Jackpot

Unfortunately surprised that she's not a good narrator of her own audiobooks. Eventually quit the audio and just read the book. She's trying for quirk and uplift but kept beating us over the head with the themes of privilege/poverty, have/have nots, will they/won't they...for a loooong time, oof. Spends so much time on the mains that other characters are barely realized. Dear Martin remains a fave but the 2 following were...not. Wonder if the tight editing of DM (she said editor cut it in half from what she wrote) made it her superior book.

4.5/5 stars

This novel is about two contrasting teenagers, one rich and one poor. Rico wants to retrace the steps of an old lady who she believes she sold a winning lottery ticket too at her job. Rico knows that she could use the help of Zan and the two are brought together over this.

Rico knows she can use the money to help support her family. Her family lives in an area they can barely afford for her to get an education she can barely focus on with her family not being financially stable. Her family barely has enough food or health insurance for her mom's chronic illness.

Finding the owner of the ticket could mean she could cash out big. Zan seems to have a different reason for wanting to seek out this older woman. His family is swimming in money.

I loved the family relationships in this book and how it shows that families aren't perfect. The fact that for most of the book Zan is pinning after Rico is so adorable and really made my heart melt. You could see how much he cared for her. I also enjoyed the fact that Rico was unique and wasn't afraid to put the rich boy in his place. The characters and their interactions were definitely the strongest point in this book.

I didn't enjoy the plot as much as I thought I would and I felt like chasing after this woman seemed like a long shot. The fact that Rico also went to Zan, a boy she barely knew, over everybody else seems a bit farfetched to me. Overall I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it especially if you want to see the struggles of a single parent, low income family.