I am a sucker for all things Jenn Bennett. I just love the way she writes relationships and builds characters that are very relatable. Someone suggested it for fans of Gilmore Girls, and I agree! It's a well written contemporary YA filled with good angst, characters, and romance.

Anything with Jenn Bennett's name on it is bound to be gold. I have fallen in love with all of the ya books she has written, and now I'm adding this to that list. She is SO good at relationship building and making imperfect characters. They all have realistic flaws and are relatable to the reader. The story is realistic, but quirky enough to be a fun escape from reality. There were definitely some tropes, but the rest of the story was so amazing that it negated the cliches. 10/10 would highly recommend

Read this through edelweiss, absolutely loved it but I'm not surprised because all of Jenn's books are so swoony! The chemistry with her and Lucky!!! Love me a bad boy and I love the cover

Review will be available on my blog on May 2nd.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. This does not affect my opinion. 

TW: Burns, death of a family member (mentioned), near-death incident, leaked nudes, hospitalization, sexual harassment, car accident, abortion, teen pregnancy, absentee parent, depression, grief (mentioned)
Rep: Black Side Character, mentally ill side character (depression)

"But it's okay. We can break the curse ourselves. No magic spell needed. No special charm. All we have to is decide that we're ready to small down a few invisible walls."

I kinda have been not a dying fan of Jenn Bennett's work, because I have my reasons. She has always been an okay author, but I have to admit; once in a while, I'll pick up a rom-com since her rom-coms are always so good in one way or another.

I requested Chasing Lucky on a whim; knowing that I'd probably won't get accepted but I somehow magically did. I'm still confused by how that was, but I am not complaining because it kinda means that the publishers actually like me on that, and not Edelweiss. I think it's hilarious that Netgalley likes me more than Edelweiss. 

This book was good. It wasn't as good as some of her novels that I really liked, but it had the Bennett charm to it.

I always liked books that deals with "art" such as, photography, music, art in general. I think this is what made Chasing Lucky so interesting is that we have someone who deals with art. In this case, Josie who wants to be a photographer and just got denied from a summer internship.

I loved the way Bennett has described the ambition & passion of photography that Josie has. It makes me value the pictures that my mom does, and how interesting it is despite it being time-consuming and how editing can be a bitch at times.  But this is just pure magical, and reading the book, made me feel like I had this passion like Josie has.

I didn't really mind the characters too much. They were interesting and had a certain charm to them especially Lucky. Though he did fall under the cliche, Bad Boy with a heart of gold. I don't mind because they are interesting, but sometimes it gets a little too much. I'd rather read a softie boy than a residential bad boy who the girl falls for. Or you know, actually add POC and/or Queer cast, and I'll be screaming about that forever. 

Josie was certainly an interesting character. I adored her passions and ambition like I've mentioned before, but honestly I kinda do feel like her personality isn't developed. I enjoyed quite a few things about her, but my god, her backbone is weak. And she is also a very frustrating character. 

I think this is the main reason why I'm not a huge fan of Jenn Bennett novels. The characters always feel like their stale and not as developed as much as I would like. I can't seem to get in their heads and actually get a grasp of personality. I can't enjoy novels too much if the characters are not developed like everything else.

I kinda feel like these characters need help. Yeah, that is saying something if I'm unable to get help. Screw doctors. They are so unhelpful when it comes to mental illness which is already kicking my ass in everything. They have had a lot of issues and the fact that some of their behavior is twisted.

I always enjoyed Bennett's writing. There's just something about it, where I can't find in any other rom com books. This book was no different than the rest of the novels. There was the charm, the wonderful descriptions of photography and the small town. The writing was magical, nothing less than what I expected.

The romance was really cute. I always fall hard for the romance in Jenn Bennett's rom-com books. The romance was well done and really slow-burn. I loved the fact that Bennett intermingled some tropes that I'd die for. Childhood Best Friends-Turned Enemies-Turned Lovers. Tell me does that not sound entertaining?

I could rave about the romance for a long time, and for a long review, but I won't. Believe me, it will melt your soul and would easily become of the cutest books you have ever read.

Can I mention the sex-positivity Bennett adds in her books. She always adds sex in her books, and shows that teenagers are doing these things and I always loved that about her novels. I kinda was getting a little concerned about there being no sex involved, but at least my fears were eased, because I want to read more books that deals with this.

I did feel like this book didn't have a plot whatsoever. This book had nothing special going for it, and I got confused on what the plot was. It brought it up in the beginning, but than nothing for a good chunk before addressing some of the plot-holes that was in the book, but there was still quite a bit of plot-holes that Bennett never addressed.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.
The overall Tory was cute, and the characters were well-fleshed out. I hate sappy insta-love and was happy it wasn’t in here. However, I wish it had not followed the usual roadmap of YA love with the minor conflict added in right when things are going well. That was too predictable for my taste. Full review on Goodreads.

**Review scheduled to post (on my blog, Instagram and Goodreads) April 29th. I will update the links here on that date!**

I’D CHASE LUCKY TOO.

This was a more mature YA book. That’s what I kept thinking every time I was reading this. The main character was a high school senior and I kept picturing her as a college girl home for the summer. Take that for what you will, I still enjoyed the book.

There’s a lot of depth to this novel. It isn’t a super fluffy YA rom-com. The further I read, the more of the inner story unfurled in front of me. And I really like what I got from it. That communication is critically important to maintaining the bonds we value.

And usually, I hate when communication is clearly an issue and a brief conversation would solve all the problems. Bennett does a great job of not making me feel this way. While yes, I got frustrated with them (mostly Josie’s mother), I also understood the pain and heartache that each of the Saint-Martin women were struggling with. Another highlight, the fact that this was also heavily about a group of women in a family learning how to be together and not let differences tear them down. I liked the way reveals and emotions came out towards the end as the real picture of everyone’s past came to light. Josie took in a lot of information in a small amount of time. Did she make some mistakes? YES. Did she also learn from them? YES. And that’s what really sold this book for me.

The trope of choice for Chasing Lucky was childhood friends. Lucky and Josie knew each other back when she still lived in town, but after moving away, lost touch. Enter Josie coming back, enter cute Lucky 2.0. I, for once, dare say, I liked the way this trope was written. There was good banter, a little bit of angst as they figured each other out again and I felt the connection between them. I WILL ALSO SAY, I have rolled my eyes at love scenes in Bennett’s previous books, this was not the case this time. Oh it was so much better, and so much more realistic. I definitely adored this story a lot more because of it.

I constantly found myself wanting to pick this book up to read it. It was a solid YA book and I love the journey this story took me on. I appreciate the sentiments that were expressed and thought the conclusion was everything it should be.

Overall audience notes:

YA Contemporary Romance
Language: some strong
Romance: kisses; one little detailed fade to black scene
Trigger warnings: someone being arrested for destruction of property; a secondary character posting and showing off a nude photo of Josie’s mother and using it for revenge; car wreck (no one is critically injured)

Jenn Bennett does it again. I am never let down by her books. I loved Lucky and the mysteriousness surrounding him. I loved Josie and her determination. One thing that is always consistent with Jenn Bennett is a strong family relationship in her books. I thought she was going to take a turn with this one and show more of a dysfunctional mother daughter relationship. While it did have its problems, we see the true relationship and sacrifices towards the end and I love that. I love the sex positively between Josie and Lucky, but at times it did feel like Josie was slut shaming her mother. But, because of the positions Josie was put in because of this, it was a totally understandable way to be feeling. As always with Jenn Bennett, I didn't want it to end or let go of these characters. This one will definitely be a go to recommendation for me.

Jenn Bennett being Jenn Bennett as only Jenn Bennett can. A complicated family full of complicated women, who may or may not be cursed when it comes to love. An aspiring photographer trying to break from that family and find something more stable, more normal. Her childhood best friend turned semi-enemy who got very hot while they spent five years apart. A quirky, class-divided New England town. Messy, affirming explorations of teen sexuality and first love. 

What's not to like?

Just like every book by this author it is a good contemporary romance. Full of light moments but also growth for the characters. 
I think this may have been my favorite read. Lucky was so well written. I cannot wait to see what will come next for this amazing author.

I’m never let down when I read a Jenn Bennett contemporary so my expectations were pretty high when I started Chasing Lucky! And luckily, it was just as awesome as all her other contemporaries!

I really liked Josie and being in her head. She had an interesting back story with her secretive mom. Also, as a side note, I’d like a book on Josie’s mom! Anyway, Josie was a photographer and I connected to her right away!

Lucky was the most adorable little thing ever. He has baggage and I wanted to give him a hug. I really liked his connection with Josie and when they were on the pages together, they lit them up!

Bennett writes the best dialogue and banter and I just want her to write contemporaries forever!

I desperately want to read this book but as it's only available in a pdf download from netgalley, I'm shelving it until I can purchase it and read a mobi file on my kindle!