Although some elements of this story stretched beyond my ability to suspend me disbelief, I enjoyed the story so much. It will surely find an audience in my library.

Another cute, easy beach read from Jennifer E. Smith, one of my go-to authors when recommending to HS girls.

This book was so cute, and it fits in with the wave of books inspired by real-life happenings.
A lot of books are inspired by real-life, but one about Alex from Target, and now one about the biggest Powerball ever being won by the youngest winner ever? (I don't know if the latter part of this happened.)
Jennifer E Smith is a wordsmith and she never does anything wrong.
The characters were slightly infuriating. He let it go to his head so bad, but in the end he finally figured out a way to use his wealth, and she just kept giving him excuses to be a pos.
The character development was high, though.

Not my favorite Jennifer E. Smith book but I did like it. I appreciated all of the conflict but it was almost too much? Like, I almost didn't see it working out and almost thought it shouldn't by the time all was said and done. I liked the added conflict's of Teddy's dad and Aly dealing with the loss of her parents and trying to figure out her own path. Leo was also a nice addition to the story and I felt like all of these things helped give the plot the depth it needed. I'd recommend this for fans of Smith, Dessen, Morgan, and Perkins.

What would you do if you won the lottery? Who would you reward? Who would you forget? What would you buy? Would you give it away? How much is too much and how far is too far when money no longer holds a limit? Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately most of us will never have to worry about that, either we just won’t play the lotto because we think it’s money down the drain or we play and the odds don’t fall in our favor.
But in Jennifer E. Smith’s new book Windfall the odds do favor two fresh eighteen year olds not even out of High School. The novel opens with Alice buying a lottery ticket for her best friend Teddy’s eighteenth birthday. After a bit of nudging the clerk convinces her to choose her own numbers to which she chooses a group of numbers that would only mean something to her and him.
From there they go to Teddy’s apartment, described just so to make sure that you are aware that he is poor. Teddy’s party is in full swing by the time Alice and her cousin Leo get there A weird mix of kids from their class are at the party and it is all laughs and awkwardness and it all ends with Teddy, Leo , and Alice having a sleepover in Teddy’s room.
Because if Alice wouldn’t have stayed over than how could she have been there when Teddy realized he won the lottery, or when he discovered he lost the ticket. After a quick panic and a dumpster dive they find the ticket and that begins the changing of their lives. Suddenly everything becomes a whirlwind of lawyers and financial planners, media coverage and weirdo stalkers.
And of course when you start out with nothing once you get something you go a little crazy and Teddy certainly does that. Fancy cars, new clothes, giving his mother the financial security she didn’t have. All seems fine and dandy but Alice expects more, as an avid philanthropist she expects him to give more to charity. But he is too busy having fun pretending to be big man on campus for once. But the thing is when you’re on top people just want to see you fall. And when the past catches up Teddy falls hard, the question that remains is are his friends there to help him back up?

I liked this book in total :) Full review on the blog.

Everything changes in the lives of Alice and Teddy after the lottery ticket she gives him for his 18th birthday has the winning numbers. Teddy's share of the prize is $140 million (there were 2 other winners also)...a life-changing amount of money. Both have been through a great deal in their lives, Alice losing her parents and Teddy growing up abandoned by his father and left to suffer through the debts he left for Teddy and his mother. The dream come true of winning big becomes more of a curse in ways, though, as it changes things in ways they couldn't have imagined. Also, there is a storyline of Alice feeling more than friends for Teddy and him being clueless to it and how that works with the rest of the story.

This is another great book from Smith, who is an author I adore. She has a gift for contemporary YA that is cute but also has some depth to it. The strengths of this book are the friendships between Alice, Teddy, and Alice's cousin Leo who rounds out their friendship threesome; loving families with Alice being raised by her Aunt and Uncle (Leo's parents) and Teddy's mom; and the way the romance aspect of the story builds (no insta-love or unrealistic relationship building here). Teddy frustrated me a bit through much of the book, but maybe it was necessary to his growth and change as a character. Not completely liking him did give me a small amount of disconnect from the story but not terribly. My heart hurt for Alice and others at times because of Teddy, so it was a little hard to root for them getting together. That's really the only thing that I didn't love about the book, taking it down to 4 stars instead of 5.

Overall, great, cute book and one I would recommend. I also highly recommend her other books, and if you ever have the chance to meet her at a signing...go! She's a sweetheart who I was able to meet at the North Texas Teen Book Festival a couple years ago, and who will be here for it again this year. Yay!

Fun read but it didn't felt surface level to me on a lot of issues...I kept hoping for a twist of events other than what I predicted but it didn't happen for me. Great author, just not a lot to deal with on the subject matter.

The perfect blend of wish-fulfillment combined with the real-life consequences of "what if you won the lottery?" Lovely, emotional, everything I wanted.

This is Jennifer E. Smith's most uplifting and hopeful book to date. I think Teddy's reactions and responses to winning that vast amount.of money were very realistic, and Alice is a fully-realized, fleshed out, relatable character, as is Ms. Smith's hallmark. A great, compulsively readable story.