Lucky Red is a must read! The descriptions throughout the book are so magnificent I was constantly rereading sentences and sometimes whole sections to experience them again and again! The action sequences had me on the edge of my seat and the ending had me putting the book down to exclaim “OMG!”

Read in a single afternoon, I both loved and hated Lucky Red. It was worth it.
Bridget starts her life as the neglected daughter of an alcoholic father who’s lofty dreams never pan out. When he dies on their journey to Kansas, Bridget stumbles into the life of a whore by the luck of her red hair. Turns out, she’s good at it. When a famous female gunslinger by the name of Spartan Lee rolls into town toting a bounty on a rainy day, Bridget’s tidy little life begins to spiral.
This is a love story, but it isn’t a happy one. It’s filled with characters made up of gray. If you like your stories happy and tidy, this is not a book for you. If you prefer things messy and bittersweet, absolutely read this book.

LUCKY RED is a queer, feminist, Western roll in the hay in the best way possible. Bridget is a plucky heroine with an unmistakable voice, and the combination of her world-weariness with her naive spirit is absolutely irresistible. Cravens moves through 19th-century genre conventions effortlessly and offers a sharp-eyed consideration of sex work, female independence (or the impossibility thereof in a patriarchal society), privilege, and the concept of 'luck' as a motivating force. I've seen several reviewers remark on the 'drag' in the middle section of the book, but that feels like a misreading of what Cravens really accomplishes -- she transports the the genre markers of 19th century domestic fiction to the brothel (a worthy innovation in and of itself) and allows the novel's form to mirror Bridget's easy lull into a false sense of security, which shatters with a bang as the novel moves into its final act. There's so much to praise in this debut, and I look forward to reading whatever Cravens publishes next!

This an entertaining debut novel set against the lawless Wild West about an abandoned woman who finds a sense of family at the Queens Brothel in Dodge City. The book blurb sells it as a Wild West adventure; however, I really saw it as a coming of age story about loyalty, identity, and love. I look forward to more from this author! Thank you to NetGalley for an opportunity to read and review this book!

Cravens crafted an intriguing tale of a life that is the testament to not giving up when things get hard. I loved how empowered the main character was and how she was never embarrassed or ashamed of the choices she made, even when they could easily have made someone feel that way.

A beautifully told story that leaves you feeling like you really got to know a good friend.

I love a good Western and LUCKY RED is a worthy effort. Author Claudia Cravens provides a fantastic protagonist and great characters filled with backstories and gumption; there’s no question they jump off the page. What then seemed a bit lacking here? There just was a dullness in the middle that caused my interest to sag and I was surprised because I was so engaged up to that point. I’m not even sure why my mind wandered or what I would have changed about the story. I would eagerly read more by the author or follow up with any of these characters. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Unfortunately this was not for me. The writing was good, but aside from that I struggled with this novel. The plot was meandering, which hurt the story's pacing, and I just didn't feel like there was enough meat to this narrative to sustain my interest.

Thank you to the publisher for the eARC!

4.5 stars. Bridget has had a hardscrabble life so far, which means she's barely surprised when her father drags her across the plains of Kansas only to die on the way and leave her penniless. She and her scrawny mule arrive in Dodge City, and Bridget takes up work in a woman-owned brothel at the urging of a madame named Lila. What follows is a charming story of love, heartbreak, misadventure, and mayhem.

I adored Bridget and her story! I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from Lucky Red as I barely read the synopsis — the cover alone was stunning enough for me to pick it up. And wow did it deliver! This "queer western" is positively brimming with intensity, emotion, and some unexpected twists. I didn't want it to end.

I love the fact that the author brought a dose of realism to her story about a woman in the old west — so many in this genre make the woman into an outlaw or rebel of some sort, but it's just plain likely that a poor woman in this time and place would have become a whore. Watching Bridget come of age and learn about herself and her future was enthralling, and I cheered for her character the whole time. In fact, I loved most of the characters.

This book is a triumph of a debut! Thank you to Claudia Cravens, Dial Press, and NetGalley for my advance digital copy.

In 1877, after her father dies, Bridget becomes a prostitute at the Buffalo Queen brothel. Thanks to Kate and Lila, the madams who run the place, Bridget finds brothel life better than she expected. Then a legendary female gunslinger named Spartan Lee rolls into town, and against her better judgment, Bridget falls in love.

Our internet went out for over 24 hours right before I started reading this, and although I was initially grumpy about it, I wound up being grateful because I was able to fully immerse myself in this novel without the distractions of Twitter and Buzzfeed listicles. What a wild ride! Despite Red Dead Redemption 2 being one of my favorite video games of all time, westerns aren't generally my thing, but throw a queer feminist twist on it and I was smitten. Destined to make my top ten list at the end of the year.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the advanced reader's copy that I received in exchange for an honest review.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

This story was not for me. I didn't appreciate the coarsely used language.

I think Queer women westerns are my favorite new genre. It’s 1877 and Bridget is leaving behind her young life of toiling in the farm for her alcoholic father as she walks, half dead, into the biggest town she’s ever seen. She’s soon welcomed in to the life of the whore house where she finds belonging, friendship, and for the first time, desire when she discovers her attraction to other women.

This gunslinging tale of self-discovery and independence is an epic journey.

Lucky Red was an expected outcome for me. I have to admit to being spoiled by “happy-for-right-now” or “happily-ever-after” endings. I have read very few sapphic books that didn’t end this way. Now, I have seen lists on Goodreads with lots of books without happy-endings, I just haven’t really come across that many. This seems to be my year for books that end up going nowhere.

Claudia Cravens takes us back in time to shortly after the Civil War and to the land between Kansas and Texas. Tough land and a tough time if you are a woman. I like Bridget. She has common sense that I readily identify with. The secondary cast is just as likable - even the johns. As everyone serves a purpose in this timeframe.

Cravens gives Bridget an easy life compared to the realities of the time. This is not to say that whoring is easy, but as Constance, Grace, and Lili keep telling her - it could be worse.

Lucky Red isn’t a fun story. Or really an entertaining story. It’s just another sad rendition of a life and time. I’m actually not sure if I recommend Lucky Red or not. It’s a well-written story. I think I would have just rather read a nonfiction piece of a person during that time period even though life would have been harsher. I would have liked to see Bridget’s life after Dodge City. Now that would have been an adventure to journey on.

Bridget was born unlucky and her bad luck has dogged her every day since in Claudia Craven’s surprising novel, Lucky Red. Her mother died in childbirth. Her father died of a rattlesnake bite just a few weeks into their journey west from Arkansas. It’s a miracle Bridget didn’t die of exposure on the prairie before she wandered into Dodge City, Kansas. Moneyless, friendless, familyless, and reluctant to make a living doing domestic work for a pittance, Bridget turns to sex work to make her way in the world.

One might expect Bridget to have some survival instincts after her life-long run of catastrophic bad luck but, in many ways, Bridget is very naive about the world. She doesn’t pause long before agreeing to work for the madams of the Buffalo Queen as a “sporting woman.” All she knows at the time is that she doesn’t want to do laundry or scrub dishes for a pittance and that she doesn’t really see the fuss about trading sex for money. Thankfully, the Buffalo Queen is relatively safe. The local deputy sheriff’s patronage and protection keep the most violent men away. Bridget’s red hair attracts the deputy’s eye and all she has to do, apart from bringing in money, is keep the deputy happy.

Bridget’s bosses think that this is a simple enough job but they didn’t reckon on Bridget’s bad luck and her inconvenient attraction to other women. To be fair, Bridget didn’t know about that last until first one woman and then a second send her so deep into lust that Bridget has a hard time remembering what she’s supposed to be doing when Sallie or, later, Spartan Lee, are around. Everyone else knows what the game is about except Bridget, to the calamity of the women at the Buffalo Queen.

Lucky Red is a slow read at first. The pace slows after the excitement of the first pages once Bridget settles in Dodge City but, when bounty hunter Spartan Lee arrives, the plot begins to race again. Once the story starts to heat up, that’s when things get good and the ending is spectacular enough to make up for the slower parts of the novel and the moments when I wanted to yell at Bridget to think before she launches herself into yet another mistake.

Readers who’d like to read a Western featuring women or who like LGBT+ historical fiction will enjoy Lucky Red.

I really wanted to like this book. It started strong for me and I really expected it to be a winner, but as the book went on I found that I started to loose interest. Maybe the pacing was off, maybe the genre wasn't for me, but I just did not like it as much as I expected. The main character was very naïve I believe deliberately, and it just really was not what I expected. I did finish it, so it wasn't terrible, just a disappointment based on the reviews I had read.

I don’t think I’ve ever read a queer western book before. This was certainly interesting but it was just so slow. I couldn’t get into it at all

LUCKY RED is a blockbuster sapphic Western about a young, naive woman discovering what she yearns for, what she’s made of, and what she’s willing to risk. Bridget has lived an isolated life with only her careless father to depend on. When he sells their small home in Arkansas for a plot of land on the plains of the west, Bridget’s small world expands in both possibility and precarity. Finding herself alone, she becomes a sex worker at a brothel in a dusty town where she learns more about herself - and what she’s capable of - than she ever dreamed.

This is a gritty, bloody, and extremely gay story. Cravens explores the risk and mundanity of sex work, the glory and brutality of gun fights, the ever-present danger of life on the plains, and more through the wide-open eyes of Bridget. This is truly a coming-of-age story, and it’s so compelling - I was rooting for Bridget, cringing through her mistakes, angered by her heartbreaks, stunned by her losses, moved by her persistence and hopefulness. It’s (spoiler alert) definitely not a romance novel, but even so the sapphic desire and love shown here is a beautiful, precious thing. And the writing! Gorgeous sentences litter every page. Highly recommend and I can’t wait to read more from Cravens. Thanks to Dial Press for the eARC! This novel is out 6/20.

Content warnings: loss of a parent, sexual harassment, rape, fighting, gun violence, blood/gore, murder/death

Set in the wild, Wild West, Lucky Red tells the story of Bridget (Red) a young woman who is orphaned on her way out west with her father. After wandering for days she enters Dodge, where madams with hearts of gold take her in and teach her the ways of whoring for a living. Beautifully written, Lucky Red set me right in that saloon and made me root for Red to find a way to live her life.

Bridget's father's life is a series of mistakes. His most recent one is trading the Arkansas farm where he and his daughter live, for a supposed title to some property in Kansas. Off they set. One night Dad dies from a rattlesnake bite and Bridget, age 16, is on her own. Hiking into Dodge City, she sells the horse and makes enough to house herself in a flophouse for a few nights. She is discovered by one of the madams of the Buffalo Queen, a brothel. The sheriff falls for Bridget and life is good, until it isn't. Bridget makes friends for the first time in her life. Constance introduces her to books and reads to her daily.

When a gang of gunfighters comes into town, Bridget finds who she believes to be her true love. Bridget's red hair and outspoken ways lead her and the brothel into difficult times. And, in the end, Bridget has to decide what is truly important to her and who her friends really are.

A gender-bending Western that will make you look at the Wild West in an altogether different way.

8/10

Wow, what a heckuva debut novel Claudia put together with this one. It is impeccably crafted and boldly unique.

Unfortunately this will be pigeonholed as in the highly niche “queer western” category, which is a damn shame. Yes, it happens to take place in the growing heyday of Dodge City. Yes, there are gay relationships. But that’s not the point. And it kind of bums me out to think that people won’t read this because of the category. Hell, I wouldn’t be roaming the queer western category.

The book follows the sultry redhead, Bridget. Her mom died at birth and her dad fell on hard times and then died. Bridget was left broke and homeless until Lila found her and brought her into her house of ill repute.

And just like that, Bridget became a whore in Dodge.

This book isn’t about sex. It’s about the community in the brothel, the camaraderie amongst them women, the competition and emotions.

Of course being set in the west brings gunslingers and unsavory gents. And then there’s love - a brothel is not the right place to be in love. Love complicated things.

And that’s what this book is about - the many ways love is mistaken or taken for granted.

I don’t care if you read queer books or westerns, you should read this one. As I said, it’s a helluva debut and should be made into a movie - but there’s little chance Hollywood will make a queer western.

#netgalley #luckyred

A Western about a whore with a dash of gunslingers and an lgbtq twist. In Lucky Red we get all that and more in this story about Bridget, a young woman who chooses to make the best of her situation by turning tricks as a sporting woman in the Buffalo Queen saloon.

I enjoyed this novel because it's not often we're presented with a Western from the female perspective, as a wore, instead of a wife or homesteader. Bridget was a unique voice, often acting first before thinking through her options, and her day to day life in the saloon is presented, her routine when turning tricks and earning money. Things go awry when Spartan Lee arrives in the town, a female gunslinger who Bridget is immediately and irrevocably drawn to.
By the end, Bridget makes a heartbreaking choice but grows for it as a character.

Overall I had a difficult time deciding between 4 and 5 stars but ended up deciding on 4.5 stars rounded up. The climax and conclusion came on quickly back to back and I'd have loved a bit more to be honest.

Thank you to Ransom House Dial Press and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.