature, but it is a cutesy and solid-enough Valentine’s beach read.

(Without spoiling anything) the best bit:

As I mentioned, the book was rather 50-50 for me – which is good, in the sense that 50% I loved. Which 50%, I hear you ask? Well, the wonderful romantic storyline that unfolded between Maddie and Seth (and, yes, I am serious, despite romantic sideplots usually being a bug bear of mine). West, however, crafted it in a tender and realistic way, filled with just-the-right-amount of cliche romantic moments and the odd element of drama for some spice. As a book in its own right, I would have read Maddie & Seth’s love story.

A warning for the book:

I didn’t understand Maddie as a character. At first, I thought I could connect and relate – an over-achiever, not in the popular crowd, and eager to help solve everyone’s issues? That sounds strangely familiar… Yet, and whilst I can hardly comment on how I would actually react were I to win the lottery, Maddie’s character spiraled into something else, in a manner that they felt like two different stories, and just didn’t gel together for me.

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