Sandy M’s review of Getting Lucky (Lucky Series, Book 3) by Carolyn Brown
Contemporary Romance published by Sourcebooks Casablanca 1 Jan 10
I’m always for giving an author a second chance, and I’m certainly glad I did for Carolyn Brown. This third book in her Lucky series is a little better for me than the second book was. However, there’s a few things in this one that still didn’t work for me, but overall this is more of an engaging read despite those issues.
There’s two really huge issues. First is the dialogue. Most of the time it’s just stiff and awkward. There’s several points where I wondered who on earth talks the way these characters do. Not anyone I’ve met anyway. What even makes it more difficult is that there are parts where the dialogue flows just fine and then suddenly it’s stilted, making the scenes almost comical. There is some good stuff here, but I’m just not sure what happens to make it go so off track.
Also, the way the author chooses to have Annie and Lizzy speak in this book is just as bad. I realize they’re only five years old and five-year-olds don’t understand verb tense and sometimes just use the wrong words when talking. Well, these two kids definitely do that. Quite a bit. What irritated me even more than the fact that they do it so much is that neither of their parents, nor their grandparents, aunts, friends, or whoever, ever correct them to teach them to speak properly. Maybe that’s too much of a nitpick on my part, but all I know is that it really distracted me throughout the book. We all correct kids when we hear poor grammar coming out of them, but not once did that happen in this book. The only correction either child got was the pronunciation of the name of a town. But it did happen with heroine, however; her mother corrected her at least once. You’d think the heroine would then do the same with those children.
My second issue with this book is the downright meanness some of these townspeople have for each other, all the name calling that goes on. Okay, I know this stuff happens in real life. Heck, I’ve done it myself a time or two in all my years. But as much as it happens in 416 pages, it’s just way too much and it’s a big turn off. I especially got tired of two mean old women going after each other every time they showed up in the story. But it’s not just the two old biddies who do this. Even the hero and his sister jump to the same conclusion without asking questions of Julie to find out what the heck is going on when she coincidentally finds her way into the hero’s life. The only thing I didn’t like about the hero is he never thinks about how what he’s doing is affecting his brother’s child. I found that simply outrageous.
And all this seems to be a way of writing for Ms. Brown in this series. That was part of my problem with the previous book I read. If it’s toned down some, it probably wouldn’t be all that bad or distracting. But the way it is now, is just too negative to read over and over and over again.
What is good about this book, though, is the fact that despite these things, Ms. Brown makes me care about these characters. I liked the premise of this book. Julie has a one-night stand six years ago as she’s going through a divorce, something she’d never done before and hasn’t since. The charismatic G. Luckadeau shipped out to Iraq the very next day, so when she finds herself pregnant, she has no way of getting hold of the man. She’s been raising her daughter just fine on her own since then, even despite the white streak in Annie’s black hair, something that kids constantly tease her about. So much so that they’ve moved to St. Jo to start anew.
But when she crosses paths with the man she thought she’d never see again, suddenly her life is in turmoil again from both the man himself and the townsfolk, because they all assume Annie is his daughter. And it doesn’t help matters when Annie befriends his daughter, Lizzy, who looks just like Annie, white streak and all. Come to find out, her one-night stand has a twin brother, Griffin, and now he thinks Julie is only in St. Jo to get a cut of the family ranch, and there’s no way in hell that’s going to happen.
I really liked these two characters right off the bat (even despite the aforementioned lapse on the hero’s part). Though they also have some arguments that are a little too much and too frequent when a different type of scene would have worked, I cared about what happens to them and their daughters. I wanted to know how they were going to come to an agreeable solution to their situation, something that would work for everyone.
For me, all those extraneous characters and their name calling could have been left out, Griff and Julie could have worked together sooner, and the book would have gotten a much better grade. I’m on the fence now when it comes to reading any more by this author. I wanted to read more of her work after reading the previous book to see if the negativity is a theme in her writing. Finding out it is as far as this series is concerned, this book did work slightly better, though it’s not quite as good as I’d hoped.
Grade: C
Summary:
Single mom Julie Donavan is looking for a place to start over. What she finds after buying a small house on five acres is nothing short of a nightmare. Single dad “Lucky Griffin” Luckadeau has been crossing horns with his elderly neighbor for years. But when his daughter, Annie, decides she wants the new little girl who lives on the feuding property to be her friend, or better yet her sister, the sparks fly.These two stubborn hotheads, who irritate each other beyond endurance, refuse to admit that it’s fate that brought them together. And running from the inevitable is only going to bring a double dose of misery…
Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
