In this coming-of-age romance perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Sarah Dessen, scandal and romance collide when an ambitious teen returns to her hometown only to have her plans interrupted after falling for the town’s “bad boy”–a.k.a. her childhood best friend. Sometimes to find the good, you have to embrace the bad. Budding photographer Josie Saint-Martin has spent half her life with her … Saint-Martin has spent half her life with her single mother, moving from city to city. When they return to her historical New England hometown years later to run the family bookstore, Josie knows it’s not forever. Her dreams are on the opposite coast, and she has a plan to get there.
What she doesn’t plan for is a run-in with the town bad boy, Lucky Karras. Outsider, rebel…and her former childhood best friend. Lucky makes it clear he wants nothing to do with the newly returned Josie. But everything changes after a disastrous pool party, and a poorly executed act of revenge lands Josie in some big-time trouble–with Lucky unexpectedly taking the blame.
Determined to understand why Lucky was so quick to cover for her, Josie discovers that both of them have changed, and that the good boy she once knew now has a dark sense of humor and a smile that makes her heart race. And maybe, just maybe, he’s not quite the brooding bad boy everyone thinks he is…
more
I’m never let down when I read a Jenn Bennett contemporary so my expectations were pretty high when I started Chasing Lucky! And luckily, it was just as awesome as all her other contemporaries!
I really liked Josie and being in her head. She had an interesting back story with her secretive mom. Also, as a side note, I’d like a book on Josie’s mom! Anyway, Josie was a photographer and I connected to her right away!
Lucky was the most adorable little thing ever. He has baggage and I wanted to give him a hug. I really liked his connection with Josie and when they were on the pages together, they lit them up!
Bennett writes the best dialogue and banter and I just want her to write contemporaries forever!
This book isn’t Jenn Bennett’s best (I love Alex, Approximately and Starry Eyes the most) but it was a sweet story in a small beach town which I liked. The main characters were a little flat compared to her other books but it was still a feel-good romance worth reading.
Josephine Saint-Martin returns to her home town Beauty, RI with her mother Winona after 5 years and meets her ex-best friend Lucky Karras. She finds that Lucky has acquired the town’s bad-boy status. After an unexpected incident leads to Lucky taking the fall for Josie and then they rediscover their long lost friendship and something more special.
This was my first book by Jen Bennet and I look forward to reading more books by her. I loved her writing style, flow, and the banter between the characters. The characters were quite interesting and amazing. I especially loved the Saint-Martin women.
The main idea behind this book is most of the problems arise due to miscommunication and the invisible walls that we create around us. All we have to do is shatter these walls and communicate. The was quite satisfying and it made me smile. This book exceeds my expectations and I highly recommend it.
Chasing Lucky is the perfect escape book- Sweet, funny, heartfelt, and complete with an adorable hero.
Josie and her mother have a complicated relationship. Her mom doesn’t always act like the parent, and Josie resents her at times. After moving around from city to city quite a bit- Josie and her mom are headed back to the only place Josie has considered home- to help run her grandmother’s book store while she is away.
Nearly right away she runs into Lucky Karras. Lucky was her best friend when she was younger, before she moved away, but he has changed. He is now kinda a loner, has a bad boy reputation and is seriously attractive. But he has some holistically towards Josie, and how she just moved away and abandoned their friendship.
A chain of events leads Josie to accidentally break a store front window, and she both her and Lucky end up in jail. She knows she is in some hot water, but then Lucky takes the blame for her. (Swoon!!)
As the two of them slowly reconnect and rebuild their friendship, deeper feelings push their way to the surface. Is it finally the right place and time for them to have something more than friendship?
I just loved this book! In true Jenn Bennett fashion, both Josie and Lucky are realistically flawed, but are completely perfect in their own way. I loved the bickering between them, the tension that grows, and the sweet, soft moments they have.
In addition to her relationship with Lucky, family relationships are a big part of this book I loved seeing Josie’s relationship transform with her mother. Josie’s cousin is also a big part of the plot, but I don’t want to give away too much about her. There is also the relationship between Josie and her grandmother, and Josie’s mom and the grandmother.
I highly recommend it and look forward to Jenn Bennett’s next release!
This was my first read by Jenn Bennett and after finishing it, I will for certain consider reading her other books. I really enjoyed this story, a good read for summer with interesting characters, in the same vain as a Sarah Dessen book with great world building, complex characters and storyline. I liked Josie as a character but I think Lucky was really wonderful, swoon-worthy and sweet; I enjoyed their relationship.
The only reason I didn’t give this book five stars was that I felt it could’ve been shortened a bit. Overall I really liked it and would recommend!
4.5 Stars!
I read a few sub-genres within YA lit, but if it involves a heavier dose of romance, this is the type of story and writing I enjoy the most – smart, but not unnaturally mature main young adults, a subtly complex and well-developed plot, secondary characters with some depth, and parents who parent (maybe not perfectly) and aren’t just peripheral adornment while their kids run amok.
I’ve read one other book by this author and have had a taste of her compelling writing style and accomplished story development. After enjoying that previous story, I was happily surprised when I found that I liked this one even more. Chasing Lucky was an entertaining friends-to-love, second chance romance. Although fairly light in tone, Lucky and Josie had authentic and complex lives, made mistakes, and paid the consequences. There wasn’t an over-the-top, evil ex villainess or manufactured drama that would have had me labeling it as teen fluff – a categorization that I diligently try to avoid. Chasing Lucky was simply a compelling and entertaining young adult story with convincing conflict and family dynamics, as well as a sweet and swoon-worthy love story. I hope that this author continues to publish contemporary YA novels, but while I wait, I look forward to finally reading the three from her backlist that I’ve missed.