Jenn Bennett writes such great characters and they're some of my favorite in young adult contemporary stories. Her books are so easy to fall into and get lost in. It has many of my favorite tropes - friends to lovers, small town vibes and anything with bookstores. Jenn Bennett has been one of my favorite YA authors and this release just continues to show how she can write stories that can relate to people of all ages. It's a classic Jenn Bennett novel, relatable characters and interesting story line while adding in heavier topics.

I absolutely adore Jenn Bennett's previous books, so I was so excited and honored to received another arc of her newest book! Unfortunately, this one missed the mark for me.

The main characters, Josie and Lucky, were where the book fell on the wayside. I really liked Josie's mom and her cousin, Evie. I thought they were really fun and interesting characters, and I loved how Evie always had her nose in a romance book. Josie, however, was way too much of a "not-like-other-girls" girl, and Lucky always seemed like he just was looking to pick a fight with Josie. At the beginning of the book, he takes the fall for her rock-throwing incident, and then fights with her about it and makes her feel guilty that he took the blame for her! That made absolutely no sense to me. I just couldn't get behind most of their bickers.

I know that a lot of other readers are loving this book, which I'm so happy about. As I said, I typically adore Jenn Bennett's books, so I'm glad this one is resonating with so many other people.

DNF at 57%

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Any quotes I use are from an unpublished copy and may not reflect the finished product.

I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end it doesn't even matter

Linkin Park sums up my experience with this book perfectly. Jenn Bennett is normally my jam, but I just could not get into Chasing Lucky. I disliked Josie from the start, which made it hard for me to really enjoy this book. I have to like the main character or a book just won't work for me. Her general attitude was sour and uncaring, but her cowardice was the worst. I don't know why Lucky did what he did for Josie, but regardless of his reasons, she shouldn't have let him take the fall for something stupid she did. I'm sure it worked itself out later on, but the longer she stayed quiet, the more I started to resent her. It made me not want to pick up the book, because I couldn't stand to see Lucky care about Josie when she only cared about herself.

I've kept this book on my bedside table for months, and I've probably picked it up a handful of times without making much progress. I think I was trying to force myself to like a book because I like the author, but liking someone isn't a reason to make myself continue reading a story I'm not enjoying. (★★☆☆☆)

Truly enjoyed Jenn Bennett's novel Chasing Lucky. Two flawed characters Josie and Lucky meet again to reunite and reignite their friendship. Family relationships are also reignited which make the plot continue to flow and become more satisfying. A great read.

Chasing Lucky was the perfect small town former bad boy/best friend romance. This book was delight. I loved chatting with Jenn about this book.

This adorable YA romance will definitely be a great addition to our classroom libraries! Bennett did a wonderful job creating the growth and change within the characters.

I really enjoyed this read. I felt that it had some of my favorite elements in books, small towns, small town secrets. I also really like the long term relationship that was developed in this read. I also like the characters being into photography, and loved how that structured the books. I also was invested in the romance so much. I also really liked the family elements. It was super fast pace read and it is def a solid read. I also really liked josie as a character! I also really liked Lucky as well!

I have really enjoyed reading Jenn Bennett's books. This one fell a little short for me. It was somewhat predictable from the start. Girl moves back home with single parent, reunites with childhood friend, lack of communication, lots of drama then guy gets girl. My favorite book of Ms. Bennett is The Anatomical Shape of a Heart. I continue to pick up her books hoping that one will be as good. Unfortunately this was not it.

Thanks to Netgalley/Simon Pulse for the review copy.

I'm from coastal MA, and I've spent summers going up and down the coast of various New England states, so this was so nostalgic for me. It made me miss (non-pandemic) summers spending days shopping, dining, and hanging out by the water front. The setting was depicted so well; I felt just like I was in Rhode Island!

I was a big fan of Josie. She is a flawed character (which I love, who isn't?), but she made you root for her. I found Lucky adorable. I also really liked the tricky family dynamics that the book portrayed. Josie's mother deals with mental health and relationship issues. It's not often that we see characters learning how to relate to their parents where the parents are struggling in YA novels, even though it often happens in real life.

At times, I did feel like the amount of characterization that went into the story was even a little too much. Specifically, we got some backstories and threads on some characters that were never wrapped up or explained. I understand that the book focuses on Josie, but I would love to know more about how Lucky was dealing with things or more about Winona or Evie. All in all, though, this is a great contemporary read. It's fun, but still dives into heavier topics. I would recommend it for fans of beach reads and YA romance.

A cute, fun, and fast read - solid older YA romance. I really love Bennett’s sex-positive approach to her books. (She models great conversations about having safe sex, consent, and how to navigate the inevitable awkwardness of firsts.) Bennett has, once again, written realistic feeling characters with great chemistry; she’s one of the few YA romance authors that is still enjoyable to me as an adult reader. I don’t love contrived conflict and miscommunication in romances, and this does have some of that, which is why this isn’t a higher rating for me, but overall I’d still recommend to fans of her other books.

Jenn Bennett does it again!
I LOVED Lucky Karrass and Josie Saint-Martin. They used to be childhood friends before they were separated by unfortunate circumstances. When Josie comes back to town, she runs into Lucky almost immediately and she sees just how much he has grown. She has a lot of problems though. From trying to build her photography portfolio to impress her absent dad to dealing with the family love curse, there's a lot on her plate. She shouldn't get closer to Lucky again and she definitely shouldn't be feeling butterflies in her stomach when she sees him.
She's one of the few YA authors that I consistently enjoy her stories and everything else. Her characters are very flawed and extremely likeable and there are very real consequences. What I also love is that she's sex positive and doesn't have her characters feel shame for being a normal teen. Josie and Lucky have great chemistry as friends and more. Their banter is fun and their summer adventure is exactly that. From the accidental breaking of an historic window in town to being stranded on a little island during a storm, you can't really predict what will happy in this book. There's heartache, angst, and plenty of humor throughout the book. Lucky is definitely the boy I would be falling for if I were a teenage. His loyalty is admirable and he wears his heart on his sleeve. Josie has a lot of developing to do and plenty to learn before she really understands her place in the world.
If you're a fan of any other Jenn Bennett books, I would definitely recommend this one.

Jenn Bennett created another great contemporary romance. Josie Saint-Martin is returning to her hometown Beauty for the first time in five years. It's not long until she runs into her childhood friend Lucky who has seemed to have achieved bad boy status since she has been gone. I loved this story it was a quick read and the characters were great. I would definitely suggest it to a teen looking for a cute romance book.

Ugh, I wanted to love this way more than I did. Part of it is because I think I've read so many young adult romance novels in my lifetime that I feel like every single one of them is a story about a girl and trying to survive a move with their single parent. I just felt like the beginning of this story has been done so many times and I'm ready for something new and unique. I still love Jenn's writing and great way at capturing all the emotions on paper, I just was hoping for something slightly different. I'm still adding this to my library!

Josephine Saint-Martin returns to her home town Beauty, RI with her mother Winona after 5 years and meets her ex-best friend Lucky Karras. She finds that Lucky has acquired the town's bad-boy status. After an unexpected incident leads to Lucky taking the fall for Josie and then they rediscover their long lost friendship and something more special.

This was my first book by Jen Bennet and I look forward to reading more books by her. I loved her writing style, flow, and the banter between the characters. The characters were quite interesting and amazing. I especially loved the Saint-Martin women.

The main idea behind this book is most of the problems arise due to miscommunication and the invisible walls that we create around us. All we have to do is shatter these walls and communicate. The was quite satisfying and it made me smile. This book exceeds my expectations and I highly recommend it.

Once again, Jenn Bennett proves herself to be a master of contemporary YA romance. What I would have given to have read this book (and her others) when I was a teenager. Bennett's characters are so real and emulate how teenagers act and think, and the romance is sweet and fun.

This was such an enjoyable read- like all of Jenn Bennett’s books, it was romantic, swoony, sex positive, and featured a really complex heroine on a journey to learn more about herself, while also hitting some really important themes. This book highlighted family relationships, how your perception of your family impacts your own identity, and of course slut shaming, which is a sadly relevant topic. These are characters that stayed with me long after I finished the book.

On a personal note—for the last few months, I’ve been in a reading rut. When the pandemic first started and I read about people who love to read struggling to focus on books, I noted it with sympathy but didn’t have that problem at all—I was going through at least two or three a week. Until I wasn’t. Around June, I found that even when in some of my favorite reading spots, like a vacation by the lake, picking up books just didn’t feel good the way it normally does. I forced myself through a few, but it felt like work. I didn’t look forward to continuing the story. About a week ago, I decided it was time to start an ARC I had requested and received many months ago, since publication was drawing near. And to my great relief and happiness, this is the book that got me out of the rut. I looked forward to coming home from work and reading it, and it made me want to start other books as well. Thanks, Jenn Bennett! You fixed me!

I love Jenn Bennet’s YA romances and Chasing Lucky is no exception. The relationship between Josie and Lucky was great, but it was the relationship of Josie’s family that stole the show.
Usually, I find the heroines of YA romances to be a little annoying. This is likely because as an adult I find their concerns to be well immature. I admit this is my problem, not a problem with the books. What I liked about this book was that Josie and Lucky were both mature. Yes, they had the concerns that many 17-year-olds do, and they weren’t exactly the best at communicating, but most adults aren’t either.
The story was very interesting. I like the idea of Josie returning home and trying to reconnect with Lucky. I also liked that there were some other plots that helped to bring them together. As I mentioned earlier, there was also the story of Saint-Martin women. Their dynamic and lack of communication was the catalyst to the conflict of the story.
Overall, I really enjoyed this story. It was a story of forgiveness and communication and I certainly recommend it.

A huge thank you to Netgalley and Simon Pulse for the free copy of the ebook! Book featured in this photo is the copy I purchased for my classroom!

This is my first book by this author, but I have all of her others in my classroom and students love them! This gave me some Kasie West vibes, a low stress and adorable YA read.

This is a quick YA contemporary with some depth. I would honestly love even more from Josie’s mom, but that wouldn’t be very YA now would it? Lucky is mysterious enough, kind enough, and honest enough to be a perfect YA boyfriend prospect and friend.

While Lucky and Josie have been estranged former best friends, it’s still a bit of a friends to lovers trope, which I love.

Overall, this is a really cute book!

Really cute YA romance! Jenn Bennett has such a way with words and her main characters are always imperfectly perfect! I also love the sex positive storyline and the friendship between Josie and Lucky!

This was my first Jenn Bennett book. After years of eyeing her novels on the YA shelves of libraries and bookstores, I finally decided to pick this one up and it didn't disappoint. I really enjoyed reading this one, and yet, I question, did I really though?

Starting off with the things I liked, let me just say that I really enjoyed the writing. I also really liked the characters, especially near the end. I love seeing different family dynamics in books and it was interesting to see the function and dysfunction of Josie's family. I really liked seeing the mother/daughter relationship between Josie and her mother unfold. I also just generally liked Josie and Lucky as people. I liked them but didn't love them. I don't know what it was but I wanted more from them, especially Lucky. I wanted more emotion. More backstory. A reason for him being the way he is and why he feels the need to take the blame for everything and be seen as a failure.

Plot-wise, I felt like not mu h actually happened. And yet, a lot did? There was a lot of unnecessary events that happened, in my opinion. There was a lack of communication between the characters and nothing bothers me more than miscommunication as a plot device to start up conflict. That being said, I was definitely here for the romance part of the plot. I shipped it.

Overall, I think the book was fine. I simply wanted more from it. This isn't a book that will be memorable for me. By the end of the year in a month and a half, I probably won't even remember the character's names. That being said, I'm certain that a lot of you would really enjoy this, especially if you're a big fan of YA contemporary romance.