eBook Lucky (Avery Sisters Trilogy) download

This book was really difficult to get into. I mean the introduction of the characters the plot of the story, I just couldn't figure it out. I continued to read it to see if I could actually get into it, but I just became more and more frustrated and confused. The main character, Phoebe, is a total brat!

Her parents are well off and that's ok. Things happen and the mom no longer has a job. Phoebe has been planning and 8th grade graduation party with her bet friend, Kirstyn. And obviously, her parents can't pay their part any longer. Instead of telling her friend what was going on, she starts talking bad about her, turning everyone against her so that the party can be cancelled. Obviously, the parents talk and everything is resolved. Kirstyn's parents end up paying for everything. The party happens. Phoebe feels so embarrassed and dumb after the whole thing. Not only that, but her friend ended up giving her the dress that she originally wanted to wear.

What she did was far worse than if she would have told the truth from the beginning. She was such a jerk with everyone including her parents. She didn't deserve all that she got. She truly is Lucky...

Although marketed as YA, this book has the tone and cadence of a middle-grade novel. The main character is in eighth-grade. Phoebe Avery has led a charmed life: good looks, good grades, she's friends with the popular set, and her parents make a "comfortable" living that includes designer clothes, their own maid and trips to Europe. She's in the midst of planning a major bash to celebrate her eighth-grade graduation when everything starts crashing down around her ears. Her mother loses her high-powered job, and suddenly, the whole family must economize.

I found Phoebe bratty and difficult to like. What sort of eighth-grader demands to purchase a Vera Wang dress? The first clue that all is not right occurs when Phoebe dramatically throws away the family's broken toaster. Her mother angrily fishes it out of the trash, very out of character. Phoebe, of course, has only been imitating her mother who had recently thrown away a slightly imperfect tea kettle.

What is strikingly real about the book is Phoebe's excruciating self-conciousness. It's painful to read, because it takes you right back to that feeling of being in middle-school, and terrified of not fitting in. As the youngest of three sisters, Phoebe always feels like she's trying to prove herself. Phoebe feels like she's barely holding onto her spot in her social circle, as her best friend Kirstyn insists on taking their big graduation party to greater and greater excess. Poor Phoebe is so distracted with her family's money worries, she can hardly spare a thought for Lucas, a boy at school that she's been interested in.

There's something very, very intense about going through tight times at this age - Phoebe is old enough to understand very clearly exactly what is going on, but young enough to be completely unable to help out, or support herself at all. She's utterly humiliated at the idea of having to shop at thrift stores and can't bear to tell her friends the truth about her reduced circumstances. Many tween readers may get a vicarious thrill out of reading this, knowing that if their own situation mirrors Phoebe's, at least there's a very good chance that they'll handle it with better grace than she does. This is the first in a trilogy.

Eighth-grader Phoebe Avery knows she's lucky. She lives in a luxurious development and has a backyard pool, a housekeeper, a nanny and the freedom to simply throw out a tea kettle or a toaster when it goes on the fritz.

Phoebe also has a great family. Her father is a humble kindergarten teacher, and her beautiful, high-powered mother's financial job funds the family's super-comfortable lifestyle. Her two older sisters, Quinn and Allison, have lives of their own, but they're almost always available when their little sister needs them. Phoebe also has four excellent friends. Sure, her best friend Kirstyn can be bossy and spoiled at times, but they've been close for four years, and they're looking forward to taking high school by storm.

Together, Phoebe and her friends are planning the biggest, best, most glamorous middle school graduation party (lots of) money can buy. So what if the custom invitations, live band, photographer, food and decorations cost a fortune? Phoebe's parents have never talked about money, and Phoebe knows that anything she wants --- including money for a party or that perfect green party dress --- is hers for the asking.

That is, until her mother is abruptly fired following a series of bad investment decisions at her job. Phoebe doesn't really understand what her mom did --- all she knows is that when her mom's credit cards get declined and they have to start laying off household staff, her family might actually have to start thinking, and talking, about money after all. To add to the stresses at home, Phoebe's mom's check for the party deposit bounces, leaving her with a tough decision: should she air her family's dirty laundry in front of her friends, or should she find some other way to get out of the party --- even if it means ruining her friendship with Kirstyn? Can Phoebe turn her luck around --- and find out what being fortunate really means?

Rachel Vail's new book, LUCKY, is a refreshing antidote to the many recent novels uncritically celebrating the self-indulgent, glamorous and totally over-the-top lifestyles of elite adolescents. In exploring what happens when one of those financially favored teens has to make a change for the poorer, she also touches on how young adults view their own roles within the family and how they rely on their parents for emotional reassurance and ethical guidance (not to mention financial security) even as they work to achieve independence.

LUCKY is the first book in a planned trilogy, each of which will focus on one of the daughters in the Avery family. Since readers just get glimpses of Allison and Quinn's lives, they will likely return enthusiastically to spend more time with the Averys, to learn how this lively, loving family continues to cope with change, and to discover how each of the Avery girls (dubbed "the Valkyries" by their mother) will find her own path.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl