A review by jayvall
With a Little Luck by Caprice Crane
2.0
First off, I think the back copy gets Berry all wrong. The copy says she doesn’t believe in luck, which may be technically true, but she puts a lot more than a “bit” of stock in any and every superstition that’s out there. From an aversion to even numbers, to getting caught by too many yellow lights being a harbinger of a bad day, Berry has got a superstition for everything in the world. This neurosis stems from the fact that her father is a gamble-holic and thinks she’s his lucky charm. Despite the fact that Berry’s got more superstitions than a haystack’s got hay, she can’t handle when anyone else fails to take her seriously, in spite of her dislike of the number 5. This is her tragic flaw. Berry is ridiculous, but doesn’t realize it, and because the story is written in first person, there’s no way to escape Berry’s particular brand of crazy. This made WITH A LITTLE LUCK difficult to enjoy.
It’s not that WITH A LITTLE LUCK is poorly written or even boring, per se; but I didn’t find the story engaging either. This is all the more unfortunate, because as evidenced by her twitter feed, Caprice Crane can be quite amusing. However, here the funny just falls flat. WITH A LITTLE LUCK was almost a chore to read, which is pretty sad because, with the exception of Berry, I liked the rest of the people in this book and would have gladly read a story where Berry was not the star.
There is no question that Caprice Crane is a talented writer; however, WITH A LITTLE LUCK was not my favorite of her four books. Having read all of Crane’s books, my advice to newcomers of her work would be to start with STUPID AND CONTAGIOUS, move on to FORGET ABOUT IT, and then proceed with caution. I like Caprice Crane, but at this point, I’m not convinced she’s more than a two-hit wonder.
Originally posted on romancereaderatheart.com
It’s not that WITH A LITTLE LUCK is poorly written or even boring, per se; but I didn’t find the story engaging either. This is all the more unfortunate, because as evidenced by her twitter feed, Caprice Crane can be quite amusing. However, here the funny just falls flat. WITH A LITTLE LUCK was almost a chore to read, which is pretty sad because, with the exception of Berry, I liked the rest of the people in this book and would have gladly read a story where Berry was not the star.
There is no question that Caprice Crane is a talented writer; however, WITH A LITTLE LUCK was not my favorite of her four books. Having read all of Crane’s books, my advice to newcomers of her work would be to start with STUPID AND CONTAGIOUS, move on to FORGET ABOUT IT, and then proceed with caution. I like Caprice Crane, but at this point, I’m not convinced she’s more than a two-hit wonder.
Originally posted on romancereaderatheart.com