Review: Get Lucky by Katherine Center

Sarah Harper works in advertising. She’s working on a project that flaunts images of a scantily-clad woman’s breasts.  When she receives an email that flaunts this part of a woman’s anatomy she does the unthinkable: she forwards the email to her entire company.  Needless to say, the majority of the staff didn’t appreciate the email as much as she did and she’s terminated.

Sarah was planning to go home to Texas and visit her sister Mackie and her husband.  On the plane, she runs into someone she hasn’t seen in over a decade: her high-school boyfriend, Everett. Sarah broke up with Everett when they were teens, breaking his heart.  It’s obvious that Everett has aged well, but he ruins this lovely reunion by making a snarky remark about Sarah’s appearance.  She fumes the rest of the plane ride, desperate to remove herself from Everett’s presence.

When she arrives in Houston, she learns that Mackie’s attempts to become pregnant haven’t been successful.  In a possibly vulnerable moment, she offers to be a surrogate to Mackie and her husband, Clive. Sarah thought this wonderful experience would bring the two sisters together in a wonderful bonding moment, but that’s not exactly the case.  Her return to Houston brings up a whole host of emotions she hasn’t dealt with in years. 

The girls lost their mother to cancer when they were young. You can blame it on the hormones: both girls suddenly begin to realize how much they miss their mother, Sarah in particular.  When her mother passed away, she was forced to abandon the individual she was to become what was expected of her. 

I had no idea that it was my mother who made it possible for me to trip along so unself-aware.  That’s what I lost when I lost her, in addition to the universe of things a girl loses when she loses her mother: I lost hte person who knew me exactly for who I was and adored me anyway.

Sarah begins a mission to understand  just who she really is. Pairing that with being pregnant, the task wasn’t an easy one.

Get Lucky was a powerful and endearing story about the love between sisters and the love of one’s self.  I’ve been a fan of Katherine Center’s work from the start and this book just solidifies my love of her writing. Her characters are dynamic and multi-faceted.  The reader gets to delve inside the mind and heart of each of the main characters.  While each have very obvious and severe flaws, you can’t help but love each and every one of them.  While Get Lucky is considered chick-lit, realize it is much, much more than that. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get angry; it’s definitely a book that packs a punch and stays with you long after you’ve turned the last page.