For fifteen years, Lexi and Jake have played the same six numbers with their friends, the Pearsons and the Heathcotes. Over dinner parties, fish & chip suppers and summer barbecues, they've discussed the important stuff - the kids, marriages, jobs and houses - and they've laughed off their disappointment when they failed to win anything more than a tenner. My favorite book of the year so far! I loved this book from cover to cover and read chunks of it out loud to Robbie. You don't think you could ever, in a million years, handle it, and then it happens and you do. You just go one day at a time and suddenly you realize, here I am. I'm handling it.'" (p. 159) One of my favorite parts of the book is finding out how Benny feels about his classmates. Even though classmates might think he’s odd because he’s quiet and doesn’t enjoy sports like other boys in his class, he’s never unkind to anyone. Benny, like many real kids, just takes a little longer to come out of his shell and discover what kind of friendships are important to him.

Just My Luck: The Sunday Times Number One Bestseller from the Just My Luck: The Sunday Times Number One Bestseller from the

Lexi and Jake live in an ordinary house with their two children. They struggle to make ends meet. They struggle to give their children the best they can. They have a group of friends others would be enviable of. They have been through births, deaths, happy and significant times in each other’s lives. They even still get together once a week after all these years of friendship. They also play the weekly lottery together as a group and imagine what it would be like if they actually won. What they would buy? Where they would go and what they would give to charity?Every week for fifteen years Lexi and Jake along with their four best friends, the Heathcote’s and Pearsons would partake in a lottery syndicate together and would also meet up socially for dinner and get-togethers most weeks with their families. I love Benny and his incredibly kind heart. (He's realistic though, and he loses his temper and he's very hard on himself.) But he's sweet and wise for his age and I wanted to give him about 50,000 hugs.

Just My Luck by Adele Parks | Goodreads

When Lexi and Jake win the lottery, 17 million, they and their children Logan and Emily are planning how to spend their windfall. I loved this book! I was a little hesitant to read it because middle grade doesn't always work for me, but I couldn't pass up a Cammie McGovern book. I love her writing so much, and this book did not disappoint. The other 4 are livid and start legal action to ‘prove’ they hadn’t pulled out and that Jake and Lexi are making it up to keep the whole 18 million A cautionary tale of a lottery win, greed,jealousy and envy coupled with all the elements of a ‘Summer Poolside’ kind of read ( or in 2020 a garden or settee read! )

That said the storyline about Toma Albu got me from start to end. And, while the tie-up between the two threads is fairly predictable, I found this the most satisfying part of the novel. I was interested in him, his life and the developing relationship between him and Lexi and should have enjoyed more. Jake, on the other side, wants to enjoy the money they won, and spend it on a new house, new car, be part of the upper class and hire driver services for his children, when they move to a private school. Thank you to Harlequin Australia for sending me a free advance readers copy of this novel; due to be published 20 April 2020**