Review: The Lady Gets Lucky

The Lady Gets Lucky by Joanna Shupe
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

“I would like your help in learning how to seduce a man.” 

Second in the Fifth Avenue Rebels series, the first half of The Lady Gets Lucky is taking place concurrently with the first in the series. I haven't read the first and that may have hampered my enjoyment with this one. Our leads Alice and Kit are put together right away when Alice comes up with a plan to have Kit teach her some seduction lessons. Alice is shy and wants to escape her emotionally abusive mother and sees marrying as a way out. Kit initially refuses but when Alice says she'll trade recipes from a chef Kit and his friend have been trying to hire for their newly constructed supper club, he decides to agree to the bargain. These two feel a connection pretty soon, they are kissing at 20% but I felt like I didn't even know them as separate beings and therefore wasn't ready or able to invest in wanting them as a couple. I don't know if there was more of an introduction to them in the first that could have helped here, it felt like I was entering a play in the second act. 

Kit was certainly hard to resist— and it was becoming increasingly difficult to remember why she needed to resist him in the first place. 

These two did have a commonality that had me wanting to see them grow together, Alice's mother constantly berates her and lowers her self-esteem, saying no one would want to marry her without her large dowry. We see Alice and her mother's relationship in present time while through Kit's reminiscing we learn that his father's emotional abuse consisted of him constantly telling Kit that he was dim and only a pretty face. These two really take to heart what their parents told them and their sense of worthlessness persists through the vast majority of the story, it is in fact pretty much the plot. Even though Kit likes Alice he doesn't think he is worthy of marriage and this is the only thing basically keeping them apart. When they seemed to both admit to themselves and be kissing each other in the first half, I honestly wondered where the story could go, the whole premises only had legs for about 40%. 

He kissed her like he couldn’t get enough. Like air was overrated and unnecessary. Like he was starving for her. 

At the half way point, the story moves from the house party where Alice and Kit were secretly meeting to exchange lessons and recipes and the two go back to New York where seemingly, they won't be able to meet anymore. Instead we get a repeat of the first half with the two secretly meeting this time at Kit's supper club as Alice has to help them with the recipes because they can't find other chefs that can make them. Kit has some friends that make appearances here and there and more scenes with Alice trying to endure her mother. There's a death that is probably supposed to be emotional but we very briefly only meet the character and even then, Kit's character doesn't spend much time on the emotional fall-out. Secondary characters are around, some that will obviously be stars in their own books but the focus is pretty much on Alice and Kit. 

His voice was affectionate and soft, as if she completely baffled him. “What am I going to do with you? 

I felt myself being bored even a little before the halfway mark, this really should have been a novella. Both characters spent the majority in self-loathing mode, Kit's not wanting to marry attitude felt just there, and because I couldn't connect with them individually, I never felt invested in their romance. Alice seemed to have a loving relationship with her father and I wish we could have seen the two together for some bright spots in the story. The last 20% has Kit admitting he can't have anyone else marrying Alice and we get an extremely quick, try to woo her the old-fashioned way, Alice not believing he actually wants to marry her because he loves her, and then him proving it in a way that felt benign and I'm not sure delivered on the make-your-heart-melt because of how rushed the ending felt. Overall, all the self-loathing dragged down the tone, the lack of plot, substance, and repetitiveness gave it a molasses pace, and it was just missing spark.

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