Thank you for the opportunity to read this; unfortunately, it is not to my taste and I won't be finishing it. I have not rated or reviewed it - the rating below is only because Netgalley requires it.

This was exactly what a needed, an easy, fun read! Overall I really enjoyed the slightly dystopian, mostly sci-fi setting, the strong, totally capable heroine, and the world building.

Felicia Sevigny is a tarot card reader, living in Nairobi, Kenya, one of the last few cities on Earth following the melting of the ice caps. In this new world there is a single goverenment who control everything - population, calories consumption, resources - and humans are spread throughout colonies on Mars and Venus due to the small amount of livable land still on Earth. She is a genuine tarot card reader thanks to her extremely intuitive gut urges, also known as a "luck gene".

The male hero, Alexei Petriv, is leader of what used to be a mafia organization, that seems to be going legit in order to fight back against the current world government. He is a total alpha, a little too much so most of the time, but Felicia calls him on his shit constantly which makes it bearable.

The best part is the world building! How the characters travel around the city of Nairobi, around the Earth, and from Earth to the other colonized planets. Everyone is chipped and connected to a hive-mind type internet, except for our heroine and some others, allowing for instant transfers of information, learning of languages, and identifying literally anything around you. Very cool concepts at play in this universe.

I just purchased book 2, Chaos of Luck, and can't wait to see how Felicia's adventures continue!

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel. </i>

The Rule of Luck was an enjoyable urban fantasy sci-fi tale with some interesting elements and a little romance thrown in for good measure. Felicia Sevigny is a tarot reader who makes her living giving readings in her own shop.

She meets an interesting-slash-shady customer who wants a reading in a hurry and is willing to pay handsomely, which Felicia is most willing to take since her funds have been depleted dealing with other...issues. A simple reading should be just that - simple, yet she finds herself pulled into a dangerous network of criminals with someone in her past at the center. Two sides want all the power and Felicia is now in the middle.

Right from the beginning, the author throws technology and terminology at the reader, leaving explanations of hows and whys until much later. The world-building and the setting left much to be desired on my part and what could have been an immersive and richly built world felt a little shallow with the author just skimming the surface rather than offering a much deeper glimpse. At the end, I sort of, kind of got the gist of this world and why much of it takes place in Africa, but I still don’t understand the entire Russian storyline and why the Russians are so prominent. Same with some of the tech - why do planes fly almost in space, how in the world does an elevator that reaches the atmosphere work, does everyone have a flight limo rather than regular cars. I’m left with more questions than answers and I’m hoping that many of them will be resolved in future books of this series, which I plan to read because I did like many of the elements presented, including the romance.

The characters were definitely more fleshed out and dimensional than the world was, and I liked how many of them were in the grey area in terms of morality. There’s conspiracy, lies, and bad behavior all around, but sometimes the reasons for said behavior was often for a noble cause. The romance was hot right from the start and this book should certainly appeal to readers who like their males alpha and their boys bad (hi, yes. this is me.), and that’s definitely one thing that will make me recommend this book.

All in all, I enjoyed The Rule of Luck for the most part, and I’m hoping that any questions and any confusion I had will be addressed and resolved in future books in this series. I’ll definitely be recommending this book and not just because of the steamy romance. 3.5 stars.

*eARC received via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

In THE RULE OF LUCK, there’s tarot readings, love, and questionable science. Professional tarot card reader Felicia Sevigny is recruited by the Russian mob. She’s going to help them take down the evil government, in return she’ll be given more control over her destiny. The plot quickly becomes uneven, as the sci-fi elements turn what could have been serviceable contemporary urban fantasy, into a silly future world that has you asking, “why are people paying so much for tarot card readings”.

THE RULE OF LUCK only takes the most surface-level examination of its concepts. There’s an anti-aging treatment that all citizens receive as well as a culturally enforced beautification treatment. The government regulates food allocations and birth rates. I chose the book because of the Nairobi setting, but I was disappointed by it. There were more details describing Felicia’s sandals than her hometown.

Alpha males are a staple of the genre. However, there were several times in the book when there was an undercurrent of violence to the relationship that read as threatening, not sexy. There’s an emotional distance to Alexei that is eventually explained, but it’s not enough to erase the awkward wording that made me want to close the book. There’s a moment when Alexei puts his hands around her neck, as though to strangle her, and she thinks about how strong he is. There’s times, when he can’t meet her, because he’s afraid of what he’d do in his anger. To Felicia it’s sexy, to the outside reader, it really isn’t.

There’s also trope that I wish romances would just drop. The bland, boyfriend who is safe but turns out to be pure garbage. Felicia never takes responsibility for her actions. She cheats on Roy, but Roy is the bad person when she gets home. When she lies to him, he lies worse. It keeps steamrolling. There would have been more emotional catharsis if, instead of a boring boyfriend, it was a friend or a roommate that toppled Felicia’s worldview. Felicia obviously didn’t care about Roy; why should we?

There’s not enough that sets THE RULE OF LUCK from other urban fantasy novels. The world building doesn’t hold up. I wanted so much more. If you want an easy read with super alpha males, evil ex lovers, and too many shopping scenes, then take this review with a grain of salt.

This was an interesting story and nice intro to the series. I'm definitely curious enough to read the next book.

What do I look for in a book?

A dynamic heroine - check! Felicia is fantastic, not only because she stands her ground, but because she has a lot of awful things thrown at her, but her spirit is resilient and she rises to the challenge.

Believable relationships - check! The chemistry between Felicia and Alexei is electric. I love their banter and the ways in which they challenge each other's demons.

Thematic wins - double check! I can't talk about all the themes without ruining it for you, but the ways Cerveny tackles issues of fate, luck, and the ethics of modern technology elevates this book for me singlehandedly. The book is a beautiful genre mix where there are these very real issues, mixed in with simmering romance.

An interesting setting - check! I loved the picture of the future we get, not because it's 100% amazing and wonderful, but because it seems real. There's a very difficult talent to balance a futuristic world and not get too overhanded or carried away.

3-3.5 stars

This took me a bit to get into but once I was in, I was hooked. I truly enjoyed the two main characters Felicia Sevigny and Alexei Petriv. The are both interesting and flawed. The Rule of Luck deals with issues of what happens after the Earth faces catastrophic natural disasters. The plot was interesting but I felt like something was missing!

A fine debut but the reoccurrence of a romance trope I hate made it less fun for me than I would have expected. Very forceful alpha men can come off a bit too forceful if not done correctly and for me, this was not done well. Overall, a hand-wave concept (a luck gene?!?) and an interesting world which could have stood a few more interesting characters and a villain who wasn't just evil.

I seriously disliked this book and only finished it because I wanted to give a proper review. The plot is actually pretty decent, the worldbuilding is sparse and questionable, but good enough, but every single character is godawful. The heroine has no agency and does nothing of her own free will. The whole luck mechanic seemed cool at first when it seemed like a particularly accurate sense of instinct, but when she literally could not disobey it, the whole thing was fell super flat and was mindbogglingly dumb. Her inability to control herself around the hero was annoying and the sex scenes were boring.

Every single male character was insanely controlling and possessive of the heroine. Her boyfriend at the beginning was such a mustache twirling villain by the end that it was laughable. And the hero was such a stereotypical alphahole that he could have come from any number of dumb erotic romances and it wouldn't change a thing. Even the heroine's business partner was weirdly controlling of her.

Do not recommend unless you're into cliche controlling, asshole male leads, in which case, have fun.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

There are authors who blend romance and sci fi perfectly - Linna Sinclair, for example always strikes the perfect balance. Here, with Catherine Cerveny's Rule of Luck, we have the opposite: the science fiction is simplistic window dressing for a cliche alpha male lust story. Our heroine exhibits the usual TSTL (Too Stupid To Live) syndrome and the lead male spends most of the book manipulating or saving our Penelope-in-distress. Add in anachronistic current year slang and this is a huge disappointment of a book.

Story: It is 2950 and Felicia is a tarot card reader professional and part of a very interesting family. When a Russian nobleman arrives demanding a read, she drops everything because he is hot and has 'magnetic blue eyes'. He soon manipulates her into helping a huge consortium change the balance of power in the human universe. She goes along because he's hot.

There are some side points about her mother being involved in a mystery, yada yada. But the story is about Felicia constantly being saved by Alexei. Perhaps because I couldn't get out of my mind Solitaire from the James Bond movie Live and Let Die, Felicia was even more insipid than written - a kitten hissing at big growling dogs. But honestly, she's pretty dense, lacks any kind of survival skills, and gets manipulated by everyone in the book. Note to romance authors: being feisty is not the same as being strong.

Most of the book was lust - no character development, no interest in the leads getting to know each other. No emotional connection or investment. Just, sex and horniness. I suppose there is a bit of a reason at the end but I would have liked our lead character to have enough strength of will to a) not cheat on her boyfriend and then not feel bad about it, and 2) be able to think about her business rather than how horny Alexei triggers her. It's difficult to root for the heroine when she's more interesting in thinking about her next meeting with Alexei rather than the boyfriend she just cheated on and who is going crazy looking for her after she goes missing.

I have to admit, it was hard not to roll my eyes through a lot of us. I think romance readers who like alpha males and 'feisty' but helpless females who need to be saved all the time will enjoy The Rule of Luck. But those interested in sci fi, character development, or actual romance over lust will find this a very unsatisfying read. This is definitely not similar to Linnea Sinclair, who actually develops strong and intelligent lead characters. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

3 stars (release date Nov. 7, 2017)

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fun, quick SciFi/romance book. Although the book is set in the year 2950, it's not really a true SciFi book. Other than the futuristic tech stuff which is mentioned in passing and the travel between planets, the book is at it's heart a romance book.

The world has been decimated by wars and floods and most of Earth is covered by water. The main character, Felicia, is a tarot card reader that comes from an anti-tech Romanian family. She has her own business, which is disrupted when a handsome, wealthy Russion named Alexei Petriv enters her shop asking for a reading. He is the head of Russion Consortium intent on usurping the government. Felicia gets entangled in the Consortium's plans, and even more entangled with Alexei.

The book is cute and an easy read. It has a predictable ending, but I liked the characters so it's all good.