Get Lucky by Katherine Center
Description: How do you change your luck? Katherine Center’s marvelously entertaining and poignant new novel is about choosing to look for happiness—and maybe getting lucky enough to find it.
Sarah Harper isn’t sure if the stupid decisions she sometimes makes are good choices in disguise—or if they’re really just stupid. But either way, after forwarding an inappropriate email to her entire company, she suddenly finds herself out of a job.
So she goes home to Houston—and her sister, Mackie—for Thanksgiving. But before Sarah can share her troubles with her sister, she learns that Mackie has some woes of her own: After years of trying, Mackie’s given up on having a baby—and plans to sell on eBay the entire nursery she’s set up. Which gives Sarah a brilliant idea—an idea that could fix everyone’s problems. An idea that gives Sarah the chance to take care of her big sister for once—instead of the other way around.
But nothing worthwhile is ever easy. After a decade away, Sarah is forced to confront one ghost from her past after another: the father she’s lost touch with, the memories of her mother, the sweet guy she dumped horribly in high school. Soon everything that matters is on the line—and Sarah can only hope that by changing her life she has changed her luck, too.
The premise for GET LUCKY hooked me instantly. One sister decides to be a surrogate mother for her infertile sister. As a sister, I was immediately intrigued because it is a thought that has crossed my mind as a major “what if” question. What if someone you loved with all your heart needed something HUGE from you; a kidney, a lung, a baby? Is there anything as life-changing as carrying a baby for nine months and then turning that baby over to someone else? I may sound shallow here, but if my sister is wearing a t-shirt I gave her I immediately start to feel regret for giving it up. I couldn’t even imagine the effect a baby would have on my life.
I am making light of a very serious and selfless gift. In all honesty, I can say that I would step in front of truck for my sister, that’s how strongly I feel about family love. So yes, I would probably be a surrogate mother if my sister needed it. Would you? And what would it be like after you hand that baby over?
Can you see how this storyline immediately can spark some interesting questions and internal debates? Now couple that with brilliant writing and a knack for hitting emotional chords with pitch perfect prose and you have GET LUCKY. I can’t tell you how much I loved this book! Katherine Center has yet to disappoint. I adored THE BRIGHT SIDE OF DISASTER as well as EVERYONE IS BEAUTIFUL. Here is a sample from the beauty that makes up this book.
Here is what I tell myself now: That it’s vital to learn how to make the best of things. That there is no tenderness without bravery. That if things hadn’t been so bad, they could never have gotten so good. And that it’s always better to have what you have then to get what you wanted. Except for this: Every now and then, when you are impossibly lucky, you rise above yourself – and get both.
Sarah Harper had a top advertising job in New York City that she lost simply by hitting send to a mass email. Lost and without a clear sense of where to land next, Sarah heads home. She runs into a past love, reconnects with her sister Mackie and learns about her father’s new girlfriend, Dixie, who dispenses gems of advice and is one of the most sparkling characters in the novel. I found myself highlighting most of Dixie’s words of wisdom, for example:
When we comfort others, we comfort ourselves.
GET LUCKY is an intimate novel that explores the relationship between sisters and daughters, friends and lovers. Center beautifully shows us that lives can be changed in an instant, sometimes in the smallest and most significant ways. Other times life changes in big sweeping gestures. It is up to each individual person to seek happiness in all the different aspects of change.
Trying to get her to broaden her perspective. There were so many components of a rich life. Love was one, sure. But so was friendship, so was helping people. So was taking walks, and singing, and wondering about things. I wanted to convince her that a real love, a better love, would come to her if she took the time to enrich some other – any other – part of her life. I wanted to convince her that there are some things we can only find when we we aren’t looking.
Katherine Center has an impeccable ability to take the smallest details of a life and make them profoundly beautiful. Center has a knack for creating the most charming characters and I am so looking forward to her next release. I think I am going to start a star-rating in my book reviews for the sole reason that I want to give GET LUCKY by Katherine Center 5 stars!
