Lucky

This novel by Marissa Stapley has gotten so much chat in the review sources that I had to read it. It left me lukewarm. The premise is this: a baby is left on the steps of a church and before a reluctant novice nun can take in the baby, a man comes along and says his wife has left the baby there in a fit of post-partum depression. Eventually we learn this is a lie. But in the meantime, we come to know Lucky, a young girl trained to be a con artist by her grifter father. Although she makes several attempts to chage the trajectory of her life into a more stable, predictable and honest path, she mostly falls back to what she's good at, which is conning people out of their money. The journey is, at times, heartbreaking and, at times, aggravating. I felt sympathy for her, especially as a child who never had a friend she could keep because her father kept them moving. But to me, she just wasn't that interesting a character. The big dilemma she faces is when she wins the lottery but can't claim the prize because she is wanted by the authorities for fraud. Who can she trust to get the money for her?

The book was Reese's Book Club pick for December (2021), describing it as "an electric story about an unconventional heroine who is on the run from her past with a winning lottery ticket that could change her future forever." Publishers Weekly calls the book a "page-turner [that] packs in more than its share of heart."