Fantasy/historical fiction typically isn't my thing but I think overall this is a good book. The beginning was a little difficult to get into but it does get better. The plot is intriguing and Aster has good character development (not everyone is out to get her). While this wasn't my favorite book of all time I would still recommend to younger readers and suggest at my library.

I would also read more books by this author

I gave up on this book about a quarter through. The opening really grabbed me – the dystopic world with its resonance of the Wild West, “dustblood” girls raised in a brothel, drugged so they would not resist their boorish “brags,” the autocratic madam, the girls being tattooed with magic symbols that not only identify them but flare into agony when covered up. And sweet, trusting Clementine, about to entertain her first customer. When she resists being raped, she accidentally kills him (and although she does not know it, he is the son of a very powerful, wealthy family who will be bent on revenge). Her sister, Aster, concocts an escape attempt as the alternative to execution. These are young teenagers, so of course their planning is haphazard, but they manage to get away, aided by the madam’s favorite and a pair of other girls. I was with them, entranced, every step of the way.

That, alas, was where I ran into obstacles. If I trust a writer, I can immerse myself in the story, accepting details I do not necessarily understand as part of the world. After all, our own world isn’t always explicable or consistent. But when I’m jarred out of the narrative by a detail I know isn’t right, it can be hard to resume the flow. That happened when the girls had stolen some horses and were about to flee. The author had them cracking the reins to signal the horses to move forward. Anyone who’s spent any time with horses knows this is nonsense. All it accomplishes is futile arm-waving and an annoyed horse. There followed, in close succession, equally implausible details – horses having black eyes (they don’t), galloping through the night (a sure way to kill a horse), and stabbing a mountain lion between the shoulders (please check an anatomy chart for why this is not an effective strategy). By this time, I was questioning everything in the narrative. The writer had lost my confidence.

To make matters worse, I found the escape chapters emotionally flat after a gripping, excitement-laden beginning. Instead of having an emotional shape, this section felt as if the author had strung together one danger after another without a clear direction. The girls were headed to a possibly imaginary person, far away, who might be able to remove their tattoos, yet this wasn’t established in my mind as a pressing need.

In contrast, there was a well-executed dramatic sequence in which one of the girls (the madam’s favorite, Violet) goes into withdrawal from the sedating drug, Sweet Thistle, and two of the girls venture into a town to find a supply of it. They had to cover their tattoos and suffered increasing discomfort, but I didn’t come away believing that the tattoos were a critical threat to them. So the journey becomes just one unconnected episode after another toward a dubiously necessary goal. At least, that was my experience when I set the book down.

To its credit, this story centers on teen girls in a dangerous world, who are at first powerless but discover their own resourcefulness and overcome their initial antagonisms to work together. Those are worthy themes. I applaud the author for portraying young women with agency. I hope that other readers will not have the same difficulties I did and will immerse themselves in this story.

Confession #1: I picked up this book on NetGalley because it has a gorgeous cover. Confession #2: My NetGalley copy expired when I was 80 pages from the end. Confession #3: I went out and purchased the book the same day my NetGalley copy expired, because I had to finish it.

The Good Luck Girls is Davis' debut novel, and it packs an incredible punch. Set in an alternate world—possibly a future dystopia on a different planet, but there are fantasy elements that make it hard to place entirely—where people with shadows have more rights than those who don't, the book centers on five young women fleeing life in a brothel.

Dustblood, or shadowless, girls are frequently sold by poor families into "welcome houses," given the promise of a better life: regular meals, fancy clothes, luxury. The condition, of course, is that they have no rights over their own bodies, and they are never allowed to leave, branded with a magical tattoo that reveals their identities, and glows and burns if they try to cover it.

When Clementine accidentally kills a violent brag, she, her sister, and their friends make a daring escape, turning to a life of banditry in an effort to reach the legendary Lady Ghost, who can offer them a different future—if she's real. The result is a twisted Weird Western that feels like the Wild West, while twisting its tropes and delivering a story about victims taking back their own destinies and carving a new path toward a better future.

Honestly, if a few of my favorite writers hadn't gushed about this book, I never would've picked it up. Great world-building and completely action packed. The concept of welcome houses was really interesting to me, especially as it's not something that most girls aspire to but more are forced in to in order to help their families survive. This book is a mix of genres so there's something here for everyone, definitely action packed! I cannot wait for the second installment in this series.

Good Luck Girls starts off with a bang, introducing us to a world that pulls from western, dystopian and fantasy genres. The book runs a mile a minute as we follow these young women trying to find justice in a world that never stops trying to knock them down. With strong characters and a high stakes plot, we see Davis’ masterful account of the struggle to overcome the injustices of an inhumane world.

I will be squealing about this one for a long time! I am a sucker for a girl gang story and this one overflowed with adventure and a fantastic cast!

*I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

THE GOOD LUCK GIRLS strives to accomplish many things, and ultimately, it succeeds.

A mix of fantasy and western, Davis creates a genre-bending world that transports the reader into the old West, yet this is such a fresh story it feels entirely new. Plus, driven by a cast of characters almost exclusively of color ensured I could not pass this by.

The titular Good Luck Girls are essentially poor girls that are sold into sex slavery in order to help alleviate their families' debts. After a night with a client turns deadly, our main characters - Aster, Violent, Mallow, Tansy, & Clementine - escape, becoming outlaws running for their lives.

I found the concept of this book so thrilling. There aren't a ton of YA westerns on the market, and while this is undoubtedly a fantasy, the Western flair builds a fantastic atmosphere. I did think the plot became a little repetitive in the middle - I felt like the story would have dragged a little less if there was an unexpected element instead of Aster battling the same issues over and over again. I was a little thrown off that the book begins with Clementine's POV - then switches to Aster's for the rest of the book. I think repeating the switch of POV would have balanced some of the repetitiveness of the middle of the book.

Overall, I found Davis's commentary on race and female empowerment to be extremely effective. The unflinching look at the PTSD that follows her characters after their escape creates an emotional bond between reader and character. The two classes of citizens in Davis's world of Archetta are an allegory of modern racial tensions. I loved the supernatural elements of the vengeants and the remnants, and I really hope the following novel explores them further. With so many elements to tackle, I think Davis occasionally lost focus. I'm hoping the second book of the duology can edit those areas that need improvement to truly nail the finish. I know I'll definitely be picking it up!

The Good Luck Girls is part western, part fantasy, part "the girl saves herself in this one". In the first quarter of the novel, we are introduced to a group of "Luckers (slave hookers): Aster, Clementine, Violet, Tansy, and Mallow. Aster and Clem are sisters, and the time as arrived for Clem to join the "Luckers" in their trade. But when her First Night goes awry, this plucky group of heroine will have to take a detour into parts unknown, and learn how to become who they will need to be to survive.
Populated by interesting characters and intriguing dangers, "The Good Luck Girls" is a must read for fans of dystopian YA, contemporary westerns, and fantasy adventures.

I really enjoyed a great many things about this book. Characters were fleshed out and the plot was well spaced. Some of the secondary storylines could've used a bit more page space but all in all an enjoyable read!

I was lucky enough to get both a physical ARC of this and an eARC version. I won a giveaway on Twitter, but a few weeks after that I got the notification from Netgalley saying that I was approved by the publisher for an ARC. I was honestly shocked, but thank you to all involved for allowing me to have two ways to read this amazing ARC.

The Good Luck Girls was certainly not what I expected. From the beginning, we meet Clementine and her sister Aster, two "Luckers". Clementine has just reached her 16th birthday which means it is time to transition from being a Daytime girl who cooks and cleans to a Sundown girl who provides sexual services to the Brags (men) passing through town. Most Good Luck Girls are dustbloods, which seems to be the derogatory term for people of color in Arketta. Dustblood girls are sold to Welcome Houses where they are promised health care and food and what they really get is mutilation, slavery, forced prostitution, and abuse. They are supposed to be grateful for the life that they live, despite the fact that the men who come into the Welcome House often abuse them while they assault them (which the Madame of the house tries to fix by giving them Sweet Thistle, which essentially drugs and puts the girls to sleep), and the Raveners of the house often torment the girls into submission. As if that weren't enough, the girls barely have their own identity because when they come to the Welcome House they are branded with a favor and renamed for whatever the favor is. Aster is terrified about what is going to happen to Clementine now that it's time for her to officially join the Sundown Girls and she's right to be scared. On Clementine's first night, she begins to panic as the Brag begins to choke her and suddenly he's dead and she has no idea what to do. The girls are thrown into a whirlwind that leads them to run away with two of their closest friends at their heels and Tansy, the head girl of the house, along with them for the ride. In order to find freedom they have to watch out for the law, stay away from the Raveners and the Dead, and find a way to get their favors removed. The favors not only mark them as Good Luck Girls, but they cannot be hidden. Even covering them up for more than 15 minutes at a time causes the girls excruciating pain. They have no idea how they are going to manage any of this, but they sure as hell are going to try.

Good Luck Girls is intense from the very beginning. I don't think I fully understood what I was getting myself into with this story. It doesn't take long for the stakes to become very real, which I think is a good thing, but can also be a bit triggering if you're not prepared ahead of time. Some of the descriptions of what happens to the girls are very graphic and the PTSD that they experience, especially Aster, is real as well. Throughout their entire journey, it's clear that Aster feels extremely responsible for her sister and everything that's happened to her. She also doesn't trust men at all, which becomes apparent pretty quickly during their journey. There's no reason for her to trust men because they've done nothing but lie to her and abuse her. Clementine hasn't had this experience with men just yet so she's more open to the stranger they meet on the road. It's very clear that this makes Aster uncomfortable. For majority of the story, Aster battles with herself on this and on leading these girls to safety. It's a hard road and to be honest, she has no idea what she's doing.

The entire story is told from Aster’s point of view. While Aster gives a full picture of all the events that occur to the group, I would have like to see each of the girls get their own point of view throughout the book. They all had their own reasons for running and their own feelings and understanding of the events so getting a peak inside each of the girls during their journey would have made reading this even more enjoyable. Aster wasn't exactly a character that I liked per say. Her experiences obviously shaped her viewpoint, which is fine, but I think that it was a bit overwhelming for me as a reader at times. This may sound a bit crazy, but I think that it's possible to have too much of a main character. That's what some of this felt like to me. If we had been able to look into the other character's heads and point of view, I think that Aster would've have always frustrated me so much.

The breakout star in this book for me was Violet. She's disliked by all of the girls from the beginning because she's not a dustblood and she's been in the Welcome House her whole life, having been the one girl who was born there. She has an air of superiority about her because she's fairblood and she treats the other girls like trash, while acting as a sort of spy for the Madame of the house. To the other girls, she is the enemy. As the story progresses, our view of Violet begins to change and it becomes clear that she's experienced the same trauma the other girls have. In some ways, I wouldn't say that she's suffered more, but she's faced a different sort of suffering. I really grew to like Violet and I hope to see more of her in the future.

Even with my frustrations, Good Luck Girls has a great story. There's blatant misogyny, racism, mentions and descriptions of sexual assault, classism and abuse and it's pretty consistent throughout the book. There's definitely a need to be safe when reading this book because I think the content, however good, could be triggering for some people. I hope there's another installment and if there is, I hope we get a few other POVs in the process!

This book is so so good. I loved the found family feel and the great female friendships. It's impossible not to root for the girls as they seek their freedom and stick it to the system along the way. I'd love to see some more of the world and the spirits in it. There's definitely a lot there and I hope the sequel delves into that some more. My only minor issue is that Mallow and Tansy were kind of one unit. They never got as much character development as the others and were always constantly together, so they just kind of became MallowTansy. Mansy? Tallow?

I enjoyed this book. I liked how each of the 5 main characters was complex, in a way that isn't easy to do with five characters! I thought the universe Davis created for this book was interesting, and it didn't take too long to "figure it out" as sometimes happens in fantasy universes like these.

This book had a strong opening, but would have benefited from different perspectives; a lot of the side characters were hard to know. The journey in the book seems difficult but there isn’t any tension. What this book does it well is talking about how people deal with sexual assault, and the recovery once you are free. Those were the most compelling parts, the actions was just standard and the writing was just okay, but when the characters started talking about their feelings, that’s when the writing was at its’ best.

I liked that this was so fresh, unique and memorable. Aster and her group are bad ass girls surviving in a world that is seriously messed up. Their emotional struggle leaps from the pages and will pull you right in and have you rooting for them.

I read the an excerpt of this book a while back and I couldn't put it down. Getting my hands on the finished book was the same. Un-put-downable.

The world building was awesome (can you imagine a TV show!?!) and I was emotionally invested in the main characters right from the start. The secondary characters you meet along the way only liven things up. The author did an amazing job of crafting a story that will stay with me for a long while!

Highly recommend and can't wait for book 2!

Thank you to Charlotte Nicole Davis, TorTeen, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and provide an honest review of The Good Luck Girls.

This story captured my attention on so many different levels. The world building was phenomenal, the characters were well developed, and the story flowed and held my attention well. Charlotte was tasteful when writing dialogue or internal narrative in regards to what the girls did while living at the welcome house. The abuse some of the girls had to endure wasn't said in full detail but the emotional scars were often brought up and described, which left me feeling bad for anyone forced to live under those conditions.

It was great cast, and everyone in their little group had a role to play in their survival. Though, the ending felt like the book could either be a standalone or continue on in a series. There wasn't much of a lead into book 2 or a cliffhanger that gets me excited to read the next book (which I see from Goodreads, that this will be a series). So, I was okay with the ending, but it didn't leave me dying to read more from Aster and the girls.

But, I'll still definitely read book 2 ;) I very much so enjoy Charlotte's writing style and will continue to follow her author career.

Full review coming soon to the PlumReport book blog!

A solid, straightforward story from Charlotte Nicole Davis. Perfect for fans of westerns, girl gangs, and YA. Sometimes felt it was a little below the age range of YA and could be more mature, but that isn't a criticism, just an observation.

Firstly I would like to say thank you to both netgalley and readers first for providing me with a physical and also an ebook for The Good Luck Girls.

I had such high hopes for this book. The synopsis struck me as fairly unique which is something I don't find very often when reading YA Fantasy books. It is definitely a mixture of genres but I did enjoy this element of the book.

The thing I really did enjoy about this book is the strong independent women that are portrayed within this. Women are very much oppressed in this society, Arketta is a mans world and women are just a part of it because they let them. Women are subjected to such brutal acts including cutting them from the inside so that they could never have children. All of the women in this book override the opinions and thoughts of the men and they continue to strive in their journey to earn their independence. The rebellion of these sassy characters definitely made me carry on with this book at times when I wanted to put it down.

The romances in this big were a big fat NO from me. Yes, I am a really unromantic person, I KNOW THAT. However this just pushed and pushed and pushed. Both of the main romances were so forced and just unnecessary. I feel like I would have enjoyed this book more if I was not cringing at the turn of each page.

Unfortunately for me, apart from the first chapter I found myself quite bored. I did not have the urge to pick this book up and didn't really mind that happened throughout. I did not feel any connections to the main characters, they were okay bit I didn't mind what happened to them. The end didn't really do anything for me. I wasn't bothered and was just left feeling pretty confused. This book gets 3 stars from me and the only reason it wasn't two stars is because this book is pretty unique in relation to the plot and I do like that. Would I pick the sequel to this book? Maybe if it is available at my library, just so I can find out whether Violet is actually dead because that is one thing I would like to know. Other than that I feel like this series will fall off my radar and probably won't find the time to read any further into it.

So, I really liked this when I read it and right after. My rating would've been somewhere between four and five stars.
But now, a month after I read it while writing this review, I realize it was, while enjoyable, also forgetable.

Our main characters Aster and Clementine (I struggled to tell these two apart for the entirety of the book) are basically shadowless black geishas that are on the run after Clementine accidentally killed a dude. They're followed by two other girls who were also completely interchangable, and Violet, who was my favourite because she had a distinct personality.
I can't remember the plot very well, but it was basically our gang bumbling from one trouble into another with little to none repercussions for their actions.

The Good Luck Girls was an enjoyable read while it lasted, but nothing to write home about.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC!

DNF @~35%

Sigh. I really wanted to love this book. But at the end of the day, I don't have much to say about it other than "Neat premise, faulty characters."

Let's get to the positive first: the worldbuilding and the general premise of the story is super fascinating. There are two groups of people who live in Arketta, dustbloods and fairbloods, and they're more or less alike in appearance minus one little detail: dustbloods don't cast shadows. And while fairbloods are offered privileges and opportunites, dustbloods are forced to live in indentured servitude--as prostitutes, for example, which is what the Good Luck Girls are.

The writing is really solid and descriptive, and all the little details about the setting are a nice touch.

But good god, the characters. You have this cool western setting--rich and dusty and unforgiving--and it's populated with characters who feel stiff and just...cardboard-y. I couldn't find myself caring about any of them or their predicament, and well...that was that.

There are a lot of elements here that will appeal to readers, but it wasn't to be for me, unfortunately.

I fell into this world immediately and loved the characters right away. The writing was wonderful and the world building was incredible. Loved it!