Book Review: Chasing Lucky by Jenn Bennett

Hey friends!

While it has been getting colder, I have been missing summer a little bit. Recently, I read a book that reminded me of summer and great times by the coast. It's called Chasing Lucky by Jenn Bennett. Thanks to NetGalley and Simon Pulse for the review copy. This book is out now!

Goodreads

Summary

After years of traveling around the East Coast with her flighty mother, Josie finally goes back to her hometown. Her grandmother and aunt are away in Nepal, so her mother will be running the family bookstore. Josie is sick of all the moving and finally wants to pursue her dreams by becoming her father's photography apprentice in LA. However, her hometown has a few adventures-and a cute childhood friend named Lucky-up its sleeve for her.

Review

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.

I rated this book 4 stars!

Happy holidays! I'm thinking of doing a holiday blog post soon; let me know if you're interested and what you'd like to see!

Kyra