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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
This author! I loved her previous books Alex, Approximately and Serious Moonlight. Both books have a great sense of place set in North Coastal California and Seattle, respectively.
This book was set in Rhode Island somewhere on its coastline. It really had a great sense of place of an old New England town with its sense of history.
Normally I’m a West Coast, Best Coast kind of person, but I’d totally visit this kind of town!
I listened to the audiobook. I seriously tried to finish the book in one day. But I eventually had to sleep. I became too invested in the story to do much of anything else. The author spoke very quickly so I had to listen at normal speed instead of sped up.
I used this book for the Extreme Reader challenge category of Bildungsroman. Yes, I had to look up what it is.
Jenn Bennett can do no wrong. Her books always put a smile on my face. Josie was raised by her single mother pretty much always on the move. They decide to move back to their hometown to help run the family bookstore. Josie already knows it's only for a short time until her mom wants to pick up and move again. What Joise wasn’t expecting was running into Lucky aka her former best friend and Lucky makes it completely clear he wants nothing to do with her. This book is full of family drama, friendship, and love. It's definitely a nice happy read.
emotional
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A cute little romance, although I may be getting too old to read about high school students. The book could have been shortened by a few chapters and not missed anything.
This is a great story about a swoony romance between childhood best friends as well as a heartwarming mother-daughter relationship that comes to life after harmful secrets are discovered. An excellent read and a great reminder as to why I should read more books by this author.
Josie Saint-Martin and her mom, after years of hopping from town to town, are returning to their hometown, Beauty, to run the family bookstore while her grandmother is away. Knowing it's only a matter of time before she returns and they have to move on to a new town, Josie has a plan to go west and live with her famous photographer father in hopes of being his mentee and gaining the stable family she always wanted. She has no time for getting attached or putting down roots in Beauty, until she lands herself in serious trouble alongside the town bad boy, who happens to be her former best friend.
I always really adore Jenn Bennett’s books. There’s always some combo of quirky, cute girl goes through shenanigans while falling for a similarly quirky, while also incredibly dreamy, boy, and of course CHASING LUCKY is no exception. I didn’t think the boy would quite literally be named Lucky, but here we are. I had a really good time with this one, very cute and gave me lots of aws and feels, but what keeps it from the top tier JB books is that I feel like there was A LOT of stuff going on in this one and because of it, nothing ever got as fleshed out as how I hoped it would be. I feel like if half of these plots were simplified and we could focus on the main relationships, this could be one of her best stories yet, but as is while I adored it, it just wasn’t quite my favorite.
Like a lot of YA books I found Josie quite frustrating at points, most by her own stupid decisions, whereas Lucky was basically perfect in every way leaving her to do A LOT of growing and I’m not quite sure if she did to be worthy of him. I did very much enjoy the characters and how it all ended up, I just really wish there could be a little reworking done to take this from good to great. But overall I really enjoyed myself and certainly recommend, as wholesome and fluffy as most of her books are, she just leaves me with a happy, cozy feeling that I look forward to with her books, and as someone who reads a lot of sad books it’s a nice change of pace.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
I wish we got WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY MORE of Josie’s family dynamic. We got a lot of good stuff in the beginning, what with the whole ‘love curse’ bullshit and that they’re only in town because her grandmother isn’t, along with reconnecting with Evie, her super sweet cousin. But it felt like as soon as Lucky came into the picture the plot was completely overhauled by their love story and the family stuff was on the backburner. Don’t get me wrong, I love Lucky and I’m totally down with them falling in love as they reconnect and she tries to repay him for taking blame for the window she broke. But then her mom just becomes some background thing that Josie complains about or is ashamed of. Her mom doesn’t want her to hang around Lucky, but then like never checks up on her or stops her from running off to do basically whatever she wants. And then when she finally confronted her mom about her plan to run off to work for her father simply because he’s a famous photographer and she believed he had this perfect fam, I feel like there should’ve been way more with her mother to earn that bit of her being so nasty to her. She compares her mom’s love life to a casino slot machine where you keep putting stuff in and get no return, like holy fuck is that mean! Her mom isn’t always the most present as she tries VERY hard to keep her dating life private from her daughter, fair enough, but I don’t think she’s malicious at all. I also wish we got more of Lucky’s family to juxtapose how irregular Josie’s seems so that could’ve built to it. And we all knew her dad was going to be a complete schmuck. I wish we got some lead up of her trying to contact him or something with no response to hint how fully not in this relationship he is. It was also so dumb that would be her only plan, like girl…you can take pictures literally anywhere and it’s called going to college for art, c’mon now, your absent father is not the answer. She gets there by the end but ooof.
Similarly, we get a lot of hints that the grandmother is a good person, but I feel like we should’ve gotten way more. We find out that the fight was because she wanted her mom to get child support from the dead beat father and when she refused she hired a PI to investigate him, which is where we found out he was a damn predator that targeted college kids and discarded them when they got knocked up, ew. But I don’t fully get, other than invading her privacy, why that would be enough for that to cause her mom to take her and flee for years. Crazy. And again, more lead up would’ve made the grandmother’s quick handling of their situation and wanting to do whatever it takes for them to stay a much better payoff. I wanted more with their dynamic before and afterwards too, I wanted more family stuff!! IT was so juicy! Similarly, it took Evie SO LONG to end things with Adrian despite beginning the book having dumped him and after literally every terrible thing he does, she still kept going back to him. And then she goes from dumping him, not wanting to talk about it, to being totally fine with Josie with zero discussion, I feel like we could’ve done a lot more with them. I feel like if we cut the ‘curse’ stupidity and just focused on the relationships this could be an even better story.
I also wanted a little more with Lucky that wasn’t just him being a martyr for Josie over and over. For one, we’re never really given a whole lot of reason why he likes her other than they were friends once. Also Lucky got burn scars from a fire he tried to rescue family and animals from, and right after Josie up and left. I feel like there should’ve been a whole lot more trauma with him and I feel like it was just scraped the surface, mainly in his trauma of her abandoning him again. But we see that she had tried multiple times to reach out and he ignored her, other than following her photo blog, so I just wish again we got more of them learning to trust each other again. We get bits of that, but it’s so muddled with the stupidity of him taking blame for all her terrible decisions that it’s not as much as I’d want. Like there’s so many juicy dramatic beats that I’d rather focus on than elaborate schemes to pay him back or getting stranded on a random island when a thunderstorm burst the pier apart and you lose your boat.
I was also SO ANNOYED with the last bullshit, fight then break up in the last act. So fucking dumb. Adrian, a man PROVEN to be a liar and untrustworthy and the cause of all their problems, says that Lucky was the one who sent the nude photo of her mom to him and she confronts him. She partially believes it because he lied about knowing the man her mother used to be in love with (another kind of useless side plot that didn’t need to be so smoke and dagger, I wish we saw way more of him and Josie just connected the dots on her own or even spoke to him, again giving their reuniting and trying again more meaning without trying to be so cagey about everything) because it wasn’t his place to tell her when his boss asked him not to. But this angel boy is like, trust me, when he’s given her ZERO reason not to and she just pushes him away. UGH. And then she takes AGES to reach back out to him and apologize and TBH if he didn’t forgive her, I wouldn’t blame him at all. It was genuinely so dumb and unnecessary for a book that already has so many damn plots going on, why did we need this last minute conflict?? If we wanted conflict the fear of her leaving and abandoning him again was enough. When her fam had to flee their grandmother for the night and Lucky just ran at the car in terror that she’d be gone, UGH, my heart breaks for him. THIS IS THE TRAUMA I WANTED!!! These were the scenes and emotional depth I craved!! Don’t get me wrong, him teaching her how to swim and deal with sea sickness and finding signs for her to photograph are cute AF, also sharing his metalworking skills with her and how we all knew he’d give her the stool to replace their shitty squeaky one, but I wanted the depth and emotion!! I love Lucky, but I wanted more. Though lemme say, the boy is called the phantom of the bookstore and has Zuko scars, I was smitten so easily.
So yeah, very good as all JB books are, but just could’ve used some cleaning up to make this even better for me. I still really enjoyed, but not my fav of hers.
I always really adore Jenn Bennett’s books. There’s always some combo of quirky, cute girl goes through shenanigans while falling for a similarly quirky, while also incredibly dreamy, boy, and of course CHASING LUCKY is no exception. I didn’t think the boy would quite literally be named Lucky, but here we are. I had a really good time with this one, very cute and gave me lots of aws and feels, but what keeps it from the top tier JB books is that I feel like there was A LOT of stuff going on in this one and because of it, nothing ever got as fleshed out as how I hoped it would be. I feel like if half of these plots were simplified and we could focus on the main relationships, this could be one of her best stories yet, but as is while I adored it, it just wasn’t quite my favorite.
Like a lot of YA books I found Josie quite frustrating at points, most by her own stupid decisions, whereas Lucky was basically perfect in every way leaving her to do A LOT of growing and I’m not quite sure if she did to be worthy of him. I did very much enjoy the characters and how it all ended up, I just really wish there could be a little reworking done to take this from good to great. But overall I really enjoyed myself and certainly recommend, as wholesome and fluffy as most of her books are, she just leaves me with a happy, cozy feeling that I look forward to with her books, and as someone who reads a lot of sad books it’s a nice change of pace.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
I wish we got WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY MORE of Josie’s family dynamic. We got a lot of good stuff in the beginning, what with the whole ‘love curse’ bullshit and that they’re only in town because her grandmother isn’t, along with reconnecting with Evie, her super sweet cousin. But it felt like as soon as Lucky came into the picture the plot was completely overhauled by their love story and the family stuff was on the backburner. Don’t get me wrong, I love Lucky and I’m totally down with them falling in love as they reconnect and she tries to repay him for taking blame for the window she broke. But then her mom just becomes some background thing that Josie complains about or is ashamed of. Her mom doesn’t want her to hang around Lucky, but then like never checks up on her or stops her from running off to do basically whatever she wants. And then when she finally confronted her mom about her plan to run off to work for her father simply because he’s a famous photographer and she believed he had this perfect fam, I feel like there should’ve been way more with her mother to earn that bit of her being so nasty to her. She compares her mom’s love life to a casino slot machine where you keep putting stuff in and get no return, like holy fuck is that mean! Her mom isn’t always the most present as she tries VERY hard to keep her dating life private from her daughter, fair enough, but I don’t think she’s malicious at all. I also wish we got more of Lucky’s family to juxtapose how irregular Josie’s seems so that could’ve built to it. And we all knew her dad was going to be a complete schmuck. I wish we got some lead up of her trying to contact him or something with no response to hint how fully not in this relationship he is. It was also so dumb that would be her only plan, like girl…you can take pictures literally anywhere and it’s called going to college for art, c’mon now, your absent father is not the answer. She gets there by the end but ooof.
Similarly, we get a lot of hints that the grandmother is a good person, but I feel like we should’ve gotten way more. We find out that the fight was because she wanted her mom to get child support from the dead beat father and when she refused she hired a PI to investigate him, which is where we found out he was a damn predator that targeted college kids and discarded them when they got knocked up, ew. But I don’t fully get, other than invading her privacy, why that would be enough for that to cause her mom to take her and flee for years. Crazy. And again, more lead up would’ve made the grandmother’s quick handling of their situation and wanting to do whatever it takes for them to stay a much better payoff. I wanted more with their dynamic before and afterwards too, I wanted more family stuff!! IT was so juicy! Similarly, it took Evie SO LONG to end things with Adrian despite beginning the book having dumped him and after literally every terrible thing he does, she still kept going back to him. And then she goes from dumping him, not wanting to talk about it, to being totally fine with Josie with zero discussion, I feel like we could’ve done a lot more with them. I feel like if we cut the ‘curse’ stupidity and just focused on the relationships this could be an even better story.
I also wanted a little more with Lucky that wasn’t just him being a martyr for Josie over and over. For one, we’re never really given a whole lot of reason why he likes her other than they were friends once. Also Lucky got burn scars from a fire he tried to rescue family and animals from, and right after Josie up and left. I feel like there should’ve been a whole lot more trauma with him and I feel like it was just scraped the surface, mainly in his trauma of her abandoning him again. But we see that she had tried multiple times to reach out and he ignored her, other than following her photo blog, so I just wish again we got more of them learning to trust each other again. We get bits of that, but it’s so muddled with the stupidity of him taking blame for all her terrible decisions that it’s not as much as I’d want. Like there’s so many juicy dramatic beats that I’d rather focus on than elaborate schemes to pay him back or getting stranded on a random island when a thunderstorm burst the pier apart and you lose your boat.
I was also SO ANNOYED with the last bullshit, fight then break up in the last act. So fucking dumb. Adrian, a man PROVEN to be a liar and untrustworthy and the cause of all their problems, says that Lucky was the one who sent the nude photo of her mom to him and she confronts him. She partially believes it because he lied about knowing the man her mother used to be in love with (another kind of useless side plot that didn’t need to be so smoke and dagger, I wish we saw way more of him and Josie just connected the dots on her own or even spoke to him, again giving their reuniting and trying again more meaning without trying to be so cagey about everything) because it wasn’t his place to tell her when his boss asked him not to. But this angel boy is like, trust me, when he’s given her ZERO reason not to and she just pushes him away. UGH. And then she takes AGES to reach back out to him and apologize and TBH if he didn’t forgive her, I wouldn’t blame him at all. It was genuinely so dumb and unnecessary for a book that already has so many damn plots going on, why did we need this last minute conflict?? If we wanted conflict the fear of her leaving and abandoning him again was enough. When her fam had to flee their grandmother for the night and Lucky just ran at the car in terror that she’d be gone, UGH, my heart breaks for him. THIS IS THE TRAUMA I WANTED!!! These were the scenes and emotional depth I craved!! Don’t get me wrong, him teaching her how to swim and deal with sea sickness and finding signs for her to photograph are cute AF, also sharing his metalworking skills with her and how we all knew he’d give her the stool to replace their shitty squeaky one, but I wanted the depth and emotion!! I love Lucky, but I wanted more. Though lemme say, the boy is called the phantom of the bookstore and has Zuko scars, I was smitten so easily.
So yeah, very good as all JB books are, but just could’ve used some cleaning up to make this even better for me. I still really enjoyed, but not my fav of hers.
[b:Chasing Lucky|52386214|Chasing Lucky|Jenn Bennett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1580054681l/52386214._SY75_.jpg|71431969] was, as expected, a lovely book by [a:Jenn Bennett|4485813|Jenn Bennett|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1465419675p2/4485813.jpg]. At this point, I haven't read a book by Bennett that I haven't liked which is rarety considering most authors always have those hit or miss books in their collections. Bennett is very consistent in the way she writes these imperfectly perfect characters that always seem to have a tiny love-hate relationship in the most natural way. The characters she writes about always have a life outside of the love interest, which I absolutely adore because we get to see the characters as people themselves, rather than a pair. Everything about Chasing Lucky, and her other works, was good. Enjoyable, reliable, nice.
The only conflict I'm having is that this, and others, reads as a very immature slow-burns. As if it's an attempt at slow-burn but never pulls the trigger all the way. It's an attempt at enemies-to-lovers, but never has the full force effect of it. It's all very good. Not spectacular, not a favorite, just... good.
Also, in this particular book, I found that a good portion of the dialogue between Lucky and Josie seemed very unlikely. For example, towards the end of the book, Lucky says: "He was chasing a
rabbit. Until the rabbit started chasing him." Like... I'm sorry, but what 17-18 year old says that???? Especially about a dog running around the corner. There were a couple more instances where they were talking and I honestly just glanced through it because it just didn't seem believable to me.
Overall though, it was a good read. I wont ever reread it but if you're looking for a light read that wont keep you up at night but is enjoyable, then I'd recommend this.
The only conflict I'm having is that this, and others, reads as a very immature slow-burns. As if it's an attempt at slow-burn but never pulls the trigger all the way. It's an attempt at enemies-to-lovers, but never has the full force effect of it. It's all very good. Not spectacular, not a favorite, just... good.
Also, in this particular book, I found that a good portion of the dialogue between Lucky and Josie seemed very unlikely. For example, towards the end of the book, Lucky says: "He was chasing a
rabbit. Until the rabbit started chasing him." Like... I'm sorry, but what 17-18 year old says that???? Especially about a dog running around the corner. There were a couple more instances where they were talking and I honestly just glanced through it because it just didn't seem believable to me.
Overall though, it was a good read. I wont ever reread it but if you're looking for a light read that wont keep you up at night but is enjoyable, then I'd recommend this.
The first Jenn Bennett book I read was Serious Moonlight, and I adored it to no end. So when I saw Chasing Lucky was up on Netgalley, I had to jump at the chance to read it early! And I am SO GLAD that I did. This was an amazingly sweet book, with a fantastic main character and love interest, and I adored all the relationships - even through all the tension and conflict. It was very well written and I couldn't put it down! I will have to pick up more of Jenn Bennett's books, and keep an eye out for any upcoming ones, as well. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this early!! Highly recommended!
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is my second Jenn Bennett book and I would say this was my fave of the two!
While this wasn't a memorable or new found contemporary favourite, it managed to keep me entertained from beginning to end without convincing me to necessarily favour the characters.
I find with Jenn Bennett's books they share a common plot device/ consistency between them and therefore leave the ending to be a bit predictable. As with Serious Moonlight this was a rather long contemporary, being over 400 pages long - Bennett follows a precise plot that develops her characters and their relationships and this sometimes leaves the plot on the back burner. We spent a ton of time with Josie and Lucky and even the Saint-Martin family but a lot of that time could have been given to further the plot and not leave the ending feeling a tad bit rushed and obvious.
Overall I enjoyed the small town vibe this story gave me, I enjoyed the stereotyped bad boy but inner cinnamon roll and the banter between the two mains. The friends to lover trope was done wonderfully and I am hopeful for my next Bennett read!
4 stars ★★★★
While this wasn't a memorable or new found contemporary favourite, it managed to keep me entertained from beginning to end without convincing me to necessarily favour the characters.
I find with Jenn Bennett's books they share a common plot device/ consistency between them and therefore leave the ending to be a bit predictable. As with Serious Moonlight this was a rather long contemporary, being over 400 pages long - Bennett follows a precise plot that develops her characters and their relationships and this sometimes leaves the plot on the back burner. We spent a ton of time with Josie and Lucky and even the Saint-Martin family but a lot of that time could have been given to further the plot and not leave the ending feeling a tad bit rushed and obvious.
Overall I enjoyed the small town vibe this story gave me, I enjoyed the stereotyped bad boy but inner cinnamon roll and the banter between the two mains. The friends to lover trope was done wonderfully and I am hopeful for my next Bennett read!
4 stars ★★★★