Book ~ "Just My Luck" (2020) Adele Parks

From Goodreads ~ It’s the stuff dreams are made of – a lottery win so big, it changes everything.

For fifteen years, Lexi and Jake have played the same six numbers with their friends, the Pearsons and the Heathcotes. Over dinner parties, fish & chip suppers and summer barbecues, they’ve discussed the important stuff – the kids, marriages, jobs and houses – and they’ve laughed off their disappointment when they failed to win anything more than a tenner.

But then, one Saturday night, the unthinkable happens. There’s a rift in the group. Someone doesn’t tell the truth. And soon after, six numbers come up which change everything forever.

Lexi and Jake have a ticket worth £18 million. And their friends are determined to claim a share of it.

Lexi and Jack, Carla and Patrick, and Jennifer and Fred have been friends for over 15 years ... the wives met when they were pregnant and now their kids are friends.  Over the years, they have been playing the same numbers in the lottery every week but have never won.  But then one Saturday night, the numbers win big time ... almost £18 million!  Carla and Patrick and Jennifer and Fred want their share but Lexi and Jake say there had been a big fight the week before and the other two couples had backed out of being in the lottery so the money belongs to just Lexi and Jake ... and a judge ultimately agrees.  Surprisingly winning all the money doesn't bring the happiness and stability Lexi imagined it would.

I thought the writing style was just okay.  It was quite a convoluted story and farfetched at times ... some I just shook my head at.  It is written in first person perspective when it was Lexi and Emily's (Lexi and Jack's 15-year-old daughter) voices and third person perspective otherwise.  As a head's up there is swearing and violence.

I didn't find the characters likeable.  It was unbelievable that these three couples were friends all these years since they were so different and unlikeable in their own way.  Lexi has the biggest heart and is the most compassionate but is such a wimp and lets her family and friends walk over her and push her around.  Jake became a huge jerk once they won the lottery and spent spent spent and encouraged their kids to also.  Even though Lexi didn't agree with all this spending, she didn't do anything about it.