Lucky

What a wild-roller coaster of a ride! This book held my interest from the very beginning. Luciana (Lucky) Armstrong is a protagonist that will steal your heart while she's busy behind your back planning to steal your money. She is a con artist, a grifter, and brilliant as well as beautiful. It all begins when Lucky and her boyfriend are on the run out of Boise, Idaho, and Lucky decides to buy a lotto ticket at a convenience store on the way out of town. Within a matter of hours after they arrive in Las Vegas, everything changes for Lucky. Her boyfriend disappears without a word, someone is after her and trying to kill her, and she has to beat it out of town again. On her tail are some very unsavoury and powerful people, not the least of show more whom is her boyfriend's psychopathic mother. Trying to say one step ahead of Priscilla, and trying to keep the winning lottery ticket safe until she can risk going to claim it keep Lucky going all over the country from Fresno to New York City. She survives on her skills and her intelligence, and all by herself, as her conman father is in prison, Lucky manages to stay away from danger, until she doesn't. This is a very well-written book with believable, and not always likeable characters, and a smashing plot that just keeps on going. This book is a Reese's Book Club pick, and I think that Reese and her crew really hit the nail on the head with this choice.Highly recommended. show less

I don’t always read the Reese’s book club picks, but if I remember I like to check out what’s been recommended. However, Lucky just drew me in when I spotted it in the bookshop – the mirrored aviators reflecting Las Vegas. It sounded like a fun ride, and overall it was something a bit different to what I had been reading lately.

The story opens with Lucky being in big trouble, more than she had ever thought. She’d planned to leave the country with her boyfriend after pulling off a heist, but he has disappeared. She’s left in Las Vegas alone with no money – and a lottery ticket worth millions. But if she cashes it in, she will be straight off to jail. Lucky needs to decide what to do, while keeping her wits about her as show more there are people who think she knows more about her boyfriend’s departure. As the story moves on, it goes back into Lucky’s youth growing up with her father after being left on the doorstep of a convent. Lucky and her father have always been a team, scamming people for money and belongings. It’s a difficult life for Lucky who wanted stability, but when she got it, it turned out there were bigger issues. But who can help Lucky now? Her father in jail? Her long lost mother? Can former foes become allies?

As Lucky roams the country figuring out what to do, she meets up with many people from her past. Some are fleeting encounters, some more long term but all leave Lucky with a sense of loss. I would have loved to hear more about how her closest childhood friend/almost sister Steph was going (the part about Steph’s mum now having to work wasn’t followed up). Even though Lucky scams and steals, she’s a very likeable character, perhaps because what she’s wanted for wasn’t all of her making. Plus, despite being a con artist herself, Lucky manages to get ripped off multiple times by those closest to her.

The story moved quite quickly at first between present and past, but I found the pace slowed somewhat as past and present joined. I would have liked some more detail about the major players driving Lucky’s wanted status, as well as some of their background. For instance, one of the women is wanted by the mob for what she knows, but this isn’t followed up with. The ending where Lucky is fleeced again and then saved, was quite fast. I would have loved her ‘saving’ to have had some more detail and closure. However, overall Lucky was an interesting character and a quick, enjoyable read.

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I enjoyed this tale about Lucky (Luciana) who is a grifter / con artist with a conscience -- although her conscience doesn't always win out! Lucky and her father, John, pull off many scams, usually targeting wealthy people that they think "can afford it". Later, she connects with Cary and pulls even larger scams. Lucky, when things are looking bad, discovers that she has a winning lottery ticket worth mega millions, but since she is wanted by the law, she can't cash it. Now, she has to find a way to cash the check, reconnect with people from her past, and come to terms with what she has done.
I think the ending was a bit too pat, but still I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed the narration of the book. This is a very quick read.

Imagine you have a winning lottery ticket worth millions, but cannot cash it in as you are on the run from the law and have no one you can trust to cash it for you. The idea for this novel was full of potential, but unfortunately, the author, Marissa Stapley, was unable to pull it off.

The story is told in alternating chapters when Lucky was a young girl raised by her father (who turns out not to be her father) after her mother takes off and chapters when Lucky is older and on the run from the law after scamming hundreds (or more) people out of their retirement money. She ends up with a winning lottery ticket and travels around the country looking for a friend or relative she can trust to cash it for her. However, all her friends and show more relatives are thieves like her and the lottery ticket is stolen several times.

None, not one, of the characters in this book are likeable. Everyone is a cheat, a liar, and a thief. Lucky was trained from her youth to lie and steal by her dad. Over her lifetime, she perfected the skill. As she grew into a young lady, everyone she hung out with was a thief and scam artist. Hard to find any empathy for these type of people.

The author’s voice is good and the book is a quick read. Lucky’s character is a contradiction and not realistic. She has no qualms about shoplifting, shortchanging a clerk, or stealing millions from the elderly. But she also claims that she feels bad about her behavior and will eventually pay everyone back. But her so called repentance does not last long as she soon returns to her life as a thief.

Overall, I was disappointed as the story failed to contain a single character worth rooting for. There should have been at least one character the reader could have empathy for and pull for their success. show less

Lucky is a story that is about a young woman who was raised as a child to be a con artist. The book goes back and forth between the past and the present, showing Lucky's upbringing by her con artist father and the mess she finds herself in currently as she is on the lamb. Through the story you will follow Lucky through her past to the present as she fights for freedom and a connection to something concrete and real in her life.

One aspect of the book that I did like was, that you find yourself conflicted with rooting for Lucky’s success and knowing that she is also a liar. Marissa Stapley does a good job laying the foundation for debate of nature vs. nurture and how Lucky had life stacked against her from the beginning while she show more struggles with the turmoil of what she knows and wanting to be a good person.
I have mixed luck with Reese Witherspoon’s book club picks and this one joins the list of ones that just don’t stand out to me. Honestly, I came close to not finishing this one, however, it was short and easy to read so I stuck with it…. Bottom line, although the story was a simple quick one…. I was bored. show less

Lucky has been on my TBR list since I saw Reese Witherspoon speak highly of it. Thanks to my Secret Santa, I received a copy for Christmas!

Lucky is trying not to follow in the footsteps of her grifter father who is now in prison. He was a con artist her entire life and it’s the only life she knows. Unfortunately, she’s still running cons, but very carefully. She has such a good heart, you can’t help but like her, but she needs help when it comes to making choices! This was a 4-star fun-filled read!

This will be the last read for my 2021. It was good, a December pick for Reese Witherspoon's book club, but I really looked for it to be a bit more twisty. People familiar with what would you do! books will understand this. It was a quick fun read all the same!