Here it is.

The worst book I ever read.

Everything happened at once, and nothing happened at all.

I will say this. This book is perfect for you if you like reading about shallow, spoiled, bratty, selfish fourteen-year-olds who don't know a thing about life and think they do, kissing their boyfriends from sixth grade (you read that right) and then leaving the boys hanging while they sneak around their parents' mansions and their friends party in the Hamptons with high school boys. Complaining. The. Entire. Time.

If the main character had actually shaped up by the end of the book that would've been something. But here's what happens. She kissed her boyfriend in sixth grade, didn't see him over a weekend and didn't talk to him after that. Just avoided the boy who supposedly had been more like a best friend than a boyfriend. (You know, 'cause eleven-year-olds have the maturity to really know.) Then again at the end of eighth grade, to the dismay of her friends, she got back with him. Not really. But kind of. They made out while in swimsuits and this eighth grader "noticed how warm his skin was".
Then, go figure, she doesn't talk to him.
At the very end of the book they kiss again. And that's all. It doesn't go on after that, to say she actually treated him right. For all we know, they never spoke again as long as they lived. If that had actually been slightly resolved it could've redeemed a story that was shallow from start to finish. But no one gained any responsibility or maturity by the end. Ooh, she humbled herself enough to accept her friend's gift of the dress they both knew she wanted more than anything. She once complimented a girl she'd been a little mean to before. Not enough to counterbalance that all along her group of "best friends" were talking about each other behind their backs.

None of these brats changed or shaped up by the end of this novel. It took over two hundred pages to say "The brats stayed brats."

But, if that's what you like, this book is for you. Hope you regret reading it less than I did. (Not really.) ( )

Not really sure what I can say about this book. Fourteen-year-old Phoebe was a bratty, spoilt and shallow protagonist and she annoyed me from the start. Unfortunately, she showed no emotional growth throughout the book, and at the end she was still a brat. I hated how she whined and whinged when her mother lost her job and suddenly they didn't have the endless money supply she was used to having. There was more than one occasion when I wanted to slap some sense into Phoebe as she still had more money than most middle-class families have. Obnoxious brat! ( )

I can see how this book will appeal to the average teenage girl but I regarded this book skeptically. It's not easy sympathizing with the troubles of a girl from an upper-class family (although some of her troubles are universal, such as boys, misunderstandings with her girlfriends, etc.). Kirstyn also came off throughout the book as something of a "mean girl" so I didn't buy Phoebe's realization of what a supportive friend Kirstyn had been. Pushing my skepticism over the top was the Disney-style happy ending. ( )

Teenage traumas when the "perfect" family has a meltdown after the mother is fired from her job. Really well done with some swearing but .... ( )

young-adult
[edit]

Lucky is the first book in a trilogy about the Avery sisters. Phoebe Avery is the youngest one of the sisters and all her life, she has been considered “lucky”. Pretty, popular, and rich, Phoebe and her best friend Kirstyn and her three other close friends are the social center of their grade. Then, Phoebe`s family has a financial catastrophe and Phoebe realizes she needs to figure out who she is.
One thing I have to commend Rachel Vail on is that she knows how to write teenage characters. All of them were so dynamic and real. The relationships did not have a ring of falsity, and everything that Phoebe said, I could imagine a teenager saying. Another thing I liked were the hints of problems with Phoebe’s other sisters that are to be explored in the other two books in the trilogy.
I found Phoebe’s coming of age story to be quite sincere. I personally enjoyed reading about her discovery into what it means to be a good friend, a good daughter, and a good person. I also thought the book really reminded us to be more trusting of the people that we should trust. I’m definitely looking forward to reading the next two books. ( )