Review: With a Little Luck (Fortuna Beach #2) by Marissa Meyer

Title: With a Little Luck

Series: Fortuna Beach #2

Previous book in this series: Instant Karma

Author: Marissa Meyer

Illustrator: Chuck Gonzales

Genre: YA, contemporary romance

Publication date: February 13th 2024

Published by: Feiwel & Friends

Source: Purchased hardcover

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Synopsis: After being magically gifted with incredible luck, a boy discovers this gift just may be a curse when it comes to love, in this YA novel by #1 New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer.

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?

My rating: ★★★★★

"These lucky coincidences seem to be happening to you a lot lately," Pru mutters. She studies me a long moment, then gets an odd, faraway look in her eye. She turns away, sighing, "Enjoy it while it lasts.”

Pru knowwws! 😂 After all she went through and Instant Karma, Pru gets it. Lol. I loved Instant Karma, so I was really looking forward to reading this book, and it was as good as I was expecting!

While his sister got the ability to bestow instant karma to anyone around her, Jude was suddenly gifted with unbelievably good luck. It all started when he found this really cool twenty-sided die at his parent’s record store. Things then start go incredibly well for him—he asked out his crush, submitted one of his drawings for publication, and his DnD campaign was going great! But if you’ve read Instant Karma then you know that it’s only a matter of time before the good luck starts to turn, well, not so lucky.

This actually reminded me a lot of that episode in Supernatural, Bad Day at Black Rock, which is one of my favorite episodes! Except nobody died in this book, thank god 😆 In fact, it was quite the opposite of that episode because this book was cute and heartwarming 🥰

One of my favorite things about this book was the relationships between the characters. Right off the bat, the siblings interacting with each other was the cutest thing! I love how caring and supportive they are of one another. The way Jude helps out with his younger sisters, watching them and cooking for them. And the way he makes time for them, singing Ellie to sleep, and listening to Penny play her violin in preparation for a recital. He is such a good big brother! I love him and how much he loves his sisters!

And in return, his sisters are very supportive of him as well. Encouraging Jude to enter his drawings for publication, and even little things like his sister Lucy helping him pick out an outfit for his date 😭 At the end of the book Pru is literally going out the door to go to prom with Quint, but she ends up taking the time to talk with Jude about what’s going on with him and gives him some advice. Ahh! And they do all this genuinely! Sibling rivalry is a thing, I get that, but it is just so refreshing when you pick up a book and you get a loving family like this that supports one another no matter what. I love this family so much! 😭

And then there’s the relationship between Jude and Ari, which was also very cute and heartwarming. They are the best of friends, but from the beginning, you can tell that Ari likes Jude more than just a friend. Jude, however, is blinded by his major crush on Maya. So when Jude told Ari things like that he is her biggest fan (re: her music) and that she could do no wrong in his eyes, I was like, “Dude! Do you not realize how that sounds to her?!” 😆 Poor Ari. Lol. But again, even though he was blind toward Ari’s true feelings, I loved how unconditionally supportive he was of her. Going into this I was worried because I hate love triangles, but I am happy to say that no shapes of the triangle variety were present in this book!

And I actually really enjoyed following Jude as he navigated his feelings for Maya and Ari, and him just coming to terms with what each girl really meant to him.

But what if I'd been in love with the idea of [Maya]? What if some part of me had actually liked that she was unattainable? Because unattainable is safe. Unattainable means I never have to do anything. I never have to try. I never have to put my heart on the line.
While falling for someone else... falling for a best friend... falling for Ari... would be anything but safe.

I just loved everything about this book. I loved how heartwarming and wholesome it was, I loved the characters and their relationships, and the story with the little touch of magic—that was a lot of fun! One thing that I was not expecting in this book was the comic panels scattered throughout! They were mostly illustrations of Jude’s DnD campaign and it was very cool! I really enjoyed them! And I also liked the story and the way it paralleled to Jude’s real life. And speaking of DnD, I know NOTHING about this game, but I really enjoyed learning about it, and it honestly seems like a lot of fun! The way this book was so nerdy is another thing I loved about it. It’s definitely my type of book. Lol.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊