The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis (Book Review)

The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis

Published by: Hot Key Books

Released: 1st October 2019

I received this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis

Aster. Violet. Tansy. Mallow. Clementine.

Sold as children. Branded by cursed markings. Trapped in a life they never would have chosen.

When Aster’s sister Clementine accidentally murders a man, the girls risk a dangerous escape and harrowing journey to find freedom, justice, and revenge – in a country that wants them to have none of those things. Pursued by the land’s most vicious and powerful forces – both living and dead – their only hope lies in a bedtime story passed from one girl to another, a story that only the youngest or most desperate would ever believe.

It’s going to take more than luck for them all to survive.

Thoughts

The Good Luck Girls was a read, that really had me intrigued just from the synopsis. From reading that I could tell this was going to take me on one hell of a journey with five young woman vying for a better life.

Aster, Violet, Tansy, Mallow and Clementine are good luck girls, sold as children and branded by cursed marks they are trapped in a life they wouldn’t have chosen for themselves. When Clementine turns 16 she becomes a ‘sundown girl’ and is forced to entertain a male or brag as part of her initiation. Things go wrong however, when Clementine accidentally murders the man forcing her and her fellow good luck girls to go on the run.

I’ll admit that I did find it rather hard to get into this book at first, despite being intrigued by its concept and feminist persona. I found the start of the book to be rather rushed with not much thought into what was going on. It was also, in my opinion, a little bit lacklustre. However, I did persevere and I am very glad I did as I ended up loving the latter part of the book and enjoyed going on this adventure with the four sisters. The world building in The Good Luck Girls, I found to be really inventive and thought out. All information about this world was given out at the right time and there was no unneeded information given, either. The world was extremely well developed and not over whelming for the reader, which is how world building should be done.

The overall plot of the book, whilst being really thought out and entertaining I did find to be a little bit unbelievable at times. There were a few plot twists that I could see coming and some things that happened throughout the story, I felt were a bit of a coincidence. However, I found myself engrossed with the adventure the girls were on and at times I was waiting with anticipation to find out what was going to happen to them next. I was rooting from them to achieve their goals from the very start.

The story is told from the point of view of Aster, the protector, and despite not having a point of view from any of the other girls I still feel like I got to know the all personally. Having the protector of the group as the main story teller was a bold, but perfect move on the authors part. You could tell the Aster was driven by determination and the love of her sisters, to ultimately keep them safe and achieve what they set out to do.

One last thing I want to mention is that the diversity in The Good Luck Girls was exceptional. We had characters of colour, LGBT representation and a strong link to feminism and sisterhood which is admirable. It isn’t often that you see all three of these in a work of YA fiction and it was really impressive and woven into the story in a respectful, non glamourised way. It was basically normalised in the world.

The Good Luck Girls despite having a few setbacks was an action packed read that was exciting, thrilling and full of life. I will be reading the sequel when it is released and I am looking forward to doing so.