Better Luck Next Time is a family drama I'm happy I stuck it out with. You meet the family in a dramatic flurry of a Christmas celebration so it's a little overwhelming trying to tell the three sisters, their two cousins, plus two sets of parents apart. I promise if you keep going, you learn to tell them apart! While the narration seemed to me to be stiff at first, I quickly adapted to her voice and the enunciation probably helped me discern the characters more quickly!

The structure of the novel goes month by month through a difficult year of the family's life: multiple divorces, relationships beginning and ending, custody struggles, sibling tension and injury. I am a sucker for a dysfunctional family so I happily followed along, loving the imperfect feminism and representation of Queer characters that don't encounter strife DUE TO their queerness.

The only thing that put me off is wholly personal preference: lack of believeability. The coincidences that tie these characters to each other (and then back to each other again) just aren't realistic. Also, while I love reading about a man that isn't a toxic jerk or dudebro idiot, the two main male characters in this book are unrealistically perfect. So perfect that it's consistently commented on by the other characters. It only bothered me because they were both so idealized and constantly doing/saying the perfect thing that it was hard to discern their individual personalities and relationships with female characters; they blurred together for me.

Overall I enjoyed the listen thoroughly! Thanks to NetGalley/Harper Collins for the ARC.

Better Luck Next Time by Kate Hilton is a great story about a family.

Lydia Hennessey is preparing to celebrate her career. Her three daughters Mariana, Nina, and Beata are all going through difficult times. Zoe and Zack are their cousins. Better Luck Next Time starts at a difficult Christmas. During a tense conversation Zoe throws out that she is getting divorced. Mariana decides to leave her husband. Nina is not in the story as much as the other characters but her story is very impactful. Beata has a teenage son that finds out about his Dad. Beata also has been in a relationship, but hasn’t told her family about it. Better Luck Next Time is told through multiple characters’ perspectives.

Better Luck Next Time is a great book with excellent characters. I was immediately drawn to the characters and wanted to hear more about them. I really wanted everything to work out for the characters. Hilton does a great job telling all these characters’ stories in a way that makes it interesting but isn’t too much. The book encompasses a year.

Better Luck Next Time discusses many different family issues and how they affect family dynamics. Divorce, infidelity, dating apps, dating after divorce, and marriage are all discussed. A teenage boy also discovers who his Dad really is and starts to develop a relationship with him.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Rachel Fulginiti. I really enjoyed her narration and thought it added to the story.

I loved Better Luck Next Time and recommend it to anyone that likes fiction novels about families.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Audio/Harper Collins Publishers for Better Luck Next Time.