It's exciting to read a book that exceeds expectations, and Greer and Alex's story had many going into it as the final and very anticipated last book in a series that I have overall greatly enjoyed. It's also supremely satisfying but bittersweet too to finish the final pages of one of my favorite books of 2018. I wanted to race through this book and I also did not want it to end. However, it is so beautifully written that to rush the reading is a disservice. Each chapter offers so many ideas I am still pondering and so many emotional moments that I needed to experience slowly. I know without a doubt too that this is a book I will reread.

While so many books are plot driven and have an almost linear trajectory, Best of Luck feels more like reading a series of vignettes that set out to explore the deepening love between two people who, for the most part, fell in love at first sight in the first book. Though there is a clear story and plot underlying the exploration of love here, what moved me so much more is the character study of two compassionate and sensitive people finding their way to each other despite a range of obstacles, some of which are quite significant. Recovery and self-care are among the most important themes in the book, and it was a brilliant strategy for Clayborn to offset Greer's recovery from a serious illness as a teen with Alex's current recovery of panic attacks. The two characters often mirror each other in their struggles to overcome physical and mental obstacles to happiness and success. From a romance perspective, I would add too that the book succeeded in making me feel how much these two characters love each other. This is ultimately a very optimistic look at how people can recover from trauma as individuals while also a book about the power of love -- romantic love, love among friends, familial love, and even communal love -- to ground a person and give their life meaning.

The book also feels quietly of-the-moment in its depiction of consent as a foundation of romance and sexual pleasure, and of female autonomy as an underlying principle in a couple's long-term happiness. There are a number of scenes that show us Clayborn's philosophy on equality between women and men that I truly appreciate as a reader. And as with the two previous books in the series, the world created in this series is diversely populated in the most natural and realistic of ways.

I am a little sad to say goodbye to this wonderful book and to the series itself, but I'm also looking forward to what this talented author has in store for us next.

Dammit, she did it again.

Kate Clayborn has written yet another layered, intimate, complicated story that is delivered in such an immersive and lyrical voice it makes me want to set my own writing on fire. She has such a keen eye for the ways people deliver love and caring and what works (and what really, really doesn't, despite the best of intentions). I just love every little thing about what she does, from the intensely personal tics and mannerisms of her characters, to the way she describes emotion (and holy hell, her descriptions of panic attacks are vivid enough to make my heart race), to the way she lets her characters be messy and complicated and so, so real.

So, basically this is another "Adele is here to throw the book at you and tell you to read it because she's crap at writing reviews that aren't just 'OH MY GOD, READ THIS BOOK.'" And also the first two in the series, Beginner's Luck and Luck of the Draw.

I was given a free Advance Reader's Copy in exchange for an honest review.