I was so excited to see this one on Netgalley. I heard about it in a review that talked about how the heroine is the super geek, super smart one and I am all about that. I love it when the heroine isn't the baker or the caterer or the dog walker. Why can't the hero be the dog walker? But I digress. I really loved the world of her lab, and the way no one (by which I mean the hero) expected it to be a woman in charge. I loved their interaction and how he was upfront about why he was there. I loved his dad and the salvage yard. I had a hard time knowing that her lottery winning was somehow able to be a secret, and I really hated the deception at the end with manipulating her regarding her mentor, but I'd love to read the rest of the books in the series.

A fun story that starts with three friends who have won the lottery.

Kit loves her work at the University and that she has found a house she can renovate and make her own. She first meets Ben when he comes to recruit her for his company. Their adorably awkward first encounter sets the stage for a sweet friendship with the potential for more.

Ben, who came back to town initially to care for his injured father, is surprised when he meets Kit but takes an immediate liking to her. I liked how much he admired her intelligence and personality just as much as he was physically attracted to her. It was refreshing to see that he didn't spend the whole book commenting on her looks alone.

The secondary characters add a lot of warmth and humor to the story, and I can't wait for Greer and Zoe to get their own books.

This was a great debut book and I highly recommend it!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Beginner's Luck was a great book, and I was happy to find such a wonderful debut book. I look forward to much more by this author! I loved the characters, the storyline, and the style of the author.

Kit Averin is a serious woman, a scientist at a university. She leads a very quiet life, but then suddenly shares in a winning lottery ticket. Her lifestyle doesn't change, other than moving to her first real home, a fixer- upper. Soon Ben Tucker comes along with an offer of a high paying corporate job. He doesn't understand Kit's lack of interest at all and is persistent in his pursuit. While not having much luck with recruiting her, they do begin to connect on a personal level. What follows is a sweet and touching romance that gave me much enjoyment. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Kit Averin and her two friends Zoe and Greer win the lottery! Kit decides not to tell many people and her one big splurge is to buy a fixer-upper home in the town she has grown to love. Ben Tucker is in town to help his father who had an injury and Ben is now running his Dad's salvage company while he is there. This is where Kit finds pieces needed for her new home. But their relationship starts off poorly as Ben tries to recruit Kit to work at a lab in Texas. Kit has no desire to change her job or where she was living. It is a long road from this awkward encounter to friendship and love.

Kate Clayborn is a new author for me, but I'm looking forward to the next books in this series, Zoe and Greer's stories.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Beginner’s Luck by Kate Clayborn
Book #1: Chance of a Lifetime Series
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 2½/5 stars

Kit Averin’s life runs on a tight schedule, a routine designed to make her comfortable and feel as if she has the home and family sadly lacking in her childhood. Even with her miraculous lottery win, Kit has no interest breaking out of her comfort zone and living up to her actual potential.

Ben Tucker and his partner see Kit’s potential and want, more than anything to get Kit out of her current job, town, and life. She’s an incredibly intelligent and talented scientist who refuses to leave her university job. Though Kit finds the job satisfying, it doesn’t truly challenge her or push her scientific limits. In fact, Kit is the only one who can’t, or refuses to see how stagnant her job and life has become. When Ben Tucker walks into her lab and pitches her a totally new job, in a new state, with state of the art everything, he expects her to jump at the opportunity. What he gets is a resounding “NO!”

The minute Ben Tucker leaves Kit’s presence he not only knows he screwed up horribly and he must see her again. Kit is Ben and his partner’s way out of a job they have both worked very hard to get out of, but that inexplicably isn’t the reason he wants to see her again. Behind the glasses, shy demeanor, and adamant refusal of his spectacular job offer, Ben sees a beautiful woman with a world of potential he wants to know absolutely everything about.

Getting to know Kit isn’t the easiest thing in the world and Ben’s in with her happens quite by accident. With part of her lottery winnings, Kit bought a ramshackle home that needs a ton of repairs. As fate would have it, Ben’s father owns an architectural salvage yard that has so much of what Kit wants for her home. As the days and weeks go by, Kit and Ben become so much a part of each other’s lives which forces each to confront some hard truths. Ben must admit to himself and his partner his true involvement with Kit and how he no longer cares if she takes the job, and Kit must confront the fact that she is indeed in something of a rut and she doesn’t find a way to deal with her issues, she won’t ever be able to find true happiness.

The Bottom Line: While there were parts of this book I liked, I found the read as a whole to be somewhat flat. Kit is so much of an introvert as to be a nearly non-existent character, and that’s a special kind of talent when you’re the lead female in a story. Ben is somewhat more extroverted and interesting, but only just. In truth, the most significant character in this book is Ben’s dad, who is loud and funny and really makes his presence felt. I genuinely liked the plot of this book but feel it would have been much better served by stronger, more forceful characters. Because of the plot and the plot alone, I stuck with this book to the bitter end but can’t honestly say I’ll be sticking around for the coming books in the series.

I loved Kit from the first time I met her in this book and I found myself rooting for her all throughout -- so much that even if she doesn't end up with Ben, I would still want to be friends with her. But good thing Ben is such a good guy, too, so I rooted for him, too. I liked how everything was set up and how the two of them fell in love with each other and each other's relationships as well. This is such a great romance novel that got me out of my slump, and I can't wait to read the next ones. :)

Beginner’s Luck by Kate Clayborn
Chance of a Lifetime #1
Contemporary Romance
October 31, 2017
Lyrical Shine

Reviewed by Kini

Favorite Quote:
“What does that mean?” I’m intentionally vague with my question. Maybe I’m asking what it means for Beaumont’s pursuit of me. Maybe I’m asking what it means for him and his job. But maybe I’m asking what it means for him and me. Because when I think of being “involved” with Ben, I think about his clothes on my bedroom floor. I think about all his weight on top of me, that chocolate-sweet kiss. “It means,” he says, looking right at me, looking right through me, really, “that if you say okay, I’m coming in this house with you and finishing what we started. It means I got Sharon to stay with my dad tonight, so I have every intention of taking you to bed and keeping you there all night. It means I haven’t stopped thinking about your mouth since Saturday. It means that right now, I don’t give one good goddamn about anything other than making sure I have you every way I can before you have to go to work tomorrow.”

I saw this book blurb earlier this year and I was really interested in reading this book. I finally got a chance to and I was not disappointed. This is a take on enemies/opposites to lovers trope. Kit is an amazing scientist who is undervaluing herself and Ben is a recruiter looking to get Kit to come work for a corporation doing sciency things.

I really liked this book. It is told from dual POV and I think Ben is a near perfect romance hero. He is handsome and sweet and handy and he falls so very hard for Kit, almost immediately. At first they are both tentative to move forward with their attraction. He’s trying to recruit her for a job so there is a conflict of interest at play. It was a lot of fun to watch their friendship and romance grow. This book is a little bit of a slow build to the romance and I loved the way it work. Kit has just bought a fixer-upper home and Ben’s dad owns a salvage yard and Ben and Kit bond over repairs. It was really wonderful to see Ben be a helper, but not take over with repairs and telling Kit what to do. I really loved the way that Ben loved Kit and really wanted her to shine and excel in her career. He was never afraid of her intelligence or abilities. It really felt like he wanted to be her partner.

Kit was a great heroine. She is incredibly smart and works as a lab-tech at a local college. She and her two besties won the lottery a few months ago, but she continues to work. She didn’t have a great childhood as her mother was absent and her father has addiction, gambling, alcohol, issues. She has some trust issues and issues with pushing herself outside of her comfort zone. She strives to be independent and build a home for herself that she didn’t have.

Seriously, the way Ben swoons over Kit was wonderful to read. I want all my romance heroes to behave like this. Here are a few examples of Ben falling for Kit.
I think if Kit looked at me that way, I’d probably confess sins I’d never even committed, just so I’d be doing what she wanted— she’s that persuasive, at least to me. In the warehouse, I’d wanted to bring her every single piece of hardware we had so I could see the look she got on her face when she opened something new.

Two texts and I’m way outside my pay grade in terms of the science, but I don’t care. I’d read her texts about crystal structure all night— I’m that excited she’s talking to me.

We head toward her neighborhood, Kit making an occasional moan of satisfaction, and I decide that I am, despite all the knowledge Kit has dropped on me in the last two hours, actually stupider than I was when I began this day, if I thought watching Kit eat a hot dog was a good idea.


I really enjoyed this story. I loved watching Ben and Kit fall in love. The only small issue I had is the conflict felt a tiny bit forced and I am not a fan when one something happens and one of the characters immediately jumps to a conclusion and refuses to hear the other person out. Especially after they have built a bond and some trust to not give the other person the opportunity to be heard is something that really annoys me. However, I also understand why it happened in this instance. But after the conflict occurred, I would have liked to seen a little more apologies from each character.

There was a great cast of characters in this book, but Ben’s dad Henry really stood out. Ben is a great man because his dad is a great man. Kit’s friends are amazing and I love seeing great female friendships in books. Kit is a scientist and at times it got a little too technical for me, but I skimmed through those parts. I really loved how quickly Ben became enamoured with Kit. My small issues with the conflict wouldn’t hold me back from recommending this book. I look forwarding to reading the next book in this series.

Grade: B+

Everyone should write such a début novel. Kate Clayborn's first book is enjoyable, straightforward, and shows real promise.

Ben's come to town to help out his father's architectural salvage business (all the best bits of the book dwell lovingly on the intricacies of old clocks, handles and carvings). But he's also there as a head hunter to lure innocent materials scientist Kit Averin into the maw of Big Business, as a researcher. The first half of the book covers his negotiations with Kit, the inevitable You-Lied-To-Me-About-Your-Motives fall-out and the two gradually coming to a better understanding of each other. Both Ben & Kit are sympathetic well-rounded characters, their dialogue is crisp and entertaining (and mercifully free of many of the coy misunderstandings that litter the CR genre), so the HEA is satisfying.

There are some weaknesses to the book. The flip side of Ben and Kit's easy communication is that by the mid-point, most real conflict has been brought out into the open, so the stakes in part two are much less. It's mildly irritating (to one whose entire professional existence is based on the good things that Big Business does for people and communities) that Kit tenaciously refuses to consider the upsides of Ben's proposals. And it's most frustrating that the book's headline promise -
<i>When three friends impulsively buy a lottery ticket, they never suspect the many ways their lives will change</i> -
is more less completely ignored by the plot: the lottery win really doesn't change the trajectory of the story at all.

But on the whole, these are small points set against the book's virtues, and I'll certainly be looking out for the second book in the series.

This is Kate Clayborn's debut novel, really? Damn girl you are good! The feel and the flow of the book makes it feel like she's done this for a long time. It was entertaining and emotional and Kit and Ben are so cute together. The secondary characters are just as good. Kit's best friends Zoe and Greer, at the best friends a girl can have. Ben's Dad, Henry, and Sharon even the kid River they add so much to the story it wouldn't be the same without them. At one point the story did seem to slow just a little but that could have just been my impatience to find out what was going to happen next.

They never really knew whose idea it was, or even why but Kit, Zoe, and Greer nonetheless still bought that lottery ticket and won. They all had dreams of what they wanted, Kit's dream was to have a real home, some place she could settle and put roots down. After her hectic childhood and constant moving she wanted a place she could finally call her own. Six months later she finally takes the plunge and buys the house of her dreams, it's a fixer upper but she doesn't care just more ways to make it her own.

Ben Tucker was suppose to be taking time off work to help take care of his dad who he fell and injured himself but Ben's best friend and business partner asks him to do one job while he is there. The company they work for is looking to recruit this metallurgy scientist who also just happens to live in his home town. Ben is so good at his job he thinks it will be easy. He realizes just how ill prepared he is for this when he walks in and realizes Kit is the scientist he's looking for and then blows it even more when she realizes he's never even read her work.

Not off to a good start but when Ben gifts replacement handles for her cabinets at work he found his in, well at least a way to spent more time with her since his Dad owns a salvage yard and has plenty of antiques and original pieces she needs to fit her house. Ben and Kit are both hesitant to start anything because they both know it would be temporary since she's not going to take the job and Ben still plans to go back to Texas. In spite of that they can't stop spending time together, pretty soon Ben admits his love. Kit's life starts to fall apart, first an argument with her brother then she finds out the company Ben works for still wants her and is willing to extort her boss to get her to work for them and she thinks Ben was behind it all and used her, top it all off with a medical emergency with her Dad and Kit pretty much mentally and physically exhausted and heart broken. It takes two to mend a broken heart but who will give in first?

Overall, so good, it had me bawling at the end. The characters were all so real and I loved the nerdy side of Kit and how she wanted to do work on her own. But one question, Did Ben ever go back and finish the chandelier or did he seriously just abandon it?

The idea behind the Chance of a Lifetime series by Kate Clayborn caught my attention. It's about three female friends who win the lottery and decide what's best for them in how to deal with the money. I took a chance on this new to me author and got lucky indeed with the first novel in the series, Beginner's Luck, as it turns out that this one is definitely going on my top ten books for this year!

Kit Averin is a materials scientist, with the money in her pocket to fund any number of new adventures. But what she really wants is stability, including maintaining her lab tech position even though she's overqualified. When Ben Tucker, a recruiter for Beaumont Materials comes knocking, she turns him down flat. She has no interest in leaving her job and her friends to move away to Texas to work in industry. Plus, she's just bought a fixer upper home that she's excited to start renovating.

Ben knows he made a mistake with his approach to Kit, including assuming she'd be a man (ouch). But he's got time to soften her up because he's not going anywhere. His dad had an accident, and Ben is staying with him for the foreseeable future, helping him get better and working at their family's salvage business – a place that just so happens to have some of the antique fixtures Kit is looking for to renovate her new house. Getting to know 'jeans and Henley' Ben is a lot different than 'suit and tie' Ben, and Kit finds herself reciprocating his honest friendship and eventually giving in to the attraction between them. But Ben's home is back in Texas, and his future will be impacted by whether or not Kit takes the job. Will they find a compromise that will let them get the happy ending they both want?

There are so many things to like about this story that I found myself slowing down as I was reading it because I didn't want it to end! Family, friends, co-workers – all the major relationships in one's life play a part in this story. Both Ben and Kit have some positive and negative family relationships. Kit grew up with a gambling addicted father and a brother who was her main caregiver. After spending years hopping from place to place, she's determined to stay put in a home of her choice. For Ben, a divorce between his parents ended with him staying with his dad, and though he has contact with his mother and her new husband periodically, he doesn't have a strong bond with her. But he does have a very strong relationship with his dad, and didn't hesitate to come home to help him with his shop and be his caregiver while he recuperates. Seeing Ben with his dad is a whole different side of him than he presents to Kit at the beginning, and as the story progresses the strong, confident, businessman shows both his flaws and his sweet side to Kit (and the reader).

Kit's two best friends with whom she won the lottery, Zoe and Greer, play a significant role in this story. They are her sounding board for any and all things that she needs to talk to someone about, including Ben and his job offer. I loved the conversations that they have, how Zoe and Greer interact with Ben when they meet him, and the strong affection they have for each other. They've gone different routes with their money (and I am excited to read Zoe and Greer's stories too!) but it hasn't changed their friendship.

This is a slow burn romance since Ben and Kit get off on the wrong foot and work their way towards friendship before getting in any deeper. But their first kiss (swoonworthy!) leads to an understanding that they'll keep business out of the mix as they explore a more physical relationship. There are some sexy scenes between them and soon it's clear that they're going to want to find a way to make things work for them in the long term, but not without some ups and downs and soul searching first. The end result is a lovely happy ending for them and a delightful epilogue to tie things together. On another positive note, Kit's enthusiasm for her scientific field is delightful to see. The scenes involving her job, and the scientific discussions that ensue are interesting and believable. As much as I didn't want this story to end, I'm excited to see where the series will go next! Beginner's Luck is a rare gem, a debut novel that will have the reader impatiently waiting for more.

This review has been posted at Straight Shootin' Book Reviews and feedback updated with the link. It's also been posted at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

What a fantastic debut! It had everything I love in contemporary romance - an engaging plot with lots of real-life details and interesting complex characters finding their HEA.

There is so much I liked about this book, I feel I can talk about it for weeks. The story covered so many aspects of life without ever being superficial about them, while still not drowning the reader in details. There is a richness to the characters (both main and side ones), to the background and the plot itself has a few twists that kept me invested in the story the whole time. I was both in a hurry to find out what happened next and at the same time I wanted to read slower in order to savour all the beauty of the writing and to fully appreciate all the tiny details the text offered.

Both Kit and Ben are wonderful characters, I really can't say whom I liked more. They are complex and realistic, dealing with different heavy issues in a mature way.

Kit is a scientist, a professional, a close friend and the daughter of a father with alcohol and gambling addiction. She is pretty much self-made and works hard to make a home for herself and to feel settled and secure. I loved the dynamics of her found family with her best friends Zoe and Greer and I appreciate so much the emphasis on female friendship and the support they gave each other.

Ben, oh Ben, he was a troubled soul. On the surface he is successful, even happy with his professional and personal life, seemingly in control, but he is thrown in for a loop when his father suffers a nasty fall and he has to come back to his home town temporary to care for him. I read him as neuroatypical (ADHD?), and he had some anger management issues in his adolescence that still troubled him. I liked how we see so much of him dealing with his family, with his colleague and friend Jasper, with River, a troubled teen that they get to help them in the salvage yard, with his conflicting feelings for Kit. There are no easy solutions to his problems and fought hard to make things work for everyone.

There is a strong caregiver aspect in the story which I found important. Both Kit and Ben do their best for their family, despite the strained family dynamics. I like the depth of with which they were explored. We see their pasts really shaping much of their present and the people we see today.

It's a slow burn romance, tender and intense, emotionally charged, happening under unusual circumstances. I liked how their professional entanglement was handled, and really respect Ben for giving up on recruiting her when he developed personal connection with her.

It's essentially a story of two grown-up people meeting and falling for each other despite the circumstances. We follow them as they find a way to work through the obstacles in their way, and these were some real obstacles, practical ones. There was no magical solution, but a compromise, a personal growth in both of them which allowed them to be together. In a way both came to a decision on their own and I liked that, unlike in most romances, it was her who did the grand gesture in the end. And rightly so.

We get to meet two leads falling in love and turning their lives around to start a new one together. There are unforgettable side characters, a well developed background - places and jobs, lovely details on the work in the salvage yard and Kit's job and house restoration (as a fan of all such TV shows I loved that so much). They all gave richness to the story which I greatly enjoyed.

Powerful debut which I greatly recommend to fans of contemporary romance! Can't wait to read the next one in the series, coming in March 2018.

oh i enjoyed this. Kit and Ben's voices leapt off the page for me. Great supporting cast of characters. omg Ben's dad and Sharon lol. i knewwww it! is all im saying

Loved that Kit had her girls to confide in. I'm always here for awesome female friendships and family!

Looking forward to Zoe's book :)

This book is a journey and I enjoyed going along for the ride as Kit and Ben balance their family responsibilities, ambitions and fears to earn their HEA.

Kit was an interesting heroine because I think she suffers from impostor syndrome which we don't always see in romance. I feel like most scientist heroines have to be ambitious and overly confident in their work and abilities because of gender discrimination, so it was refreshing to see a character who wasn't quite there yet. Also I don’t know if Clayborn has a science background but Kit's work in metallurgry and some of the other science stuff is shown with such detail it seriously made my headspin.

Filled with complex heroes and heroines, rich supporting characters and colorful small town life I think fans of Susan Mallery will enjoy this solid debut !

I loved this book. The characters main and minor were very engaging. their quirks did not hold them back and the story flowed nicely. Looking forward to the next one.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. Kate Clayborn did an excellent job on the characters because I not only really liked Kit and Ben, but all of the secondary characters. who brought the story to life. Having moved around a lot growing up, I related to Kit’s wish to sink roots, so her conflict with not wanting to move and leave the life she’d created resonated with me. I also got that she didn’t want to work for some big corporation. She was happy doing what she was doing. Don’t we all wish we could say that. But yes, she was also a bit afraid to step out of the comfort zone she’d created and the author did a great job bring this all out in the story.

Ben, too, had great internal conflict going on with his family. First, there was his dad’s accident, and his relationship with his mom and stepdad and oh…his own past in his hometown that he kind of needed to still overcome. The external conflict these two had with the job was great and believable.

The story had lots of moving part and the author did a great job fitting them all together and bringing us a lovely read.

My biggest problem with the book had to do with formatting: too many looonggg paragraphs that made it easy to lose track of where I was at. Plus, and maybe it’s the problem with first person POV, there was a lot, I mean a LOT of telling in the story and it kind of kept that distance between me and the characters, never allowing me to make that deep connection I needed to give this a five star

A very nice debut novel. Try this one if you're looking for a romance where things are more realistic about life. Kit has won the lottery but she's also a scientist and the child of an addict who deals with her issues the best way she can. Ben is a recruiter who has an eldercare issue with his dad. You know, don't you, that these two will find a way to one another but the path is a little different than in most books in this genre. I loved the other two women who won the lottery with Kit- Zoe and Greer are unique and wonderful all on their own. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'm looking forward to more from Clayborn.

4.5 stars

I really liked this romance. It had some lovely twists and a whole lot of heart. I found it well paced and deeply engaging. It was a really satisfying romance.

I fell hard for both the main characters, and was rooting for them as a couple throughout the story. I also fell really hard for some of the secondary characters, especially Kit's BFFs, River, Sharon, and Ben's father. I really liked how much it was about family, and home, the ways those aspects of the story were layered and complex. I loved Kit's chosen family so much.

Kit's relationship with her addict father, and how that impacted her in huge and small ways, was very well done, felt like it captured some important things about being an adult child of an alcoholic and an addict that I rarely see depicted with such complexity and depth. I loved how we got to see her practice different ways to cope with the trauma she has from that experience, to care for herself when she gets triggered. As a reader, I really got to appreciate how much Kit was protecting herself, taking care of herself, and going after the life she wanted. It made for a lovely reading experience. Her characterization was beautiful to read, and resonated strongly for me as an adult child of an alcoholic.

I read Ben as neuroatypical, though it was not explicitly named on the page. It comes through in the way he stims while under stress, the way it describes him being in hyperfocus, and the ways he describes needing to move, not being able to be still, especially under stress. I wished for a deeper characterization around this, it felt under the surface a bit. There was a painful moment where his mother tells him to stop tapping that just gutted me as a neuroatypical reader. I did appreciate how supportive his dad was in letting him be; it was a good balance.

There is a secondary character who is hearing impaired, and another secondary character who is mobility impaired. I was glad to find a story that had so many disabled characters of all sorts. It felt good to read about the ways these characters supported each other, understood each other, and created interdependence.

I enjoyed all the details of the salvage yard, the workday stuff at the university, the home improvement arc. It was wonderful to sink into those details, to soak them up. It made for a balance of comfort amidst some of the intensity of Kit's arc.

I really liked the way Kit was so deeply respected as a scientist, and also how much of the story was about her career choices and figuring out what was right for her. I also appreciated the way that resolved for her, and was a bit in awe of how the romance conflicts could resolve. The ending worked for me; I found it really satisfying. I look forward to book 2 in the series!

Trigger Warnings: Parent with a gambling addiction and alcoholism. Alcohol use. On the page sex. Parent pushing child to stop stimming. MC with ACOA issues and resulting trauma that gets referenced frequently throughout the story. Brief moment of casual ableism. Arson in the past. Juvenile detention in the past.

Really enjoyed this one, though I must also admit it took me days to finish and I was able to easily put it down.

I have nothing to complain about, and yet not much to say about it, either. The absolutely WORST book for a reader/reviewer!

It was cute, it was fun, it was just plain enjoyable. I liked these two, I liked many of the other characters as well, especially Ben's interactions with his dad (and with Rivers as well). I'm definitely curious about Zoe and Greer's stories.

A solid debut, I just wish I had more to say about it. Trust me, you won't regret reading it. :)


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I will be talking about the book on my next Whatcha Reading? podcast, which is now up on TBQ's Book Palace
(10/14).

What an emotional ride! This story was so real it felt like reading non-fiction.

The writing was pretty good for a romance novel and I especially liked that the main character, Kit, worked in science rather than a more stereotypical feminine field. But the story was a bit thin and I didn't feel that there was much chemistry between Ben and Kit.