Bad Luck Club by A.R. Casella and Denise Grover Swank
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
3.5 Stars
Bad Luck Club by A.R. Casella & Denise Grover Swank is redemptive and touching but ultimately the romance is left a little on the sidelines.
In the Bad Luck Club (Asheville Brewing #4), a newly single and humbled Lee Buchanan is in Asheville fresh from having discovered his father’s and ex-fiancé’s betrayals. He’s living with Adalia, Jack and Iris and TRYING to find a place at Buchanan Brewery but not having much success.
So far he’s failed at every job his siblings have given him within the Brewery. He’s almost ready to try his hand at janitorial services next. He’s having an existential crisis, feeling like a failure and Adalia is determined to find a place for him at the brewery that makes him happy.
He sees Blue Combs when he’s out with Adalia and introduces himself having forgotten that he’s already “met” her twice while he was terribly drunk and embarrassed himself both times.
Blue wants to help Lee’s fractured soul by sponsoring him into the mysterious Bad Luck Club, however, this would mean they would have to spend a lot of time together and also that they would not be allowed to date one another. She’s currently dating another man who her friends all dislike and says she’s not interested in Lee but does she really mean it?
I was both looking forward to this book and apprehensive about it at the same time. Could Lee redeem himself from both his actions and inactions from the three previous books in the Asheville Brewing series? Would this book provide the necessary closure to wrap up the whole series? The answer is yes and no.
Lee’s character was redeemed with the help of Dottie, Blue and her found family that make up the characters of the Bad Luck Club. He was redeemed by his competence in his job with Buchanan Brewery and his desire to help his siblings. He was redeemed in a lot of ways however the journey to get there was a long one. Of course.
Lee has a LOT of work to do on himself when he first arrives in Asheville and the book lags in the middle as he grapples with his issues and I felt that it pulled attention and time from the romance that is supposed to be happening between Blue and Lee. It is slightly realistic though as he does have to work through his father’s failures as a parent and a human being, the death of his mother that he’s never let himself experience, all of his ingrained weaknesses of character that his father encouraged, and the rift with his siblings. It is a LOT. The authors may have written themselves into a corner by making Lee a puppet of his father for so long.
The romance proceeds and it is a good one, however, Lee’s former ways return in the climax and I really could have lived without that. It does allow for one of the great moments in the book in which Lee allows himself to be truly vulnerable – but with DOTTIE – which reinforces the theme of family that the book is presenting but sidesteps the romance once again.
The book ultimately does do right by the romance, the themes of family: both with the Buchanans and Blue’s found family and there is a bit of closure surrounding the brewery and Brew Fest. I would have personally liked about five more epilogues though because I like big time closure.
The authors gave Lee his happily ever after and allowed him his redemption with his family at his side. I love Lee now and loved his relationship with his family and Dottie. For that reason and the pacing issue, I’m giving Bad Luck Club 3.5 stars. It is still well worth your time to read. I look forward to reading Molly and Cal’s story next.
WRITING STYLE: 5/5
PLOT: 3/5
WORLD-BUILDING: 5/5
PACING: 3/5
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: 4/5
ROMANCE: 3/5
HEAT: 2/5 (closed door)
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Can two broken people grow together, or will they tear each other apart?
Bad Luck Club, an all-new, not-to-be-missed, opposites attract standalone romance in the laugh-out-loud Asheville Brewery Series by New York Times bestselling author Denise Grover Swank and A.R. Casella is available now!
A grumpy man. A recovering people-pleaser. And the secret club that brings them together.
Lee Buchanan is a hot mess.
Turning one’s father into the feds can do that to a man.
He had nothing to do with his father’s Ponzi scheme, but he’s blacklisted from commercial real estate all the same. Which is how he ends up in Asheville, working at the brewery he inherited with his siblings. He’s salty as hell, and he doesn’t care who knows it.
Until the gorgeous, intriguing Blue Combs issues the most peculiar invitation he’s ever received: Come to the Bad Luck Club. We can help you.
It sounds like a cult or, worse, a group of Mary Sues, but Blue is different from any woman he’s ever met. For better or worse, he’s drawn to her.
Just like she’s drawn to him, even if she has no intention of going all in with another man. She’s been there, done that, twice, and the life she’s built for herself is too important to risk.
What starts as one person’s desire to help another turns into a connection too powerful to be denied—but can two broken people grow together, or will they tear each other apart?
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Excerpt
She turned into Bear’s long drive, and Lee cursed a little under his breath.
“We’re here, aren’t we?”
“This is it. You’re looking at the Cluster.”
There was plenty of parking for everyone, thankfully, but the people who lived closest to each other usually carpooled for meetings. That made it hard to tell who’d already arrived, but it looked like they were among the last. She couldn’t decide whether that was a good thing.
She parked the car and turned to Lee, who was giving her a pointed glance. “Cloister? That isn’t helping dissuade me about the whole cult thing. The whole cabin in the woods thing doesn’t seem like a great sign either.”
“Not cloister. Cluster, like cluster…fudge.”
A smile played on his lips. “Let me guess, your father didn’t like it when you swore.”
“Of course not,” she said, smiling back. “It wouldn’t be ladylike.”
“And why, may I ask, do they call their own house a cluster—” he gave her a wicked look, “—fudge?”
“I guess you’re about to find out.”
They both unbuckled their seat belts, but he made no move for the door. Gazing at her, the gold flecks in his eyes like mica, he asked, “Blue, what part of last night convinced you to break things off with Dan?”
She didn’t answer right away, her heart still choking her, and he smiled at her—a sexy, unreserved smile—the kind that made her wonder how many people he’d looked at this way.
“Radical honesty, remember?”
Her whole body hummed like a tuned instrument. It hadn’t been like this since the beginning with Remy.
And if that wasn’t a thought to wake her up . . .
Except it didn’t jar her enough. Because she found herself leaning toward Lee a little, as if caught up in a whirlwind of his making. As if those vines were cinching their very bodies together. “Because I wanted you to kiss me,” she admitted. She silently added, Because I felt more connected to you in one night than I did to him in two months…
But Lee was reaching for her then, his hand weaving into her hair, pulling her to him, and those lips that had driven her to distraction the night before, the ones that had hovered over her neck, were suddenly on hers. They were warm and commanding, and Blue felt lost to the longing that unfurled within her, to the heat that ignited in her core. He’d probably meant it to be a soft kiss, exploratory, but his hand burrowed deeper into her hair, pulling her closer, and she found herself moaning as his tongue swept into her mouth. She wrapped her hands around his arms, mindlessly trying to bring him closer, needing to feel him against her like she had last night, like she’d dreamed of, and suddenly he was lifting her up onto his lap. They were facing each other this time, and she had a flash of what it would have been like if they’d talked like this last night—looking into each other’s eyes, bodies locked together—and the intimacy of it was more arousing than anything she’d ever experienced. She was the one who kissed him this time, reveling in the fact that he’d given her control by pulling her on top of him, until she caught a glimpse of the bench Cal had made, beneath the willow tree in the Cluster’s back yard, and oh God, what the hell was she doing?
About Denise Grover Swank
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Denise Grover Swank was born in Kansas City, Missouri and lived in the area until she was nineteen. Then she became a nomadic gypsy, living in five cities, four states and ten ho uses over the course of ten years before she moved back to her roots. She speaks English and smattering of Spanish and Chinese which she learned through an intensive Nick Jr. immersion period. Her hobbies include witty Facebook comments (in own her mind) and dancing in her kitchen with her children. (Quite badly if you believe her offspring.) Hidden talents include the gift of justification and the ability to drink massive amounts of caffeine and still fall asleep within two minutes. Her lack of the sense of smell allows her to perform many unspeakable tasks. She has six children and hasn’t lost her sanity. Or so she leads you to believe.
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About A.R. Casella
A.R. CASELLA is a freelance developmental editor by day, writer by night. She lives in Asheville, NC with her husband, daughter, two dogs, and a variable number of fish. Her pastimes include chasing around her toddler, baking delicious treats, and occasional bouts of crocheting. Any Luck at All, co-written with New York Times bestselling author Denise Grover Swank, is her first book.
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Website: https://www.arcasella.com/
I hope you’ll take a chance on the Bad Luck Club by A.R. Casella & Denise Grover Swank. Take a look at more releases happening this month in this list.