With a Little Luck by Marissa Meyer Narrator: Stacy Carolan
Series: Fortuna Beach #2
Published by MacMillan Audio on February 13, 2024
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy Romance
Length: 12 hours, 4 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
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Jude is determined to fly under the radar. He just wants to draw his comics, host regular D&D night with his friends, work at his parents’ vinyl record store, and escape high school as unscathed as possible. That is, until the night he comes across a mysterious twenty-sided dice and finds himself inexplicably gifted with a bout of supernatural good luck.
Suddenly, everything Jude has ever wanted is within reach. His first art submission is accepted to his favorite fanzine. He helps his friend’s song become a finalist in a songwriting competition. And he’s the 100th caller to a local radio contest, winning him a pair of coveted concert tickets, which he uses to ask out the popular girl he’s been crushing on since elementary school. For a few blissful weeks, he feels invincible.
But when he loses the magic dice at a local music festival, his luck takes a turn for the worse. He struggles to reclaim his good fortune while fighting off long-buried feelings for his best friend―who is definitely not the girl he’s supposed to be in love with. Can Jude risk stepping into the spotlight long enough to win the true girl of his dreams? Or is he doomed to be unlucky in love forever?
With a Little Luck is the second book in Marissa Meyer’s Fortuna Beach series. This series is a cool blend of YA romance with a little bit of magic on the side. Jude, is your average semi-nerdy teen. He is the dungeon master for a D&D group, draws comic books and works at his parents record store. He has had a crush on the same girl for years and with some luck on his side he might just have a shot with her.
Jude is Pru’s twin brother from Instant Karma and now we get a story centered on him. One thing Jude has going for him is he is definitely more likeable than Pru was at the beginning of his book so it was really easy to root for him. He and Ari have been great friends 4-ever. They have inside jokes, root each other on and hang out all the time. Ari writes music and Jude draws and creates stories for his D&D group. They both work at Jude’s parents’ record store and from the beginning it is clear that they are meant to be together, but Jude is a teenage boy with a huge crush on one of the popular girls at school and is oblivious to it.
When Jude finds a fancy 20 side die on a record turn-table and rolls a 20 with it all the stars seem to align and opportunity seems to knock at every turn giving him a shot to ask out his crush when he wins some tickets to a concert she is dying to go to. He finally has his shot but as he gets to know Mia, he realizes she is great, but maybe she isn’t the girl for him. One problem, all his luck seems to be missing now that he lost his lucky dice so how is he going to get the girl he never noticed was right in front of him the entire time.
I had a really good relaxing time in this book. It is super cute and I really adored the sibling relationships in it along with the semi-dorky kid who you’re hoping gains a little confidence and figures out how to get the right girl in the end. There are all kinds of cute moments and I appreciated that the girl he crushed on all this time was a great girl, she just wasn’t the right girl for him but had so many cool things about her too. Ari was so easy to really like and I couldn’t wait to see how her music was going to play into the story.
Overall this is a great little rom com that stays age appropriate. While there really isn’t a lot of drama happening in the story, I enjoyed being a part of Jude’s world as he learns that sometimes Luck is all in the eye of the beholder and how you react to it.
Narration:
Stacy Carolan is a new to me narrator. I thought they were a good choice for this story and fit the characters well. The cadence and diction was right for teenagers and the voice sounded like a teen. I was able to listen at my usual 1.5x speed.
Listen to a clip: HERE
About Marissa Meyer
Marissa Meyer is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lunar Chronicles, Heartless, The Renegades Trilogy, and Instant Karma, as well as the graphic novel duology Wires and Nerve. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University and a MA in Publishing from Pace University. In addition to writing, Marissa hosts The Happy Writer podcast. She lives near Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and twin daughters.
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Sometimes I really do enjoy a drama-less story.