In one word: Convenient
I’ve been pretty pleased with Reese’s Book Club selections. This is the 8th of her picks that I’ve read, and even when the book wasn’t for me (I’m looking at you, “Where the Crawdads Sing”), I still saw the quality of the novel and understood why she would champion it as a female-written, female-centric story. This is the first Reese book that was a swing and a miss for me.
At first glance, it had a lot going for it. Sexy cover + female-centered + heist story? Count me in. Luciana “Lucky” Armstrong is a product of her upbringing, a young con woman brought up by a con artist, but when the job she pulls with her boyfriend goes wrong, and the authorities are closing in, her luck (rimshot) has run out. But could a winning lottery ticket be her ticket out (rimshot) and a sign that her luck (rimshot) is back? This is a paint-by-numbers situation where the heroine isn’t likable enough, the scenarios aren’t believable enough, and the big bad heist boss is a cartoon, more fitting on the pages of Marvel than in a novel. Are there some twists? Sure. But they are either so farfetched that no reasonable person could guess them, or so obvious it isn’t a real surprise. I mean, we start with a baby left at an orphanage and end with a family reunion. It’s like a Lifetime movie on steroids.
In an unusual turn of events, I think I would like this story more as a movie than a book. Throw this into the Netflix film machine and what would come out on the other end would be glitzy and perfectly fine fun for a Sunday afternoon. If you want something skimmable for your summer beach trip, this would suffice, but altogether it’s pretty one-note and predictable.
