Jennifer Honeybourn's Just My Luck is very light YA reading about a young girl coming of age while working at a Hawaiian hotel. Marty has a bad habit of stealing items from the hotel rooms she cleans, and after a string of bad luck, she is convinced she needs to return the items to their rightful owners for her luck to change. She wasn't counting on falling for Will, however, a wealthy teenage boy who is staying the entire summer at the Grand Palms hotel. Will Will throw a wrench in Marty's plans to right her wrongs, or will he be a welcome distraction?

Just My Luck is just right for the emerging YA crowd. Those around the 15-16 year old age range on the cusp of striking out on their own. While this story and its characters were decent, I was not at all blown away by this book, and that is because it is so simply written (which is also why I recommend it to younger YA readers.) This book suffers from an extreme lack of plot development and complex sentence structure. A multitude of topics are literally introduced and closed within the span of a sentence or two. Because very few of the plot points are expounded upon, I have to give this book a three star rating.

"Just My Luck" is a quick, fun read. It's perfect for summer! I loved the premise of Marty trying to overcome karma. I immediately connected with Marty and was rooting for her from the start.

Just My Luck was a fun and sweet coming-of-age story and I fell head over heels for these characters. Marty has been having horrible bad luck and my heart went out to her after everything she had been through. I loved how she tried to do everything to change her luck, especially when she met Will. Sometimes things happen for a reason and Marty needed to do a little bit of soul-searching as to why she kept having to deal with this bad luck. Great story and I can’t wait to read more from this talented author.

I think it was a fun summer read and more slice-of-life than I was expecting, but overall enjoyable.

The premise was... not weak, exactly, but while it seemed like the impetus for the plot it mostly just felt like a sub-plot that could have been cut and not impacted the story at all. Which is weird when it even influences the title. Her whole fixation with luck both seems like an afterthought and also a hyperfixation, which is a bit tricky to reconcile but there you have it.

I did love Marty as a character, and didn’t need a meticulously crafted reason to follow her adventure.

Thanks to NetGalley and Swoon Reads for the ARC!

*Review can be found at https://smadasbooksmack.blogspot.com/*

Marty has been unlucky recently and it just seems to be getting worse. She is pretty sure her luck is due to the cheap knickknacks she stole from the rooms of hotel guests while she was cleaning rooms at work but she has no idea how to change her luck back. Add on a heaping of family drama and life angst, and Marty is overwhelming. But maybe her new assignment at work can help change her fate- if she can stay professional and not be charmed by the cute brooding guy she has been tasked with showing around the island.

I found Just My Luck to be incredibly adorable and easy to read. It was a fairly short book at 220 pages and the quick chapters and engaging main character made the book just fly by. I feel like this is the best possible timing for this book to come out also since it is summer and the story is set in the most summer of locations- Hawaii (Maui to be more specific). Jennifer really made Maui come alive for me, I felt like I was experiencing the food or seeing the sunset and the turtles right along with Marty. I have no idea how Jennifer was able to make a story so vivid and encompassing in so few pages but I loved everything about this story. This was the perfect mix of light tone and scenic setting to put some serious growing up issues into play.

And yes, there was a love story here (because let's be real, how can a YA contemporary not have at least a little romance) but that was not the focus of the book- and the amazing fact that it was not a HEA, it was an enjoy the moment kind of love that I think YA needs more of and I fully appreciated. Just My Luck was about so many things, like being true to yourself, being able to live for yourself and not others, that everyone makes mistakes but it is ok to forgive, always try to make things right, and the most important lesson- watch out for Karma because she will be looking for you!

This is my second read by Jennifer and I love the flawed, totally relatable characters that she brings to life. I think this is the perfect read for anyone who loves YA contemporary, the beach life style, coming of age stories and summer fun. Pick this book up on your next trip to the beach (or pool, just saying).

The only explanation for all the things going wrong in Marty's life is karma. What else could explain the fact that, in one day, she broke her tooth, a tree fell on her car, and she ruined a good pair of slippers because someone didn't clean up after their dog? She needs to put things right and that doesn't include being distracted by an out-of-towner that she's being forced to show around the island, thank you very much.

Honeybourn writes a humorous and sweet story about love, luck, and learning how to move forward in life. All of Marty's misadventures kept me glued to the page in happy expectation. While the story was lighthearted and fun, I found myself craving more depth from the characters. Will and Marty are the only characters in the story that are fleshed out, and still there was more to be desired. If you're looking for something feel good to make you laugh after a heavier read, this is a good option for you!

Just My Luck by Jennifer Honeybourn is a quick, but lighthearted and enjoyable YA contemporary romance.

This book is an easy and cute read. I really liked the concept of the story and some parts are quite delightful. I also liked the pacing and the swiftly moving plot with plenty of events and happenings. However, I felt like both the story and characters needed to be fleshed out a bit more. I just wanted everything to be MORE than what it was. So while there are definitely a few things that could have been executed better, I did enjoy the friendships, the family drama, the adventure, the setting, and the coming-of age aspects of the book. I also liked the sibling relationship between Ansel and Marty and wished they had more moments together. And even though the ending seemed a bit rushed, it still made me smile.

The characters are all right. I liked Marty and Will well enough. Marty is relatable and I rooted for her the entire time. Will is quite funny, adorable and caring. The side characters like Ansel, Hayes and Nalani are likeable. They're all interesting on their own ways, but I just really wanted them to be more complex and to have more depth.

Romance wise… Uhmmm well, I’m not too sure I completely liked it. I know I didn't not like it, but I just wanted something more. There are some moments that are quite romantic and sweet... it's just I didn't really feel intense and delicious swoony vibes between Marty and Will. They also didn't seem to have the kind of chemistry that makes my heart melt. Having said that, they shared some adorable moments and I did enjoy some of their flirty scenes together.

Overall, this novel is a light and cute read. Despite the fact that I personally wanted to feel MORE excitement, MORE fun, and ultimately just MORE feels, I still enjoyed most of the story and I think this book is perfect for a relaxing day at the beach.

I received an advance reader copy of this book from the author, publisher, and Xpresso Book Tours via Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A story about winning against Karma.

Marty works are a resort in Maui and she knows better than anyone not to get involved with the tourists—she'd only gets a heartbreak from it. But her luck in on the negative lately, and bad things keep happening to her, to the point she's lost her car, her boyfriend and her best friend is going the same direction. So it's not surprising when she falls for Will, who's in the best room with his brother for the month and for whom she now needs to act as private guide tour.

There are many positive aspects in this book, but my favorite is the description of Maui. They're smoothly inserted there, and it feels like a native is really teaching us about Hawaii as we go along. I confess I didn't know a thing of what was there so it was a real a pleasure.

I was hoping for the bad luck incidents to be more funny, but this isn't really a book I laughed that much. Marty is just too frightened and that seemed to go into me, every time something happened, I got as frustrated as she did. It was clearly impossible to laugh.

And have I mentioned how much I love the cover? That picture of the beach wouldn't have done it for me but together with everything else it made for a perfect show of what to expect of the story. Swoon Reads just gets better with each title.

As for down points, I didn't think it was the best romance. Will is a nice guy and I'd probably fall for him too, but I didn't see the sparkles. Even the meet-cute wasn't that cute in my opinion. Concomitantly, that didn't matter. This is not just a romance but also about Marty getting over herself and doing things right, that's why I loved the ending. Unfortunately, I can't go in details for obvious reasons, but as fitting as it was, I didn't think the author would actually do it.

This is another good title in Swoon Reads catalog and I was super glad I could read it.


Honest review based on an ARC provided by the blog tour and Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

A perfect, light summer read! JUST MY LUCK by Jennifer Honeybourn is a charming book that will leave a smile on your face.

A pair of cherry red sunglasses, a vanilla-scented travel candle, a hula girl shot glass, and a luggage tag shaped like a surfboard were the sources of Marty's bad luck, and she was on a mission to reverse this bad karma.

After her parent's divorce, Marty seemed to make a few bad decisions. Among them was her string of petty thefts as she cleaned guest rooms at an upscale resort. These items were all meaningless, but she believed they were the source of her bad luck. This was not your everyday type of bad luck either. Marty suffered so many disasters in a short time span, that I wanted to reach through the book, and give her some hugs. It was brutal at times, but things did start to look up for her.

One of the positive things to happen to Marty was that she met Will. I instantly like him, and I think he gave Marty the push she needed to start making necessary changes in her life. Marty was nursing a wounded heart and dealing with some genuine feelings of abandonment. She closed herself off to people and possibilities, and it was via Will, that she began to open up again.

Obviously, I was fully onboard with this romance, and I liked the way Honeybourn utilized the search for the stolen items owners to give us a peek into Marty's near past, but I really loved all the island adventures I got to take with Marty, Will, and the gang.

This book was set in Maui, and having never been to Hawaii myself, I rely on books and magazine to "take me there". I felt as though Marty took me to some of the best places, and she also introduced me to some of the local cuisine.

This book was about family, friends, making peace with the past, appreciating the now, and not fearing the future. I found it quite delightful and think Just My Luck has all the elements of a great summer read.

This novel was really hard to rate for me. It's a successful romance novel as it does have a HEA and follows the romance pattern. The plot, however, didn't really work for me. Marty blames her recent string of terrible luck on the fact she had stolen things from rooms she had cleaned. I was thinking this was going to be a more complex and present part of the narrative. Unfortunately, this was barely mentioned throughout the book and I thought this was the main plot narrative. She only has to return three things and they aren't even that hard to send back. Her luck magically turns around when she returns the last item. It's just sort of sudden and I'm not sure what this brought to the book. She mentioned some of the motivations behind her taking them but it felt like a cheap way of bringing a bigger message to the novel.

Her mother is abusive and yet it's just glossed over. We don't see good relationships with really anyone, not friends or family, and that's hardly touched on. Her summer romance was cute but didn't have the substance I wanted. This book was just missing a lot of substance and was really surface level.

Just because it's a romance novel, doesn't mean the plot, non-romantic relationships or literary elements have to suffer. I just wanted a lot more from this novel than it gave me.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Swoon Reads through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.*

Loved that the story was set in Hawaii. This would be a great beach read. I didn’t feel like this story had a lot of depth - it was light and fun, making it perfect for a younger YA reader.

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. This was a clean contemporary YA romance set in Hawaii. Marty, the main character meets Will at the hotel she works at and the two hit it off. This book was somewhat predictable in terms of usual teen tropes--split family, rich boy, bad prom experience, etc. Overall a good quick summer teen read.

I really enjoyed Jennifer's latest release! I can relate to these characters so easily and I loved diving into this story. Jennifer is wildly creative and I just love reading her work.