Good Luck Charm – Helena Hunting

The Good Luck Charm

by Helena Hunting
Publisher: Forever
Release Date: August 7, 2018

Genre: Contemporary Romance

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Lilah isn’t sure what hurt worse: the day Ethan left her to focus on his hockey career, or the day he came back eight years later. He might think they can pick up just where they left off, but she’s no longer that same girl and never wants to be again.

Ethan Kane wants his glory days back. And that includes having Lilah by his side. With her, he was magic. They were magic. All he has to do is make her see that.

Just when Lilah might finally be ready to let him in, though, she finds out their reunion has nothing to do with her and everything to do with his game. But Ethan’s already lost her once, and even if it costs him his career, he’ll do anything to keep from losing her again.

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If you skipped the synopsis of the book above, I want you to go back and read it… okay? I bet you think you have an idea of what this book is about? Sorry! You don’t – not even close. This is actually one of the most misleading book blurbs I’ve ever come across. The book above sounds kind of cute (and I know this shouldn’t matter but the cover is adorable). The blurb is the reason that I put it on my TBR and requested it from the library. I’d never read anything from Helena Hunting before…

What I got instead was a shallow, plot-less novel that has practically nothing at all to do with hockey & just seemed to me to be boring scenes interspersed with a lot of doing it. I’ve never done bullets in a review before but I feel compelled to with this review… I’m going to warn you there are spoilers below…

• Lilah is a giant pushover. Sure she says that she doesn’t want to date Ethan again but literally five pages later they are dating. I’m not saying she should have made him work for it a little harder, but… well, yes I am. She (Lilah AND Hunting) should have made him work for it a little.
• There is almost NO supporting cast. It is actually a little annoying. Lilah and Ethan do have friends and family that make small appearances in the beginning and end of the novel but they are woefully under developed. For a majority of the novel, it is quite literally Lilah and Ethan talking or having sex. I don’t have the exact stat (& I’m also not going to open the book and count) but I would guess that at least 75% of the scenes are JUST them.
• Lilah is taking a college course so she can get credits to apply to grad school. But a good chunk of the conflict revolves around the fact that she wants/needs to study but Ethan keeps asking her to hang out and she just can’t say no to him (poor thing, huh?).  Surprise! She begins failing… I’m on the edge of my seat here, guys… will she ever get up the courage to say no to him?? (UUUUGGGHH. SHE IS AN ADULT!!) This is incredibly frustrating because she mentions how good of a student she had been in the past. I can’t imagine how since she seems to have ZERO self discipline.
• Ethan doesn’t help the situation because he is an ass. I mean, she does tell him she has to study before immediately folding and running off to hang out with him anyway. Even after she pathetically yells at him, he still doesn’t change.  He buys her flowers, says he is sorry & then continues his obnoxious selfish behavior. Now, I’m not saying he should be responsible for making Lilah study – she is an adult and should be responsible for herself – but he could at least be a little more supportive of her “dream”.
• At one point in the novel, they are walking the dog and Lilah trips over a tree branch or something. Ethan immediately whips out his first aid kit and starts cleaning the scrape on her knee…. All I kept thinking about was “is Lilah five years old?” and “who the hell carries a first aid kit while walking the dog?” Don’t worry, guys, she was fine. Literally three minutes later they’re half naked almost doing it next to the offending tree (face palm).
• They were seperated for EIGHT years and both of them at one point in the novel become irrationally angry and jealous that they each had relationships during that time. There is no worry about infidelity at all. They just get pissed at each other because they dated other people in the eight years they were apart.
• About 80% of the way through the novel, some supporting characters show up again in a OBVIOUS set up for a sequel/companion novel staring Lilah’s underwhelming big sister.
• What? I haven’t mentioned hockey at all in ANY of these points above? That’s because there is NO HOCKEY IN THE ENTIRE BOOK except at the veeeery end (like the last five pages) when Ethan wins the Stanley Cup…. hahahahahaha.

 

2 Spades