A review by katilynn223
Lucky in Love by Kasie West

4.0

This was Kasie West’s 8th published book. She has really been pumping them out over the last five years; she even has another coming out this year at the end of December. Lucky in Love was cute – not one of her best works, but it is just what you need from a contemporary YA novel. Maddie is finishing her senior year of high school, and while she has most of her next moves planned, there are still a few things that are worrying her, like her brother’s depression over not being able to afford school, her parents constantly fighting and having money problems, and how she needs to keep her grades up so that she can attend college on a scholarship. But, everything changes when the minimart cashier convinces her to purchase a Powerball ticket on her birthday. The next day, Maddie learns that she has won and so many of the problems that were out of her control can now be fixed with a few easy payments. However, over time Maddie learns that money really isn’t the answer to many of her problems and that maybe the money is making a few of them worse. As more issues arise and Maddie’s trust in others is tested, there is one person she holds on to: Seth, her coworker at the town’s small zoo. Seth doesn’t know that Maddie is a millionaire, and he treats her just how she wants to be treated, like a normal person. Seth is where this story wins so many points in the cute category. Almost everything he says and does is just “cute”; there is really no other way to describe it. From his happy-go-lucky personality to his supportive responses, the kid is just the cutest. I was surprised to find that some of the issues that the lottery winning brought into Maddie’s life were not solved by the end of the story. There were some big issues that were kind of left for the reader to decide what would happen next, which reminded me of The Fill-In Boyfriend’s ending (as in it was not neat and tidy).