Lucky Us wasn't for me. I lost interest quickly and ended up not finishing it. Amy Bloom is a great author but this one just seemed like filler.

A really enjoyable read.
I would recommend to family and friends.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

Ever wanted to tell someone who is moaning about their life “Just deal with it!”? Here’s another option. Tell them to read Amy Bloom’s Lucky Us. I’m not sure where the lucky part comes in, except that these two half-sisters were lucky enough to put on their big girl panties and deal with it. Left at the house of her father by her unwed mother, 12-year-old Eva and her older half-sister, Iris, end up saving their money and running away to Hollywood because their father steals their hard-earned money. Each character you meet in this story could be the main character in another book. As you read it, you learn that family can mean many things. Set in the US and Europe during World War II, it includes letters from a German American friend who was thought to be a spy and “repatriated” to Germany, where of course, the Germans didn’t know what to do with him. There’s Francisco, the Hollywood make-up artist, who along with the girls moves back to New York City. He makes a wonderful father figure. Clara Williams, the jazz singing girlfriend of their father (who has showed up in their lives again—as a butler to a wealthy family), adds depth to the story. The Seattle Times review called this a “beautifully textured story about getting by and moving on.” I couldn’t agree more.

This was a quirky book about family, sisterhood, and filled with interesting characters. Their early life in particular stuck with me as well as their years in Hollywood, and the author does a great job showing how it shapes them and the choices they make. It haunted me for months after I read it.

Lucky Us was our book group selection for March and while the most of the group liked this book to some degree, we really got to appreciate it more after our open, lively discussion. Some of the members then wanted to reread it afterward.

The opening quote, hooked me and made me chuckle as well - “My father’s wife died. My mother said we should drive down to his place and see what might be in it for us.”

A coming of age story with half-sisters Eva and Iris at the heart of the novel. These half-siblings have been disappointed by their family and the two couldn't be more different. The story takes around WWII and many of the characters have been dealt some bad breaks in life, but despite their struggles, I wanted to know them better. Many of the characters are quite eccentric which made for some humorous moments. There were quite a few characters introduced along the way, most were well drawn, some so memorable, and others I despised. A story about luck and about what constitutes a family.

This story started out rather intriguing but quickly lost its fizzle. This was a historical fiction novel about sister relationships. I normally really enjoy stories like that but this one did nothing for me. I really did not enjoy this at all. The big issue is that the overall story felt rushed. As if Bloom felt she had to hurry to get her story into these pages. Slow down, honey, no need to speed like that. If you want your story to hit its mark you have to take your time. Bloom should have taken her time to really develop her characters and the plot as they were both severely lacking. The characters were so very bland and the plot was non-existent. The other thing that stood out to me was the language Bloom used. If this was supposed to be a historical fiction story, why was such modern terminology used? This was supposed to be from the 1940s but it read very modern.

I do not recommend this to anyone. It was a forced, rushed story that needed to be flushed out and edited several more times before published.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book! Unfortunately, it did not meet my criteria for what I'd hoped would be a general-market novel that would appeal to conservative readers, so I will not be posting a public review on my personal review website. I look forward to reading more of your titles in the future.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this publication.