Good Luck Girls was a book that took me by surprise. The beginning completely captured my attention, the middle lost it and the end had me eager to (FINALLY) find out what would happen. The dichotomy between the start and end with the lacklustre middle of the book was quite strange. Usually books start slow and build up momentum, or vice versa. Despite this, the story still made a positive impression and is one I’d recommend people read if they’re interested in kick-ass females, Western settings and a well-written cast of diverse characters.

The premise of this book sounded phenomenal. I mean, how can you go wrong with a cast of characters such as this and such an intriguing story line?


The focal character Aster annoyed me SO MUCH though. I can understand why she would be apprehensive of men after her traumatic experience working as a Good Luck Girl however, there were a few cases where her unchecked anger management issues led to the neglectful care and lack of consideration for those she was unofficially in charge of. Her change toward the end of the book and character development was refreshing and (mostly) redeemed my opinion of her though.

Added on to this, the POVs at the start of the book featured Aster as well as her younger sister Clementine. I love (LOVE) books that use multiple POV and was really excited to see this at the start of the book. Then…. it went away and all we got was Aster’s POV.


This felt like such a loss as the cast of characters were really interesting and unique. I would have loved to have learnt more about them as well as have an inside look at their relationships with other members of the group. Everything felt diluted by Aster’s anger though and it was a shame to have lost that potential. This is a story that could have been amazing had it been told from five perspectives. That’s just my personal preference and opinion though. I’m aware not everyone is a fan of reading in this format.

As I mentioned at the start of this review, the middle of this book was incredibly slow. Their journey to escape felt like it dragged on endlessly. We learnt about all of the small details of their journey. While some of it was interesting, there was quite a lot of it that I would have been happy to miss out on in order to speed up the pace of the book.

Despite this, the characters and world-building were really well done. It felt original and fresh. The beginning and ending had great pacing. I loved the inclusion of paranormal elements in to this story. It created a tension at the start and end of the book that was gripping and interesting to read about. I haven’t seen this take on a Western-set book before and I can see why some reviewers have absolutely loved this book. If you don’t mind pacing issues, you’ll most likely LOVE this.

DNF @~35%

Sigh. I really wanted to love this book. But at the end of the day, I don't have much to say about it other than "Neat premise, faulty characters."

Let's get to the positive first: the worldbuilding and the general premise of the story is super fascinating. There are two groups of people who live in Arketta, dustbloods and fairbloods, and they're more or less alike in appearance minus one little detail: dustbloods don't cast shadows. And while fairbloods are offered privileges and opportunites, dustbloods are forced to live in indentured servitude--as prostitutes, for example, which is what the Good Luck Girls are.

The writing is really solid and descriptive, and all the little details about the setting are a nice touch.

But good god, the characters. You have this cool western setting--rich and dusty and unforgiving--and it's populated with characters who feel stiff and just...cardboard-y. I couldn't find myself caring about any of them or their predicament, and well...that was that.

There are a lot of elements here that will appeal to readers, but it wasn't to be for me, unfortunately.

I fell into this world immediately and loved the characters right away. The writing was wonderful and the world building was incredible. Loved it!

I rated this 2.5 stars. It was not a bad book, but it lacked a certain something. Even though the stakes were high, I didn’t feel a sense of urgency and didn’t find myself rooting for the characters. I couldn’t get invested in them or their story. The writing was clunky, things needed more description, and the pacing seemed somehow too fast and too slow all at once.

I absolutely loved the representation in this book and will 100% be shoving it into eager student hands. The world-building is incredible, the characters were both strong and perfectly vulnerable, and the plot was fast without being overwhelming. Haven't loved a book like this in a long time.

Ghosts and violence and bank heists and magic, and a heroine who learns to embrace & channel her well-deserved anger at the injustice in her world.

The description of The Good Luck Girls compares the story to both Westworld and The Handmaid’s Tale, but I would also add in a bit of Mad Max: Fury Road without the cars. The sense of finding a better future despite all the factors trying to prevent a happy ending is part of what drew me into the story.

Despite their grim circumstances, Aster remained determined to protect her sister from the worst of the welcome house. As events occur, Aster remained set on protecting Clem and keeping her safe on the road to freedom. Aster’s bravery and bad-assness reminded so much of Zoe Washburne from Firefly, I kept picturing a younger Zoe in her place the whole time.

In an interesting turn, the romances remained in the background and the fight to get to Arketta took the forefront of the story’s events. All of the young women remained strong and determined to find their own freedom. this is a book full of strong women who find strength not from their abuse, but from each other.

The cover of this book instantly caught my eye, that alone made me want to read it as it's such a beautiful cover. Secondly the synopsis definitely sounded quite intriguing, if written well I thought the story of five cursed girls racing across the country for a fairy tale cure could enchanting!

I'm happy to say this book did not disappoint, for a debut novel it is well written with a gripping plot. It felt like quite a mix of genres with aspects from historical fiction, western and also dystopian fantasy, but the mesh up really worked.

The variety of characters and creatures within the book were fascinating, the author described them all in such clear detail that I could envision each and every one! I loved learning more and more about the world the author had created.

This is definitely a book worth reading if it catches your eye, a thrilling story about a group of five ambitious girls on the biggest adventure of their lives! There's already a sequel by the looks of things so I'll be keeping an eye out for that!

Rip-roaring fantasy adventure featuring a diverse cast, female friendships and a weird west setting. Or at least that’s what I thought I was getting. I think it’s a personal preference thing but I wanted a more richly developed world and more in the way of subplots. I know it’s YA and there’s a trend in YA towards linear plots but I want more! (As I said, personal preference.) I think this will be a lot of people’s favourite read. I was vaguely irritated that we have yet another book taking teenaged girls being sex trafficked as it’s starting point. Sex trafficking and prostitution or sex work are not necessarily the same thing. While sex trafficking is a real problem and needs to be talked about, I would also like to see less emphasis put on shaming the sex industry. Or just shaming women in connection with sex in general. Topic for another day, I guess. Overall a great start to a series but a bit thin for me.

Definitely a unique and exciting story to read. It has elements of a western set in a steampunk fantasy world and is unlike anything I've ever read before. The good luck girls are anything but lucky. These are girls who have basically been sold into sex slavery in places called "Welcome Houses". These girls are marked with a "favor" that is like a tattoo that cannot be removed or hidden without causing excruciating pain or death. When Aster's little sister accidentally kills her "Brag" (customer) on her first "lucky night" Aster comes up with a crazy plan to get them and some of the other girls out. Violet, a girl born in the welcome house asks to go along with them and in return she will tell them where to find Lady Ghost, a woman from bedtimes stories as children, who could remove their favor and free them from the lives they were sold into.
Definitely for fans of dystopian stories or tales with a western flavor. I'm definitely looking forward to the next book in the series! Special thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this amazing book!

This book was everything. I love Fantasy when it’s fast and the worldbuilding and magic systems are easily understandable but completely new. The Good Luck Girls ticked all the boxes. There isn’t a shred of quietness, it’s the type of book that leaves you on the edge of your seat.

I loved the Wild West feel just riding horses on their way to freedom, the sibling relationship between Aster and Clem, you could tell that they had each other's backs no matter what. The lack of romance overshadowing the girl's friendships, I loved that it wasn't centred around romance even when a male love interest showed up was a bonus. The Thelma and Louise vibe but with a much happier ending, robbing banks and horrible men to pay for their freedom.

The world-building was incredible, it really took you into the Scab, the scenery, the waterfall, the mines, the dust rising as they rode across the land.

The Good Luck Girls is a fun mix of western and light paranormal. The characters are well drawn and likeable while carrying believable personal baggage from having lived a majority of their lives in a brothel. A road trip (on horseback) novel at heart, the pacing is tight and will keep readers turning pages. This novel would have been a sold 4.5 stars for me, if it were not for two badly handled escape scenes that defied plausibility and logic and just came off as irritating and silly. As it is, I give The Good Luck Girls 3.5 stars. It’s an enjoyable enough romp despite some irritating flaws that keep it from achieving greatness.

The Good Luck Girls follows the story of five girls and their escape journey to find freedom in the brutal land of Arketta. With a hope to get rid of their cursed markings, they will have to face a long trip full of demonic creatures, ruthless monsters, and not to mention the forces that chase them for a murder that one of them accidentally committed.

"Everyone deserved to be free, though. Everyone deserved to feel this."

The story begins in a brothel called Welcome House, where the five girls live and try their best to survive after being sold by their families in exchange for money to live, pay debts, or simply because it was seen as the better way because the brothel offered food and a place to stay. On the sixteenth birthday of one of the girls, Clementine, it marked her transformation from being a daybreak girl where she’d need to do daily chores, into a sundown girl where she starts to accompany clients at nights, commonly called brags. It was supposed to be her Lucky Night, until she accidentally killed her very first client. Her older sister, Aster, who's already experienced the ugly side of being a sundown girl, realised that there was no way for them to get out of this unfortunate event without getting punished unless they run away and leave the brothel. With the other three girls, Mallow, Tansy, and Violet, Aster leads the escape journey not to just physically get out of the brothel, but also to get rid of the tattoos that marked them as good luck girls. Girls that are forced into sex slavery in Welcome House, girls that are forced to praise every brag that they encountered, girls that need to swallow drugs in order to escape their traumas, girls that are sold by their own family. Maybe, they were not so lucky after all.

Ever since its first page, The Good Luck Girls was nothing but continuous intensity with a dynamic storyline. It was full-force and action packed with excellent inclusivity and representation of multiple mental illnesses (anxiety, depression, PTSD, addiction), and delivery of well-researched topics including sex trafficking, sex slavery, social inequality, and oppression. It was raw and raging. Davis delivered a story which is set in a fantasy land, but with issues that sadly still happened in our reality.

I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of The Good Luck Girls. As much as being entertained by the magical universe that Davis created, I was also learning about multiple important issues that I've never aware of before. Yes, this story feels like a furious shout over devastating issues that are still happening at this very moment, and I applaud Davis for sharing her awareness and knowledge. Not only just by simply writing this story, but also for spending enormous efforts and time to deliver facts and truths by conducting researches (in case you want to see more behind the story about this and the book references that Davis used, check out the acknowledgements).

The universe of The Good Luck Girls was exceptional. It was built on such detailed narratives that leave me craving for more. Davis was truly incredible in describing this magical world of hers, everything from the scab, the underworld, to the animal and other magical creatures that lived in it was delivered in such cinematic writing. Everything was vivid and authentic.

And clearly, this is neither a plot-driven or a character-driven story because it is both! There was always something happening that moved the characters forward. I'm not the biggest fan when this method used in a story because oftentimes, they feel forced and unnatural. But in The Good Luck Girls, it flows smoothly and although I'm tensed and scared for these characters' lives, I couldn't wait for more twists and unfortunate events. No offence, Aster. Your gang will be always in my prayers.

In conclusion, I'm glad to have picked this book as one of my most anticipated debut titles for this month, because it truly lives up to my expectations! The ending was not a 'happily ever after', indeed, but it left many unanswered questions that hopefully will be revealed in the next book.

I don't normally read fantasy books, but I love YA so I decided to give The Good Luck Girls a try. For me, this struck me as a Western meets Dystopian futuristic read.

The details of this fantasy novel are pretty complicated with a set of different creatures, rules, languages - Raveners, Welcome House Girls, Rangeman, Favors, etc. The list goes on. I probably would have given up earlier, however, I connected with the main characters, a set of sisters (Clementine and Aster) and their friends from the welcome house and wanted to see what would happen to them throughout this book.

Earlier on in the book, we see that these group of girls are basically in the sex slave trade, although it is described in more nuance, and through a set of circumstances, they escape the house where they are being held captive. The book is their journey to freedom. Along the way, they meet others they aren't sure if they can trust, are chased by those trying to capture them and wrestle through surviving and at what cost (robbing people, killing, etc).

I loved the unique storyline and once I had the vocabulary down for the setting and cast of characters in this novel, I found it to be a fast-paced, fun read.

I gave it a solid 3.5 stars for being entertaining. Since this is a genre (Fantasy) that I rarely read, I was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed reading it.

3.5 stars but I'll round up since it's a debut.

What I liked: I liked Aster and Clementine, the two sisters who are the heart of this book. I liked how different the sisters were- Aster was always ready for a fight and Clem was a relationship builder and peace maker. I liked the idea of tattoo flower "favors" that grow like a real flower once tattooed onto one's neck- once they flower fully, then it's time for the welcome house girl to have her "Lucky Night". She'll go from being one of the daybreak girls who clean and take care of the house to being a sundown girl who earns the money the welcome house survives upon. I liked the diverse representation. I liked the weird west feel of the book, and that's saying something, since I am not usually a fan of fantasy in that sort of setting. I liked Violet, the girl who tattled on all the other girls in the welcome house to get ahead, but who had a secret goal and an unsettling honesty that made her interesting. I liked the pace of the book- it moved quickly and never gave me a chance to lose interest. I liked quite a bit and would read the next book by this author!

What I didn't like: I don't know if the book needed a guy to help the girls along? Though I did like that the guy, Zee, was a flawed character even if he wasn't as reprehensible as most of the men in the book. I didn't like that the author set out her rules very carefully at the beginning of the book, with terrifying ghosts and an impassible landscape, only to nullify all the tension she'd set up by never really showing that her spooks were as scary as she was telling us they were and by giving the girls special tools that negated many of the difficulties that they could have faced. I was also waiting for Aster's fate to be worse than it turned out to be. I was expecting Aster to be a ghost, killed in the welcome house over and over again by heinous sadists, because the author kept insisting that no fate could be worse than what Aster had experienced. Maybe I've read too much dark stuff, but a fate worse than death is something along those lines for me. Now, Aster's life is definitely bad enough as a good luck girl or prostitute, but the horror of her circumstance was built up so much that I expected it to be worse.
Finally, the girls got themselves into some situations that they really had no right to get out of if it wasn't for plot armor.

On the whole, though, I did enjoy this fast-paced book. The imagery was vivid, the world-building was interesting even if it didn't quite deliver on how scary it was built up to be, and the main characters were quite well done.

**Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.**

3.5/5

This story is a mix of genres: western, dystopian, historical fiction, adventure... and it's done well. The first chapter is what grabbed me as I wanted to see how they got to THAT point, and then the rest is a whirlwind.

Some parts of the story are obviously slow to build character and suspense; however, there were some glaring timeline plot holes.

"The Good Luck Girls" gave me the same feelings as "The Belles", so I think this will be a promising start for the author.

The Good Luck Girls is an incredible debut, and I am ridiculously excited for the sequel. It has vibes like Girls of Paper and Fire and I highly highly recommend it, honestly one of my favorite reads of the year.

I am marking this as my favorite fantasy of the year. I’m going to keep the review simple. This is a must READ! The world building is phenomenal, and the character are unforgettable. This book is so engrossing, I promise you won’t want to put this one down.

Thank you Tor Teen & NetGalley for gift this copy in exchange for an honest review.

This one has been on my radar for a while, and I had to read it.!Let me tell you, I wasn’t disappointed. On the most important evening of her life, Clementine can’t do it. She can’t be a Good Luck Girl and let those men do what they do to them. She just wants to get him off of her, she never meant to kill anyone. Big sister, Aster has one job, protect Clementine. The two escape with a couple of other girls and hit the open road in search of Lady Ghost, rumored to remove favors (the tattoos that mark their lives), and they’ll have to overcome some impossible obstacles, including malicious dead spirits and the law trying to hunt them down, if they want to get to freedom.

Billed as Westworld meets The Handmaid’s Tale , to me it was more reminiscent of the earliest days of the Underground Railroad, women navigating their way to freedom with only a legend guiding them to their destination. I loved the resilience of the women in this book and their bond is as strong as any forged in blood. The journey before them is impossible, but it can’t be worse than what they’ve already been through.

Each woman has trauma in her past, and the necessity of Aster’s hardness to survive broke my heart and made me fall in love with her. Her fierce protectiveness over her sister is amazing, as is her determination not to fail, even against all odds.

Trigger warnings for trauma and sexual assault. Good Luck Girls are sex slaves, and even though Clem stops her rape before it happens, we know what these girls have been through. It’s not easy to read their story, but it is heartwarming to root for them on their journey. It’s out now, so be sure to check it out!

2.75 STARS

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The premises of The Good Luck Girls are very good, the novel is described as a mix between Westworld and The Handmaid's Tale, an adventure-filled tale of sisterhood, and under some aspects it really is.
The story is set in Arketta a dystopian country where young girls are sold to “welcome houses” by their parents. The girls are marked on their faces by “favors” and works at the welcome house as maids until their 16th birthdays when they become “sundown girls”. The story begins when Clem accidentally (more or less) kills her first client and set all the events of the novel in motion. Aster, Clem older sister, Tansy, Mallow (Clem’s friends) and Violet (the favorite sundown girl) helps the girl hide the body and then they flee the welcome house. The rest of the story follows the five girls in their fight for survival while they search for Lady Ghost, a legendary powerful woman that can remove their very recognizable favors and help them get a new life.

PRO:
- I liked the sisterhood between the five girls. I have really appreciated Aster character who has spent her whole life protecting Clem and then does the same with the other girls. She’s the leader of our squad, but she’s also their most fierce protector.
- The book is full of adventures, hastes, murders and we all know how much I love them.
- Queer characters THANK YOU!

CONS:
- The premises of the story are very cool, but the realisation not so much. The world where the story is set would be very interesting if the author had spent a little bit more time describing it, instead the readers have to put together the scarce scrapes of information they find throughout the book to understand the events that created the kind of dystopian society the novel it’s set in.
I would have loved for the author to dive deeper into why in the society she created there’s a discrimination based on who can versus who can’t cast a shadow. Or why is it possible to tattoo favors aka magical flowers on the face of people. Or what are those dangerous and supernatural creatures very similar to Dementors that infests the country. Those were the interesting things I would have loved to read about, not Clem who flirts with the first man she meets.
- Like I said in the pros, I loved that the story is full of murders and hastes but they all come really easy for the girls. One minute they decide they need money and they all go like: “let’s rob a man” and two minutes later they find out he – conveniently – has got the code of the Bank safe so “wow, wouldn’t it be so easy to also rob a Bank?”. No, girls it’s not easy at all. But I’m happy you can pull it off without any kind of preparation.
- I would have loved for the characters to be more explored. As I already said, I liked the sisterhood between the girls but, in reality, we don’t know anything about them, they have no depth whatsoever and they are all a little bit clichéd.

The idea behind The Good Luck Girls is really great, so I am really sad that the novel turned out to be a little bit flat for me.