User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
In
Arketta, young girls are often sold into Welcome Houses by their impoverished families.
These families are told the girls will be well-cared for and they pull a good price. Additionally, it's one less mouth for a family to feed.
While it's true, the girls have a roof over their heads, clothing and food, let's not beat around the bush here, they've been sold into the sex trade.
Keep in mind, that isn't blatantly expressed on page, but they're living in brothels, run by a Madame, being frequented by wealthy men with money to burn on pleasure.
Initially, when the girls are too young to service the patrons, they provide general labor around the house and are called Sunrise Girls. After they begin to work the house, they are called Good Luck Girls.
When they finally come of age, their first night with a patron is called their 'Lucky Night'. It's a big deal, with everyone prepping the girl to look her finest.
Once she is ready, into a room she goes to await her client and her fate.
Our story opens on Clementine's Lucky Night. She's nervous, but with an older sister, Aster, already at the Good Luck Girls stage, she's ready to join her and the more easy lifestyle she believes comes with it.
When her night doesn't go as planned, and the patron ends up dead, Clementine seeks out her sister for help. Aster knows they need to run, or Clementine will be killed.
Unbeknownst to them, some of the other girls aren't happy at the Welcome House either and they want to go with. They're fed up and they're not going to take it anymore.
The Good Luck Girls took me completely by surprise. I had no idea what it was about going in and ended up really getting into it.
I loved the Western-feel of the setting, as well as the light Fantasy elements sprinkled throughout.
There is a lot of action and the characters were engaging. I wanted the girls to find safety wherever they could.
I also enjoyed the relationships among the girls and the people they met along the way. They basically were following clues from a bedtime story that they felt held the secret to their freedom.
Overall, I felt this was a unique story. It's well-written and kept me coming back for more. I read it so quickly!
If Charlotte Nicole Davis releases more stories in this world, I will definitely be reading them.
Rating: really liked it
This was everything I wanted from a western fantasy!!!
queer girls + sisterhood over everything else + adventure
I loved all the characters but especially Violet. She was such an interesting character who the more I learned about the more I loved
AND if the next book goes the way I hope it does this will have the
ultimate f/f slowburn rivals to lovers
Rating: really liked it
fulfilling my 2021 goal to read one ARC each month i'd been so excited to get my hands on and then...never readugh, this was so, so good. it's a feminist fantasy-western set in arketta; an inhospitable wilderness whose harshest region is known as
the Scab, which is evocatively described as
the ragged line of mountains that cut through the middle of the country.it has all the trappings of a proper western: mines and trains and guns and horses, but with fantasy elements woven into the dusty landscape: a variety of ghosts whose danger-level increases from the benevolent seraphants, to the neutral remnants, to the vicious vengeants, as well as the raveners; bewitched humans who can inflict intense pain with their minds.
arketta is structured as a generational class system comprised of fairbloods, who have shadows, and dustbloods, whose rebellious ancestors had their shadows punitively removed and who have subsequently inherited the trait. i don't really understand the significance of this shadow-sitch, except that fairbloods are the elite and dustbloods are basically indentured servants with no real chance of earning their freedom.
it's a harsh life, especially for girls.
the young daughters of impoverished dustblood families are frequently sold to welcome houses, to serve as 'good luck girls'—they are sexually sterilized, stripped of their name, and given a magic-laced facial tattoo of a flower, which designates their new name. here, they will serve as 'daybreak girls' and perform domestic labor until they turn sixteen, when they will transition into the role of 'sundown girls,' fulfilling the real purpose of the welcome houses—catering to the various appetites of the house's male customers, known as brags.
compared to what their lives would be out in the scab, here they are at least well-fed and comfortable—the house provides the girls with everything necessary to keep them healthy and viable as the income-generating commodities they are:
Aster had been told, many times, to be grateful for that work. Good Luck Girls never went hungry, always had a roof over their heads, saw the doctor and the dentist twice a year. Entertaining the brags meant they got to wear the kind of clothes other girls could only dream of, too, and enjoy an endless supply of Sweet Thistle.
the girls are encouraged to partake of the addictive intoxicating numbness of sweet thistle, which keeps them dull and compliant (and dulls the edges of their oftentimes painful encounters), but if one should become too damaged to earn $$, they're easily replaced.
aster has already been a sundown girl for some time, but her little sister clementine is about to experience her Lucky Night, and she is dreading clem's initiation into the ranks of the sex trade. when clementine accidentally kills her first brag, the sisters manage to escape with three other girls; mallow, tansy, and violet, with the fingers-crossed hopes of finding sanctuary with lady ghost—a woman who can reportedly remove their tattoos and give good luck girls their freedom—for a price.
it's a high-stakes adventure through a many-periled landscape, where five girls full of righteous anger scrape back a little something for themselves for once—bank-robbing and robin hooding, driven by necessity into pure ingenuity, forcing their way through a world that has underestimated, dismissed and mistreated them. with bounties on their heads, pursued by several interested parties, they are in constant danger, but they manage to find allies; pockets of resistance who help usher them along on their quest.
it's a wild and energetic ride, packed with detail right down to the slang, and it's such a well-constructed story—even though i anticipated some of the conflicts, she resolved these conflicts masterfully, with originality and a deft touch not often to be found in a debut novel.
i can't wait to get my hands on the follow-up to this, The Sisters of Reckoning, to see what happens next, because now i am
invested!!
come to my blog!
Rating: really liked it
I don’t normally read fantasy adventure stories but now and again I do like to push my genre boundaries and try something a little different. The premise of “The Good Luck Girls” by new author Charlotte Nicole Davis really intrigued me and I was keen to read this Wild West style YA fantasy story.
When Clementine comes of age at sixteen to become a sundown girl in a ‘welcome house’ in Green Creek, she has to entertain a ‘brag’ (male customer) for the night as part of her ‘Lucky Night’ ceremony. Unfortunately she accidentally kills her brag and knowing she will be punished fatally for the incident by ‘raveners’, bewitching and mind altering men, she goes on the run with her sister Aster and other ‘good luck girls’ - Violet, Tallow and Mansy. They meet up with Zee - a ‘rangeman’, who can assist them with their escape due to his knowledge of the woods but can he help them avoid capture and locate the Lady Ghost? She is the only person, myth has it, who can rid them of their cursed ‘favours’, tattoo like branding that will always give them away as good luck girls. They embark on a journey that is both fantastical and thrilling seeking freedom, justice and revenge. Sold as children they were trapped in an unsuspecting life they never would have chosen and its’s quite saddening to read how they are used as ‘sex slaves’ at such a young age. There’s lots of excitement and action in the story though to keep you thoroughly entertained and although primarily aimed at a YA audience there’s plenty to keep adults addicted to the book too. With tension and some emotional and sensitive content I wouldn’t recommend very young readers to read this but I can see this story being very popular with a female teen audience who enjoy fantasy fiction with a strong message at its core.
The characters are well developed and exceedingly likeable, though I would have liked to have read a little more on the relationship between Tallow and Mansy directly as it developed.
The author has based the story not on racism per se but about a black girl and her sister finding freedom and coming together to stand up against the rich and powerful. The author has produced a story that addresses darker themes in a subversive way that has you both questioning the system within the story and making you think about the world we live in at the same time.
This would make a cracking movie as it has all the hallmarks of a action packed fantasy thriller and I would love to see a sequel to the story to follow Clementine and Aster further on their fight for freedom.
4 stars
Rating: really liked it
DNF at 40%
The focus is on the wrong thing.
Davis has created a very interesting world. It's set in an old west type of setting which is synonymous with America but Blacks and Whites live together harmoniously. WOW, let's explore this more.
Instead of discrimination based on race, there's discrimination based people who can cast a shadow vs. those who can't. WOW, let's explore this more. How is it physically possible to not cast a shadow?
Davis' world had an Empire and not a government that indentured the shadowless people and made their TEENAGE daughters prostitute themselves because they couldn't get out of debt. WOW, let's explore this more.
These teen prostitutes are branded with some sort of glowing flower implanted in their cheek which they can't cover. This would mean this world still rides horses and work in mines but they have access to technology. WOW, let's explore this more.
This world has supernatural beings including half human half monster dementor type things and large cat like humanoids crossed with vultures? WOW, let's explore this more.
All of those incredibly interesting aforementioned topics are NOT explored. Instead we get a story about five girls who escape their brothel and are on the run. This is a journey book because they have to travel hundreds of miles to find someone who can cut out their brand and they have no money so have to rob people. I'VE READ THIS STORY BEFORE! These girls have no new voice. Aster is the main voice and she's the preverbal girl trying to protect her younger sister and is desperate enough to kill. Then there's a mean girl turned nice girl and the other three girls barely speak so I don't know who they are. And then we get the old enemies to lovers trope when the only guy enters. OMG, I'VE READ THIS STORY ALREADY! WHAT ABOUT ALL THAT OTHER SHIT THAT'S GOING ON IN YOUR WORLD? FOCUS ON THAT!
I was 40% in and none of that other stuff was explored or developed. I DNFed because this book is boring.
Rating: really liked it
Spring Into Reading A Thon: Strong Female Lead
I don't usually enjoy westerns, but maybe I've been too hard on them. Maybe I just don't like adult westerns written by men.
The Good Luck Girls are young girls who have been sold into brothels "Welcome Houses" by mostly extremely poor families. Rich men or men with money to burn, come to Welcome Houses and are able to do whatever they want to these girls. But one night one of the girls accidentally kills a man then she and 4 other girls escape and go on the lam.
The Good Luck Girls was a real thrill ride. It was fun and violent. Girl power was on 10 the whole damn time.
I highly recommend The Good Luck Girls.
Rating: really liked it
Meeeh. The amount of times I read the word "breath" in this one made me want to throw the book out of the window.
Rating: really liked it
This is a YA fantasy unlike almost anything I've read. This also feels both dystopian and historical and yet is set in a fantasy world, so is truly neither of those things.
It's about strong women and daring stakes. It's about learning to trust when no one has ever given you reason to. It's about sacrificing your own chance at a happily every after for the benefit of others. It's a whole lot of things. It's also diverse, a little queer, and is all sorts of magical; though not in ways I expected.
Despite my obvious enjoyment, there is still something holding me back a bit on this one. And I don't even know really know why. This was unique and brutal with characters both tough as nails and hella vulnerable with plenty of issues mirrored in this unusual world that are also present in our own. It's a scary possible reality that makes you, as a reader, and a human, and, in my case a woman, want to fight back.
And yet again, I don't know why I just didn't love it. I wasn't bored by anything, necessarily, though I did find sometimes that I would skim a passage or two. I didn't always love Aster, our main POV, and yet could also totally understand why she wasn't always likeable. And.. yeah, I don't know. This one is just a bit of a mystery for me, I think.
But I would definitely recommend it if anyone was already interested in picking it up!
** I received an ARC from the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **
---
This review can also be found at A Take From Two Cities.
Rating: really liked it
This was truly fantastic.
It had everything I could have possibly hoped for and more after having read the summary. It’s got sisterhood, found family, heists, murder, an adorable f/f budding romance, monsters (both human and inhuman), nuanced discussions on inequality and the differences in rights between men and women, strong women in every sense of the term and a desperate fight for freedom, all with a sprinkle of dark magic.
This book somehow sucked me in from page one and despite it being a little slow in places, it still managed to pull me in more and more throughout and the fact that I now have to wait who knows how long until book three is an incredibly painful thought.
TW: sexual assault, discussion of suicide and rape.
Rating: really liked it
When Clementine accidently murders a man HOW DO YOU "ACCIDENTLY" MURDER SOMEONE?????
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Rating: really liked it
Check out more reviews @ Perspective of a Writer...The BuzzI had no interest in The Good Luck Girls. It wasn't that it was an all POC cast... it was that it was about prostitution. It's a hard life and I just didn't want to read about their horrible circumstances. Then I read an excerpt... and was TOTALLY sucked in.
The title references what they call the girls at the prostitution houses so its pretty spot on. However when I first saw the cover I sure didn't see the connection. She looks like a fancy war pilot to me and not a forced prostitute on the run using horses as a getaway. And I could barely see the flower on her neck!! Which to me should have been the star of the design. But in person its a pretty cover and features a person of color which is pretty neat!
The PremiseSoooo yeah the premise did not wow me... A girl about to have sex with her first "brag" kills him when she "over" reacts to his "aggressive" techniques. Her sister uses the man's death to facilitate their escape along with two younger daytime girls who haven't transitioned to sundown girls yet and the madame's favorite girl who lords over the others. ... I'm not doing much to make you want to read The Good Luck Girls am I?!
Well the opening prologue changed my mind (and I suspect it will yours too if you aren't feeling it yet)!! First I really felt for Clem as this was her "Lucky Night" and at only 16 years old. I felt like I was witnessing this rape and struggling right along with her. I couldn’t see her reacting any other way... Being drawn into the story so powerfully really captured me. I wanted Clem to get away with her murder even though it was seriously unlikely that she would. Then comes Aster, her sister who somehow makes it work!! I couldn't wait to see what other problems she would boldly get them out of with her quick thinking and love of her sister.
I was prepared for some really crazy things happening because the world of The Good Luck Girls was so brutal and hard. They had a tough handicap starting out (the favors that mark them as Good Luck Girls) and a society that has no sympathy for their situation. The western feel to the story with guns, horses, mines and prostitution fit that brutality. And then we have the ghost mythology which added another layer of problems to their escape.
And then we get into the meat of the story and I'm less wowed. It turns into a road trip which makes sense with the whole needing to escape. The girls decide a little robbery is just what the brags deserve. There are some run ins with the law and the raveners (super powered law for the houses). Both of which also make sense considering this is a western. We travel in mine tunnels and it totally fits the world. Only the plot wasn't quite capturing me like the opening scene did.
I did come to appreciate Aster and how nuanced she felt about being a sundown girl, a sister, a friend, someone who forgives, and someone who gets high, not on drugs, but on power. She really embodied her role as protector and it added some powerful moments to the duller plot. The fact that she wasn't in a romantic relationship with man or woman made sense to me, she had way too many emotions about her experiences to think about love. For a Good Luck Girl she did mighty fine for herself and her posse!
My ExperienceI was able to read an excerpt of the beginning, of The Good Luck Girls, a couple of months before I read the book. It's this reading that convinced me that I would be foolish to miss this POC fantasy western. At the time I didn't realize that Clem's chapter was a prologue and hinted at the fact that this opening chapter would be the ONLY time I read her POV. And as I waited to get my copy I started to think that this would be multiple POVs.
Why did I assume this? Well we have 5 stellar girls each with an intriguing POV and it would be a waste to not to get a taste of those perspectives... right?! Here they are in the premise of The Good Luck Girls...
Aster, the protector
Violet, the favorite
Tansy, the medic
Mallow, the fighter
Clementine, the catalyst
They sound fabulous!! And it sounds like they will each contribute to the excellency of the story. But unfortunately since we stick with Aster alone we only get her nuances. Tansy and Mallow have their storyline and Clem has her storyline but they are rather stereotypical and didn't give us that much of a taste of who they were. They were basically the girls that Aster protected. Then we have Violet who was the major secondary character and played a bigger part... only I would have loved to see her guilt and morally grey perspective from inside the character.
The Good Luck Girls is a dark story where some heavy topics like prostitution, slavery, victimization and guilt are explored heavily in a world where females have to seize their power back from the hands of men. We have a POC posse who won't give up and draw strength and power from each other. Join them as they go on the ride of their lives!!
⋆ ⋆ ⭐⭐⭐ Authenticity
⋆ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Writing Style
⋆ ⋆ ⭐⭐⭐ Plot & Pacing
⋆ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ World Building
B+ Cover & Title grade
Thanks to BookishFirst and the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. It has not influenced my opinions.______________________
You can find this review and many others on my book blog @ Perspective of a Writer. Read my special perspective under the typewriter on my reviews...
Please like this review if you enjoyed it! *bow* *bow* It helps me out a ton!!
Rating: really liked it
Can someone PLEASE turn this into a TV show?! Because OMG would it be a good one! The Good Luck Girls is a whole lot of fun, despite some darker elements. It's a fantasy Western adventure with angry ghosts and gang of girls, on the run and out for revenge. It's fast-paced story and action-packed, but it also includes big thematic content. It addresses trauma, misogyny, and systemic oppression, with clear nods to American chattel slavery and separation of families. But it is also about hope, healing, love, and sisterhood, with a side of highway robbery of course!
Meet five women who dare to push back against the system that oppresses them.
"Aster, The Protector
Violet, The Favorite
Tansy, The Medic
Mallow, The Fighter
Clementine, The Catalyst"
In Arketta, the Good Luck Girls are girls and women bought from their families and sold to brothels, with the promise of full bellies and good accommodations. The little ones do housework, but when a Good Luck Girl turns 16, she has the "honor" of joining the glamorous life of the night with no more chores and luxurious bedrooms, all for the small price of "entertaining" the customers of the Welcome House. They are told they are lucky. They have been lied to.
Aster has been working the night shift for two years, secretly refusing to take the mellowing drug the girls are given for their work and longing for a way to protect her younger sister Clem from the same fate. The book begins on Clementine's 16th birthday, her first night as a "woman" auctioned off to the highest bidder, with little understanding of what is about to happen. Except that Clementine accidentally kills the man who purchased her time, and she must go on the run from the law with her sister and 3 other Good Luck Girls.
Most of the book is told from Aster's perspective, although we occasionally get Clem's perspective as well. Aster is prickly and (understandably) doesn't trust men so when Clem begins to fall for a sweet young man she struggles. Violet was Aster's enemy in the Welcome House, but she is the only other girl in the gang old enough to have experienced the trauma of forced sex work, and that binds them together in unexpected ways. Meanwhile, Tansy and Mallow develop a very sweet romance that we see in bits and pieces. We get great character development for Aster and Violet, although I would have liked to see more for the other characters. This one is definitely driven more by the plot, but I did enjoy all of the characters.
In terms of plot, this book follows the escape from the Welcome House and subsequent quest to find a mythical ghost woman who can remove the magical tattoos from the girls necks that brand them as Good Luck Girls. Along the way they waylay some men known to frequent Welcome Houses, rob a bank, and fight against angry ghosts. It's such a great, fun story, but also one with a lot of depth! I'm excited to see more from this author and would love to read more in this world.
Obviously, there are going to be a lot of content warnings for this book given the premise, but there is no on-the-page rape, although we do get Clemenine's perspective in the encounter leading to the initial murder, and that does get pretty intense and violent.
Rating: really liked it
So glad I took a chance on this:)
Re-read via Overdrive, narration: 4 stars 🌟
First re-read in a long time:) couldn't find it on my shelves haha so decided to re-read it this way so I can get to the sequel hopefully soon *crossing fingers *
4 stars 🌟 again ✨️:) can't wait to hang with these characters again.
Rating: really liked it
Print giveaway from Goodreads
Can you consider yourself sheltered if you grow up in a glorified whorehouse? These girls are.
Said girls are renamed after flowers. I’m fond of Aster’s name and her attitude. Is Clementine really a name seen outside of the UK? Had a coworker considering naming his child that. He was dissuaded.
Anyway. There are girls. There is a quest. Lo and behold, there is a twist! And it wasn’t that great. Neither was the love interest.
This has promise at the beginning, but left me bored.
My advice to the girls? Any girls? Don't trust anyone.
(46/50) Popsugar 2022 / A duology (1)
Rating: really liked it
The set up for this is very intense, so definitely make sure you're in a good place to engage if CSA or SA in general is a trigger. But this was a great example of a high action fantasy western that still managed to be quite character driven. I didn't realize there was a sequel, but I will read it
