It is no secret that I adore Kasie West. She is another instabuy/instaread author for me. I couldn’t wait to read this story! Sadly, it was not the best West story I have read but it was sweet.
Short recap: Maddie has her life planned out. She is going to continue studying hard to get into the college of her dreams, get a grant/scholarship to attend, and stay close enough to home to take care of her parents. Absolutely no boys in that equation. Sounds like a good plan until Maddie lets reality in that money is very tight since her father isn’t working and her mom is working double shifts at the hospital. Everything changes for Maddie when she buys a lottery ticket on her 18th birthday and wins millions of dollars! Maddie is going to learn first hand if money really can solve all of her problems.
West is known for her super sweet romancy contemps but I feel the romance was missing from this story. It was sweet… but it felt the focus of the story was more around Maddie waiting for a college acceptance letter and how to spend stupid amount sof money on crap that isn’t needed. $1,000 on jeans? Are you on drugs, Maddie? Sure, discovering how to live life after winning $50 million dollars would be an adjustment but it wasn’t handled well in this story. That isn’t a terrible topic because we all – at some point – have played the “What would you do if you won the lottery?” question. I also think I might have liked this more if Maddie wasn’t such a damn pushover. She was so gullible and naive it was maddening. After she won the lottery she struggled to tell her best friends. These are her ride or die friends. These are the girls she has spent nearly every waking moment with. These are the girls who she has made a pact with to not date boys until college. If you cannot trust your bestest ride or die friends, then they really aren’t that good of friends, right? That’s my belief anyways. I don’t like how Maddie immediately thought those friends would treat her differently. They were her only true friends and she treated them like crap. I also did not like how Maddie thought the cool and popular girl in school suddenly wanted to be her BFF was natural. Give me a break. Anyone with a set of eyes could see that girl was using Maddie for her new found millions.
Maddie’s family was also annoying as all get out. Her brother dropped out of college, her dad refused to take a job for fear “it was beneath him”, and her mom complained all the time about having to work so much. Maddie wanted to make everyone happy so she gave them $1 million each. Honey, money does not solve problems. It just felt like Maddie was a crutch for everyone in her immediate family – again, she was being used yet she was too blind to see any of it. Instead, she thought it was a brilliant idea to buy a $100k sports car… at the age of 18. Give me a break.
Remember how I said this was supposed to be a romance story? That felt like it was just a tiny part of the story. Seth was the boy Maddie worked with at the zoo and really liked. He was the love interest and he felt like an afterthought. Too much of the story focused on everything but the budding romance with Seth. I wanted the romance between these two characters to start but nothing really took off until the very end of the story. Until then, I was subjected to Maddie spending money on a yacht party, a total makeover, and talking even more about money.
I wanted to like this more than I did. It was a good concept for a story but I don’t think it was delivered well. The plot is very predictable so don’t go into this unsure of how it will end because it is obvious. Maddie’s true friends and Seth are the shinning stars of this story but they have small parts so enjoy them when they do show up. This is a super fast read still feels like a Kasie West story, but it is not her best story to date.
