JUST MY LUCK
by Adele Parks

ISBN: 9780778331735

Publisher: MIRA Books

 

Adele Parks has brought her #1 Sunday Times sensation, JUST MY LUCK (MIRA Trade Paperback; April 6, 2021; $17.99) to the US! 

 

Be careful what you wish for… 

 

After spending happy hours, parenting classes, and barbeques together for the last 15 years, Lexi and Jake Greenwood have celebrated and shared almost everything with the Pearsons and the Heathcotes, including their lottery numbers. Then one night, the unthinkable happens. Someone has been telling lies – lies dark enough to burn bridges and tear the tight group of friends apart. When the Greenwoods win a stunning $23 million in the lottery with their group’s numbers shortly after their dramatic falling out, the Heathcotes and Pearsons believe they’re entitled to part of the prize… and the three couples will do anything to claim what is theirs. 

 

Reader beware: the last chapter will change everything. 

 

A compulsively readable portrait of the fragility of friendship, the corrosiveness of sudden wealth, and the dark side of good luck, Adele Parks’ latest domestic thriller will make you think twice about trying your hand at the lottery. 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

He is being crass. I am not sure what the elegant response to winning nearly eighteen million pounds is, but I doubt it is demanding the money like a highway robber.

 

These so-called friends of theirs are a bunch of sharks. There are more holes in their stories than there are in my kitchen colander.

 

I think we both wish we were in some sort of nineties cop show where she could open the drawer of her desk and pull out a bottle of whiskey and a couple of glasses.

 

Toma stares at me with unadulterated admiration. It’s the best look one human being can give another. He looks at me with respect, approval, gratitude and eagerness.

 

How do you manage it? … Caring so much for people you don’t even know? In my experience, it’s cruel enough caring for those you do.

 

I wish them well, but mostly I wish them well away from us.

My Review:

 

I couldn’t seem to start this review for over a day, as I needed to ruminate, ponder, and mull. This was a prickly pickle. Most of the characters were not likable or annoyed me greatly as they were snide, greedy, snobby, selfish, unreliable, and conniving. They also disappointed me, as even the few likable ones tended to be wishy-washy and weak. However, I am aware that most people, regardless of culture, have a bit of all of these failings in their bag of traits. And I am also highly aware that as much as the characters were antagonizing me, I couldn’t have stopped reading about them as I was intrigued and rather desperate to know what was going to result from their flailing. The plotlines were maddeningly paced but when I reached the conclusion and looked back, I registered the cunning and shrewd craftsmanship in the storytelling.   Adele Parks is a wily one.