I’m a huge fan of Kris Bryant, so much so that I will buy her books without reading a sample, it’s just automatic because her books are warm and I love the characters that she creates. But this book fell flat to me. There was no emotion and no passion. The MC’s were more concerned about the project than getting to know each other. I think that Gabrielle’s friends and family were more interested in Serena than she was. They just didn’t connect for me. I still love Kris Bryant and will continue to buy her books in the future.

Who among us doesn't fantasize about winning the lottery?

Kris Bryant did an incredible job on her first foray into third person. In my opinion, Kris, EJ Noyes, and Harper Bliss are the masters of first person present tense, and I do believe "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". That said, the writing felt just as smooth and natural as if she had been doing it her whole career. And how brave to step outside a comfort zone.

There are so many things I loved about this book. Susan X Meagher has already written a much-beloved lottery story in Almost Heaven, which skews more to how the poor family relations react to the winning. Lucky focuses on Serena's vision to improve her life by opening up a "doggie daycare for the rich and famous", and she worries about every little detail being perfect.

Serena and Gabrielle both come to the story with plenty of baggage. They meet when Gabrielle is assigned as the architect on The Pet Posh Inn. A childhood incident leaves her with a fear of dogs that almost hinders her ability to properly design the space. Serena grew up with an absent mother and felt charged with raising her ten-years-younger sister, sacrificing her own education and personal goals.

Each main character has her own amazing set of friends, a hallmark of a Kris Bryant book, that completely shine without detracting from Serena and Gabrielle. Fans of last year's Falling will appreciate Piper's reprisal in Lucky.

The relationship building is slow and deliberate, making the eventual payoff worth the wait. And yes, we readers are rewarded with the emotionally-charged, super hot sex we've come to expect in every Kris Bryant story. The angst comes in later than expected, but is completely believable based on earlier events in the story and not from manufactured miscommunication. The final chapter and epilogue are perfectly satisfying and may even bring a tear.

My least favorite part of a Kris Bryant book? Waiting till the next one is released.

Serena Evans would not consider herself a lucky woman. She works in a bookstore and does her best to support her younger sister Faith, a high school senior about to head off to university. A spur of the moment decision to buy a lottery ticket changes Serena’s life forever. Her dream of building a Pet Posh Inn for visitors to her hometown of Vail, Colorado brings her to the Denver office of Arnest and Max where she meets architect Gabrielle Barnes.

Gabrielle is battling the glass ceiling of partnership in her firm. She has one more chance to prove she is worthy of the position she has worked hard to achieve. Building a daycare centre seems like a fun and easy opportunity to impress the partners at her firm. What she didn’t expect were the constant design changes requested by her attractive client.

Lucky is a slow burn coupled with a long distance romance. There is attraction between Serena and Gabrielle but both come with a fair bit of baggage that makes each wary of taking their attraction to the next level. I liked the contrast between Serena’s difficult relationship with her mom and Gabrielle’s warm and welcoming family. I would have loved exploring events from Serena’s past in more detail and felt this was a lost opportunity. Gabrielle’s workaholic personality paired with her dog phobia make her as wary of Serena as Serena is wary of trusting someone with her dreams and her heart. I liked how both had friends new and old to lean on for advice. I’m not a big fan of characters from other books intruding on the book I’m reading but the addition of Piper and Shaylie from Falling as some of those new friends for Serena was a nice touch.

Good first attempt at writing in third person for Bryant. I do think romance novels are more suited to first person point of view but it was nice to see what motivated/held back each woman from realizing they could overcome their differences and trust issues and fall in love.

Nicely done.

ARC received with thanks from publisher via NetGalley for review.

I have to admit it was definitely different reading a 3rd person book coming from an author that is top notch when it comes to first person, now i may be biased because she is one of my fav and i will always read anything she puts out. But I am always honest when it comes to my reviews because words don't come to me very easily and it takes me time to get them down.
 
Now to the good stuff Kris Bryant is one of the best when it comes to Romance books because she writes from the heart and it comes out in the pages of her books. This book was no different.She helped me slip into the pages of this book with ease. This was a slow burn romance that ticked  all the boxes for me. And I totally get excited when authors slip in characters from their past books and we get to see what is going on with them. i don't want to give it away but if you're reading or have read this one your gonna be as excited as i was.
 
 When Serena wins the lottery she is overwhelmed with the possibilities she has before her, Right who wouldn't want to be her.... When she decides to build The Pet Posh Inn she meets Gabrielle who is the architect that will be designing Serena's dream. As the two get to know each other by spending more and more time together their relationship starts to bloom into what we all look forward to when we read a Bryant book the HEA. Even though it took time for them to get there I feel that it was genuine because it wasn't rushed, As I  like to say it had time to marinate. I believe that Kris Bryant fans will be as happy with this book as I was, the only downfall is we have to wait for her to put out the next one.....
I received an advance reader copy from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review

Lottery, dogs and a sweet romance. I can't think of anything better than that. This is Kris Bryant 1st attempt at writing in 3rd person and I didn't see anything different. The flow was smooth as usual. The premise of the book is that Serena comes from a poor family and her upbringing was horrible. She ended up raising her sister Faith. On a whim she buys a lottery ticket and wins. Winning the lottery is life changing for anybody but for Serena is was especially life changing. She decides she wants to build a Posh Resort for animals in Vail CO for all the visitors so they can bring their pets. Enter Gabrielle the architect. They didn't get along well in the beginning but this was her big chance to make partner. The problem is that Gabrielle is afraid of animals with good reason. There is immediate attraction in this slow burn romance. The sex was hot and I fell in love with them both. Both of their friends are amazing and try to help this romance along. You also see a visit from one of my favorite couples. I love when previous couple show up. This is a Kris Bryant must read. You won't be sorry.

I love when Kris Bryant comes out with a new book! This book is just so sweet. Serena's life was not easy. Having to grow up fast with an alcoholic mother in order to survive and take care of her younger sister, she had to put her wants and needs in the backseat. On a whim she bought a lottery ticket and wallah she won $42 million dollars! Taking advice from her friends, she decided to build the Pet Posh Inn in her hometown of Vail, Colorado. Gabrielle, the architect she hired, was on the fast track to becoming partner at her firm, and was less than thrilled with having to design a space for animals. Gabrielle really struggled with relating to this property due to her debilitating fear of animals, especially dogs. As the two learned more about one another, their feelings grew. I enjoyed their relationship build as it seemed really relatable. I loved all of the supporting characters and getting to visit with old friends from Kris's other books. L.B. was wonderful as was Dozer. Thank you Kris Bryant for another wonderful read!

The premise of Lucky instantly drew me in - low income girl hits the jackpot in Colorado’s state lottery and her dreams come true. The road to Serena’s dreams coming true is actually more difficult than it appears in the one word title though, and that is what makes this book so good. As we get to know Serena, we find that winning that jackpot definitely will make her life a whole lot better. She understands the value of a dollar, or lack thereof, and you can’t help but root for her to get everything she so deservedly wants and needs. As plans for investing her money formulate, she discovers that winning the lottery is much more than just the money. It’s what brings Gabrielle into her orbit, and the possibilities of something that no amount of money could buy her. I’ll admit, it was difficult for me to like Gabrielle at first with her walls up around her heart and the majority of her focus on her career and only a couple close friends. In truth, the tone of the book is often melancholy with both women struggling to find the best versions of themselves, but when they do manage those perfect moments and eventually their happy ending it’s as if the sun shines with rainbows and unicorns. The climb to the pinnacle that is their true love is so worth the journey through the melancholy. I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.75 Stars. How can you not get excited when a new Bryant book is out?! I’ve been looking forward to this read for a while. For one its Bryant, who is easily on my list of favorite lesfic authors, and secondly was the great premise. Winning the lottery, who doesn’t dream about that coming true? I do have to be honest that this book started slow for me but once Bryant really hit her groove, the rest of the book felt good.

This book is Bryant’s first try writing in third person. While I think she was very successful in it and it seemed like it came pretty natural to her, I could not help being a little bummed anyway. I’m all for authors trying new things and taking chances but to have my two favorite first person authors, Bryant and EJ Noyes, both write in third for the first time ever this month, was like NO! I love a good first person story and Bryant and Noyes are the masters at it so it was a little painful not to have a new first story by either of them in the same time period. Again, Bryant seemed very capable of writing in third to me, I just hope she won’t abandon first since we need all the great first person authors we can get.

This is a slow-burn romance with average to low angst. What was interesting here was when Bryant had the two characters meet, it really wasn’t “OMG she’s the one!” Instead it was just two new people meeting for the first time. The attraction really became present as the characters spent time together and slowly built a connection. I liked this way of doing it. It felt realistic, more real life since not everyone falls in love at first sight. Also, for me it made the ending of a possible HEA feel like a bigger payoff. Yes the angst near the end was a little forced for my tastes but by the end of the book I had a big goofy grin on my face so it was successful in my book.

I mentioned this already but my biggest issue with the book was just getting into the story. Usually, Bryant has this pretty big hook that gets you immediately interested in the book. For instance getting lost in Alaska or a plane crash, something that really sucks you into the story but this book didn’t really have that. We do get to the lottery part, but after the character won we fast-forward the timeline a bit so we lose some of the excitement of winning. There was also an issue with one of the main’s mothers. We hear a big argument had happened, but we didn’t get to see it. That family conflict is something that shapes the main character to who she is as a person and I wanted to see it play out. While I had no problems reading the book, I just wasn’t hooked. I didn’t really notice when everything changed, but I was so happy it did. Eventually the book clicks and just feels more classic Bryant. By the end of the book I was a happy camper, it just took me a minute to get there.

I also have to give a quick shout-out to secondary characters. Bryant is really good about writing best friends and friends of friends. She’s very good at making them whole characters that are meaningful. Her secondary characters always enhance the story which is so important. For fans of Falling, Piper and Shaylie both appear in this book. Actually, Piper has a decent size roll in this book and we get a good update on them as a couple. I love when authors give some love to past characters.

While this did take an unusual amount of time for me to settle into this Bryant book, I was definitely happy in the end. I had a smile on my face and that’s a big thing for me especially during these times. If you are a Bryant fan or a slow-burn romance I think you will enjoy this too.