Review copy courtesy of NetGalley.

Jenn Bennett continues to deliver another satisfying, interesting, character-driven contemporary romance. Josie and her mother are back in the New England sea town they came from, which they fled years ago believing that there is a curse on their family. Josie left her best friend Lucky behind and hasn’t spoken to him since. The summer begins with Josie committing an act of destruction that Lucky sees, and when they’re both arrested Lucky confesses, and Josie is determined to make it up to him.

Here's the thing, I felt as if I have read this Bennett book before but it's still 5 stars because yes.

Chasing Lucky follows Josie Saint-Martin, a photographer who has moved back to her hometown with her mother. They are to run the family bookstore for a year while her grandmother and aunt are in Nepal. Josie is concerned because her mom has not been able to settle down for more than a few months and has an ongoing issue with her mom (Josie's grandmother). Josie just wants to finish high school, get an internship, and move to California to be with her famous father. She doesn't count on seeing her childhood friend, Lucky.

As per Bennett books, there is a lot going on with not only Josie but all the side characters. Lucky has a bad boy reputation along with scars on his face from a fire a few years back. Evie, Josie's cousin, has a toxic relationship with the golden boy of the town. Winona (Josie's mom) avoids her mom and a certain street that has more meaning than expected. Deirdre (grandmother) is trying to reach out but doesn't know how. oh and there is a "curse" on all the Saint-Martin women. I love how Bennett navigates all these issues while never having Josie underestimate herself or ya know...not act like a 17 year old. After a party, Josie accidentally break a window that belongs to the town's golden family. Lucky takes the fall but Josie feels guilty for lying but also knows that it is the best for her if she wants to get the internship. This event brings Josie and Lucky closer and I loved their banter. They are both lonely people and while Josie refuses to admit to herself, Lucky is open about how he feels. He tells Josie that he is scared to befriend her again since she is always leaving. He wants her to stay but knows that it is ultimately her choice so he starts to show her that the town has a lot to offer, including himself.

Although the book has a huge emphasis on romance, it is also a book about family. The Saint-Martin women have no idea how to communicate, so they chalk it up to a curse. It is a generational cycle that hinders their relationship with each other. I love how Bennett went about it and how it was Deirdre who saw it for what it was. The book tackles issues like blue collar vs white collar, privilege, and predatory men who always come out on top. I wish that justice had been served in regards to Josie's father but that is not the case. I do like how Winona sees how her choices have been affecting Josie and love how it ended for her. Anyway, Bennett will forever be an automatic read for me.

Shout out to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in advance in exchange for an honest review.

If you want to read an adorable romance any Jenn Bennett book will be a hit. But, Chasing Lucky has to be one of my favorites. I was half way through this one and had to pre-order it for my library because I knew it was going to end great. Josie and Lucky are great characters that you'll root for till the very end. Throw in a crazy family, and a curse and you have a recipe for a great teen romance.

I stayed up way too late reading this book. I'm dragging today, but it was worth it. I've enjoyed Bennett's other books, so unsurprisingly, I liked this too. The plot was a little skimpy on the backstory of the curse, but the romance between the main characters felt very real and had a good slow burn. I liked both of the main characters. I hope to see more books by this author in the future.

There is a sweetness to Jenn Bennett books that I adore. She has characters that have a lot of self development, character building, and growing to do. As the reader, you get to go in this journey with them and feel what they are feeling. This book had a lot of those same sentiment l, but I also found myself getting really annoyed at some of the situations.

Josie is a budding photographer who has moved back to her childhood home only to be faced with unresolved issues from her past. Lucky is surviving but not really living. A part of himself left the same time Josie did and he never was the same. I loved the reconnection between the two lost friends. Treading lightly in new waters, trying to find a new normal. It was sweet watching them break each other’s walls down and grow together.

What really bothered me about this book was the lack of communication within the family. Since Josie’s family played a predominant role in this book, there were a lot of scenes I had to push through. I don’t think it was handled very well in the book and Josie’s family was just a huge mess. It really took away from the story having and made me wish the author would have taken a different route with the drama. At times I wished this story would have been told from Lucky’s point of view rather than Josie’s.

There were a lot of sweet moments that kept me captivated. The writing was good, but I wish some of the story was told differently. All in all I did enjoy the book, but I’ve read other books by this author that I thought were much better than this one.

The Saint-Martin women are cursed. Supposedly, according to family legend at least, they are doomed to be unlucky in love. Josie believes this, her mother believes this, her cousin believes this, and her aunt believes this. Chasing Lucky offers a glimpse at a dysfunctional family who truly believes they're cursed and what they go through to try to escape it.

After bouncing around from town to town for the past few years, Josie Saint-Martin returns to her hometown of Beauty to finish high school. Her grandmother and aunt are out of the country, so Josie and her mother are able to stay at their house. Josie's plan is to get an internship so she can build her photography portfolio and then go across the country to California to study under her famous photographer father. Her mother knows nothing of this plan. 

When they arrive in Beauty, Josie almost immediately runs into her childhood best friend, Lucky. Though details are not revealed instantly, it is stated that they didn't part on good terms when they were twelve. Their relationship is the central part of the book.

I love Jenn Bennett, which may be part of the problem. After recently reading Serious Moonlight, this fell short. It was predictable and failed to keep my attention or interest. At times it felt like it took forever to get anywhere. Things could have been resolved much easier and faster, and some of the "issues" were complete non-issues. It dragged on places and skipped too quickly in others. Overall, the book was okay. Not special, not terrible. It isn't one I would read again, and it was a bit of a chore to read at times, but Jenn Bennett is such a good writer that even her weakest book is still decent.

This book was everything!

I adore Jenn Bennett and all the books she gives us, Alex still holding the top spot of favorite standalone book! So when I saw this on NetGalley as a read now option I HAD to stop everything and read it! So thank you NetGalley for this opportunity!

Chasing Lucky had a new feel to it than Jenn's previous works but it still felt like her writing and her wonderfully complex and deep characters. With each main character she writes I can relate to them in some way. With Josie it was the photography! At one point in time I was a photo major and still love taking pictures, even though it's been some time since I've taken out my DSLR.

This book also made me realize just how much I love theoretically being out on the water! Living in the Midwest we don't get that chance often. When I was younger we would take weekend trips "to the lake" and that was as close as I got. I've always been a water bug so being with Lucky and his love of the water while also working with his family's boat repair shop was a lot of fun.

One of the most exciting parts of this book for me was the movie references! I have a list of all the movies in Alex, Approximately and am working my way through seeing them all. In this one she references my most recent favorite movie and it was a shock and a pleasure to see it since it is such a new film!

Another thing I love about Jenn's books are the relationships with family and other side characters. The relationship Josie has with her cousin, as well as the other members of her family and also Lucky's family, shows just how much communication is key to any relationship. Not being the best with communicating and not liking confrontation myself, I related a whole lot to this part of the story.

I have a lot of stuff highlighted and I know I'm missing so many thoughts, but this is what I have for now....will probably go though my notes and maybe reread this before pub date and update this review. Just know that I adored it and can't wait to get my finished copy!

Chasing Lucky is a fascinating read and hard to put down. It is page turner like previous Jenn Bennet books. You can't help feel sorry for Josie Saint-Martin and root for her.
I can devour it in two days.
Recommended for Jenn Bennet fans and any contemporary fans!


Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I have mixed feelings with this novel, because there were parts that I devoured and loved and others that were painfully dense and boring. In general, I enjoyed this reading, but I must admit that if the author had focused a little more on the love story, my rating would have been much higher because Lucky stole my heart from the very beginning.

This novel tells the story of Josie, a girl who has to return to her hometown with her mother for personal reasons. The two have always been together, travelling around the world, because their mother fervently believes in the curse of the Saint Martin women. They are destined to fail in love and, for some reason that Josie doesn’t know, Beauty is like kryptonite for them; that is why her mother hates having to return there. However, Josie is glad to spend a whole year in the same place. She is tired of instability, tired of her mother's cold and immature attitude towards love. What Josie does not know is that her childhood friend is still in Beauty and he is not very happy to see her. She left him in the middle of the night after a horrible accident and since that moment Lucky became another person.

I'm going to start talking about what I didn't like about the novel: Beauty's excessive descriptions and Josie's repetitive thoughts. Do not misunderstand me, it’s wonderful that the author wanted to give importance to the historical past of Beauty because it gives depth to the novel, but she sometimes offered irrelevant information for the reader. Josie, on the other hand, thinks way too much, which is not necessarily bad. However, there are whole paragraphs where she thinks about the same idea and she does not reach any conclusions. I ended up skipping those parts because I really liked the plot of the novel (Josie's relationship with her family and Lucky).

I liked the characters, especially Lucky. He is a very generous and clever boy, although at first he is distant and cold due to how vulnerable he feels. He loves Josie and never ever doubts her. Their love is slow born and the scenes between them were simply gripping. Seriously, the romance in this book is fantastic. It’s sweet yet spicy sometimes and their dialogues are addictive. I also liked Josie; she is kind, polite and takes care of others, but it is true that her attitude sometimes angered me a lot. She clings desperately to a plan that she knows will not work regardless of the harm she does to others indirectly, and that is selfish. She doesn’t really take the time to investigate and organise things, she just assumes that everything is going to happen according to her wishes.

There is a parallel subplot that intersects with the love story as the reading progresses. The author has managed to reflect very well how complicated and painful family relationships are, that is true. Not only are there lies within the Saint Martin family itself, but within the whole hometown too. Rumours can destroy people and people can become cruel for love. This is a novel that full of feelings that shows us how difficult it is to forgive and how fragile hearts are.

To say that it made my day when I saw this book available as a “Read Now” on Netgalley would be an understatement. Even better is the story made me feel so many positive emotions that it will probably be hard to fit everything into this review.

But I am going to try.

Chasing Lucky by Jenn Bennett is the story of Josie Saint-Martin, a young photographer who has been living with her mother and moving around most of her life. When her grandmother (the same grandmother and her had a huge argument with that caused them to leave the town years ago) and aunt leave Josie’s mom in charge of the bookstore while they are away, the two Saint-Martin women head back to Beauty to run the store along with Josie’s cousin, Evie. The town history and a theoretical curse on the family seem to follow Josie and her mother as they move back though. Soon Josie is dealing with rumors, property damage, and even a reconnection with her former best friend, Lucky that may turn into something more.

The first thing that I enjoyed about this book was the character writing. Jenn Bennett is a fantastic writer and does really well with writing passionate characters. When a character has a talent or hobby they really love she is great at inserting information & traits that character’s with that specific passion would showcase. It reminds me a lot of Joan Bauer’s character writing which is one of my favorite examples of good character writing especially when it comes to people with certain passions. The characters are not one-dimensional or anything like that, but they still feel strongly about their talents, dreams, and interests & are in no way afraid to show that.

Something else I love in this book is the atmosphere. The town of Beauty feels like a place that you could actually go visit. The rich town history in sewn into the story and throughout the story we are able to see more and more of what makes Beauty such a special place to so many people. The town somewhat reminds me of a more coastal version of Camden Falls from the Main Street book series or Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls.

Which leads me into my next point…

The mother and daughter relationship in this story is written so well. Josie’s mom was in college when she had her so she is a young mom. There dynamic is written as somewhat dysfunctional, but with wit and charm that only a “Lorelai and Rory” type of relationship can have. In fact I saw a lot of comparisons between the mother and daughter relationship In Gilmore Girls and Josie’s relationship with her mother in Chasing Lucky. I really enjoyed the way their relationship was written and think it is definitely one of the best parts of the story.

Besides the mother and daughter relationship, the relationship between Lucky and Josie is done fantastically as well. I can feel their chemistry in every word of cute dialouge the two share together. Even just the little moments between the two can have a reader in awe of their romantic partnership. I have always liked the “Friends to Lovers” trope in stories and this book handles that trope very well. Jenn Bennett’s romantic pairings are always so cute and just make you smile. And I am happy to say that Lucky and Josie are no different.

The last thing I really liked in this book was the storytelling and twists. As I have said multiple times in this review, Jenn Bennett is a great writer. She is able to write stories with interesting and layered characters, life like settings, & captivating and sweet relationships. Jenn also does great with writing contemporary romances with well written drama and twists. Chasing Lucky features at least a few points were my eyes were raised or everything I read so far had been questioned. Bennett especially is great with writing family drama in her novels and I really like the story she chose to tell here. Chasing Lucky is, like many of Bennett’s books, a well balanced novel that really does hit so many of the right marks. That includes storytelling.

I think my only critique for the book would be that I may have wanted a tiny more regarding the ending, but that is honestly just a tiny nit pick. The ending is good as is, but I did feel like there could have been a little more to it.

That again though is just a little nit pick and in now way should that impact you deciding to read this book because I can’t think of a single reader who would not enjoy this book (well unless you exclusively read science fiction or fantasy or something like that, but even those readers I think could enjoy this contemporary romance).

Chasing Lucky is a fantastic book that includes three-dimensional characters, great romantic and family dynamics, a well written plot, interesting twists, a colorful setting, and more. Whether you loved Bennett’s previous books or have never read a Jenn Bennett book in your life, you will love this novel of family, passion, drama, and love.

Jenn Bennett is one of those authors that you can count on getting a good story that is usually tied up in a pretty bow at the end. In this story we meet Josie and Lucky who were best friends when they were younger. After being burned and placed in the hospital Lucky find that his best friend has left town without telling him goodbye. Josie has become use to her mother's MO. Move into a new town, stay under the radar and then leave again when things get hot. They are returning to their hometown when Josie's grandmother decides to go to Nepal to help out in the Peace Corp. Her and Lucky find themselves in each others orbits and one unfortunate event involving a department store window causes these two to have to work together. This is their story of rekindling their friendship and seeing what else might possibly be there. If you are a fan of Jenn Bennett's then this book does not disappoint.

Thank you to netgalley and Simon Pulse for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I thought this book was so good!!!! Once I got started it was hard to put down. I read this book in 1 day. I just loved the characters so much. They are all flawed, but they try to keep doing their best and pushing on. I loved Josie and Lucky as characters. How they went from best friends to not best friends and trying to get their friendship back.

I loved this book! If you enjoy reading Kasie West, Sarah Dessen and Katie McGarry you will love this book! I loved the whole premise of them being bff's as little kids and the romantic tension between them now. What a easy, happy story! Happy reading!

What a great teen read. Josie is a girl that all girls can fall in love with, and Lucky is the bad boy nextdoor that all girls watch through he window and hope asks them out. The book had me turning the pages and staying up reading it until finished at 4am. Thoroughly enjoyed it and the journey that it took me on. Thank you for the opportunity for the ARC.

This book was perfect for me to read before valentines day! This book really pulls your heartstrings and makes you want to read it again and again. I really loved the plot and I will definitely be reading more books by this author. I will also be purchasing this book for my libraries YA collection.

I don't normally read YA contemporaries but was looking for something light after reading a lot of fantasy. This was a cute YA contemporary story that had me laughing and smiling throughout.

I have really enjoyed the previous Jenn Bennett books that I have read, but this one just was exactly what I needed from a YA romance. The characters of both Josie and Lucky were so well written and their relationship was realistic and believable. There is always something fun about the friends to more trope, but in this case the layers to their relationship, extensive break in their relationship and a "curse" definitely made it every more enjoyable to watch develop. Plus, anytime there is a bookstore in the story is a plus! I devoured this read and I really loved it. I can't wait to see what Bennett writes next! Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

I loved this book, but I love everything by Jenn Bennett. Josie and her mom have an off the track type of relationship. I wanted them to work it out so badly because I have such a great relationship with my mom. So Josie and her mom move back to their hometown Beauty, to help their grandmother run the family book store. On the first day back Josie see's her old friend Lucky. I liked everything about Lucky from the beginning. After being dragged to a party by Evie Josie's cousin, things take a turn for Josie and she finds herself with Lucky, and in predicament. I loved how the two of them developed as characters and together. The book takes some twists and there was some harassment issues towards Evie that I feel could have been addressed better, but overall I really liked this book. I received this book as an ARC copy for my unbiased review.

Is there anything better than diving into a Jenn Bennett book for the first time? I’m not sure there is. Bennett’s books always feel like coming home after a long absence – both new and familiar at the same time.

In CHASING LUCKY this proves to be especially true. The last thing Josie expects when her wanderlust mother returns them to their hometown of Beauty, Rhode Island is to have a renewed connection with her long-lost, possibly bitter, and now extremely handsome former best friend Lucky. Sparks fly after Lucky unexpectedly takes the fall for a crime he didn’t commit.

Like always, the love story Bennett crafts is both dramatic and enthralling – but this time it takes a back seat to the compelling interpersonal relationships of the Saint-Martin women. Don’t get me wrong, Lucky is still the latest addition to my book boyfriend list – but I would have happily spent many more pages exploring the communication issues between Josie and her family. The Saint-Martin women are strong but flawed, loving but wary, fierce but fragile. I loved them all the more for their mistakes and how they are forced to pick up the pieces.

As an added bonus, I grew up in an East Coast seaside town, so the New England setting resonated with me in a special way. It was particularly enjoyable surprise in a book focused on homecomings.

Jenn Bennett has really solidified herself as an auto-buy author for me – don’t miss out on her latest.

Pairs well with:
- Cold brew coffee with lots of cream
- Bargain lobster rolls
- Strange food on sticks (cookie egg rolls, really?)
- Emotional vulnerability

Next on our romance reads is an upcoming Jenn Bennett release that I accidentally stumbled upon NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What got me interested in this book? Well, it's another story with bestfriend-to-enemies-to-lovers as the main trope and a cursed family as a sub-plot.

The story revolves on our MC Josie Saint-Martin, an aspiring photographer living with her mother by jumping places-to-places after a disagreement between her mom and grandma made them leave the town of Beauty, the home where the Saint-Martins were rumored to have a curse on lovelife, and Lucky Karras, her childhood bestfriend who grew to became famous in Beauty for his notoriety. Then the two meet again after five years of sudden separation and with both their tainted public image, will Josie make it out of Beauty alive without repeating the same mistake of leaving Lucky again?

This Jenn Bennett trope is the hill I'm willing to die on. I mean, who wouldn't get the swoon and kilig with all this "you're my enemy now but I know you 100% before" dialogues, the banters and the side comments? Ugh. This made me feel hopeful even though my lovelife is as cold as Elsa's ice palace.

Another plus for the story is the mystery incorporated in the storyline. The Saint-Martin curse, Lucky 2.0, the Saint-Martin fight, Drew the high school lover, and even Josie's picture-perfect father. Each sub-plot contributed to the moderate pacing of the book that made me want to flip another page again and again.

Lastly, Beauty as the setting of this love story was wonderfully woven. The landmark like Harborwalk, event like flotilla, and even the developing vibe of the place seems magical and feels such a nice place to be. Well, except from the rumors than can totally destroy a person in a tick. Did I enjoy the book? Yes. Am I going to buy a copy when it releases? Yes.

RATING: 4stars