I was lucky enough to win a copy of The Good Lucks Girls and although it sat in my TBR pile for a little while, not being my usual genre, I was however pleasantly surprised.
The story is set in a fantasy wild west setting, and it jumps straight in from the get go to the welcome house where the 5 girls in the story live and work. They were sold to the welcome house when they were younger, given new names and tattooed on their necks with a flower, which is known as a favour, which shows they belong to a welcome house and are Good Luck Girls.
On their 16th birthday the girls become Sundown Girls, where their virginities are sold off to the highest bidder, and they enter a life of having to entertain rich and wealthy male clients who are known as Brags, until they are considered too old.
The story starts with the 16th birthday of Clementine and the preparations for her “lucky night”. Clementine accidently kills the brag who had bid for her, and from then on the story follows the escape of Clementine, her sister Aster, and 3 other girls as they go on the run as they try to evade their pursuers in the search of freedom and the Lady Ghost, a mythical character who can help to remove the favors marking them as Good Luck Girls. The narrative then switches to Aster (Clementine’s sister) point of view throughout the rest of the book. Aster feels very protective of her sister and powerless that she has been unable to really protect her so far.
The setting gives off a wild west vibe, but at the same time there are many supernatural aspects in the form of vengeants and raveners, but the story addresses hard hitting subjects such as equality, race, addiction, trafficking and sex slavery.
It has a fast paced storyline, with lots of twists and non-stop action throughout the Good Luck Girls journey, and I got caught up in their escape.
However, I did feel that the ending came in a bit of a rush and it felt a little abrupt. Whilst we learn what Aster decides to do, I would like to have learnt what happened to Clementine, and the 3 other girls.…….maybe this will be so in a second book!
Overall I found this an enjoyable debut by Charlotte Nicole Davis.
The story is set in a fantasy wild west setting, and it jumps straight in from the get go to the welcome house where the 5 girls in the story live and work. They were sold to the welcome house when they were younger, given new names and tattooed on their necks with a flower, which is known as a favour, which shows they belong to a welcome house and are Good Luck Girls.
On their 16th birthday the girls become Sundown Girls, where their virginities are sold off to the highest bidder, and they enter a life of having to entertain rich and wealthy male clients who are known as Brags, until they are considered too old.
The story starts with the 16th birthday of Clementine and the preparations for her “lucky night”. Clementine accidently kills the brag who had bid for her, and from then on the story follows the escape of Clementine, her sister Aster, and 3 other girls as they go on the run as they try to evade their pursuers in the search of freedom and the Lady Ghost, a mythical character who can help to remove the favors marking them as Good Luck Girls. The narrative then switches to Aster (Clementine’s sister) point of view throughout the rest of the book. Aster feels very protective of her sister and powerless that she has been unable to really protect her so far.
The setting gives off a wild west vibe, but at the same time there are many supernatural aspects in the form of vengeants and raveners, but the story addresses hard hitting subjects such as equality, race, addiction, trafficking and sex slavery.
It has a fast paced storyline, with lots of twists and non-stop action throughout the Good Luck Girls journey, and I got caught up in their escape.
However, I did feel that the ending came in a bit of a rush and it felt a little abrupt. Whilst we learn what Aster decides to do, I would like to have learnt what happened to Clementine, and the 3 other girls.…….maybe this will be so in a second book!
Overall I found this an enjoyable debut by Charlotte Nicole Davis.