Just My Luck

Received today, bought for Summer Reading or will read later.

I thought this sounded like a good idea for a story. In truth it is not bad and have quite a good twist or two in it. I started reading it and thought it was worth 5 stars, it then went on so much, very repetitive yet quite impressive how Adele Parks managed to say the same thing over and over again - the book could have been at least 100 pages shorter - that I found myself in 3 star territory. But as the ending was quite good I decided, and as it is Xmas, to give it 4 stars. However, there are two aspects of the book I really didn't like: 1) The narrative from Emily, the daughter's point of view. She is incredibly literate for a 15/16 year old! She simply would not have written like that at all 2) The irony that Emily is literate yet Adele Parks is not- Adele Parks read English at university so why is her grammar so bad? The book is littered with incorrect uses of "sat" and "stood" e.g. "Jake was stood in the kitchen", "Emily was sat glued to her phone" - FFS it is "standing" and "sitting" - replace the verb with "to sleep" and you wouldn't say "Jake was slept in the kitchen" would you? Can't believe an English graduate and an editorial team are so poor at grammar. Rant over! It is worth a read though!

This book is the Fatal Attraction of winning the lottery. The movie, Fatal Attraction, makes one think twice about the ulimate consequences of having an affair. This book does the same about winning the lottery . . . perhaps winning is not all it’s cracked up to be. Great story! Love how well it’s written. I highly recommend.

I have read books by this author before and I always love her writing style and her books always flow and keep you completely hooked from the very beginning. This is a book that will keep you turning the pages and I highly recommend this author because her work is absolutely fabulous. 6 friends have known each other for a very long time and have been through a lot together. They were all in a lottery syndicate with each other until then they weren't. Would you let money split you, your family and your friends? Lexi is a woman that holds the ticket for the 17 million and her and her family are all planning in which ways to spend it. Jake and their two children also have a gazillion ideas too. The only problem is that there friends feel that they are entitled to a piece of this windfall and are willing to go thorough some things to get it. This money has completely split their friendship, a friendship that Lexi was actually getting suspicious of as it is. Money can be a gift or the enemy and it can either change your life for the best or change you for the worst. This author always knows how to write her story lines that always are captivating and her characters are always very brilliantly written. I loved Lexi but wish she had a bit more of a back bone, and her husband Jake I didn't like him I thought that he was very sly and devious. This book started off pretty slow in the story for me and I was glad when it finally kicked up a notch. This book has a few twists that are thought were great in the book and it does keep you reading. This author always writes books in away that keep you gripped from beginning to end but this book did feel a tad predictable, but this book was still a very enjoyable read and I was glad that I read it. I read this book in one sitting and if you love books that have some suspense and are twisty then you will love this book. This book is out now.

The twist at the end literally saves this book from being a decent average story, it's right on the final paragraph! I thoroughly enjoyed the story, it kept substance throughout without dipping. As always, Adele Parks is brilliant at creating her characters, keeping them very realistic, with the lead role Lexi who's written in first person. The story is also very plausible and flawless. I don't believe anybody will see that final twist coming at the very end. Adele had me fooled all the way through the book, especially with the tragedy, i was convinced she had given it away! And with Lexi's husband i never saw that happening or that coming. No spoilers. And i look back at his odd behaviour now knowing why. This is the thing with Adele's characters, all these behaviours flawlessly weaved in throughout the whole of the book. Very cleverly done. As the book was nearing its end and all my predictions had fallen to the hillside, predictions that would've satisfied me in this adventure, i resigned myself for a disappointing ending after all these events. Was it really going to be one of those rushed finales dampened by the jumping of time in short successive segments and left for the reader to decide? Then, at that final paragraph i said WOW. I LOVE to leave a book this way. This book gave me some real afterthought a good few days after I'd read it. My review had taken me longer than usual to start writing. The realisation of what happened to Emily was all because of her mother, that afterthought came much later and it floored me.