Book Review: Wanna Get Lucky?

Wanna Get Lucky is a murder mystery that is based in Las Vegas and our lead is a woman named Lucky O’Toole, who is a Public Relations Manager in a Casino in Vegas.  She is essentially a workaholic, spending more time there than having any kind of life, or relationships to give her own life some kind of balance.  However when a woman falls out of a helicopter at a live show, Lucky finds herself not only racing against the clock to prove that it was murder, she finds herself juggling with her normal workload, a friend who wants to be so much more and a possible turncoat in security.

It sounds like an enjoyable romp, light and a cosy mystery for middle agers – although what is the going age to be middle aged again? 30-50?- it’s a bit more intense than that.  It’s a mystery, and definitely a murder, but there was so many things that just let everything down.

Our main character Lucky is a bright, spunky woman, who gets the job done and also throws her cash around when she can – always seems to be to help people who need it however – she also loves the good life, so there will be plenty of design brand names being fluttered throughout the book. Lucky has also appeared to have been burned by love before and with her best friend Theo wanting something more from her, she isn’t sure she wants to go deeper. All of this should make her an amazing character, and it does, but everything else around her just doesn’t work.

Theo is her best friend, a man who dressed in drag in the evenings, who has amazing fashion sense and is totally not gay.  Lucky makes sure everyone is aware that Theo is not gay, or bisexual but the latter part is actually stated in the preview for the next novel.  That part bothered me a lot, because why couldn’t Theo be bisexual? There wouldn’t have been a big issue about it, but there is no one in the whole story who isn’t straight, at least none that return to the story again and again.

Paxton Dane is another character who is from Texas, is made as a man’s man and is so boring.  There is nothing about him of any real interest and although we are meant to be suspicious of him, he just feels almost stereotyped as a straight white man who is trying to get his job done, while trying to flirt with Lucky.

Over all the characters aren’t that well developed to make them really stick or feel real.  Although i would love a book on Lucky’s mother Mona, I think that would be an interesting read if the author could add more depth to her characters.

Finally there was a few lines in the book that just bothered me, so here is a short list of them and where they are in the book:

Chapter Nine, page 122 – He felt warm, and hard in all the right places.   – I mean it’s bad when authors write curvy in all the right places for women, also what does it mean? Hard where? Chest? Head? Bum? Characters all can have a difference of opinion in what a right place is.

Chapter Ten, page 151 – She had a beautiful figure, curvy in all the right places.   –  Can I show you the above ^ part.  Curvy like how? How curvy is curvy, wide hips? Large breasts? Pominent bum? Does she also have toned up leg muscles like a cyclist? This just annoys me.

This part is an preview for the next book in the series called Lucky Stiff, page 326 – He’s not even bisexual.  –  In reference to Theo, talking to the reader in regards to how Theo might dress like a woman and act like a stereotypical gay man, but he isn’t gay or bisexual.

This novel could have been so good, and in general the idea was good, but given that  everyone in the story was straight, and it doesn’t even seem like the author cares about how she makes her main character come across in that regards… it seems shady to me.

It’s a decent story, the mystery really does feel like a mystery, but it does need a lot of work to make it feel a little bit more inclusive with it’s audience.

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