Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

The Good Luck Girls is the first in an all-new series by Charlotte Nicole Davis. It’s a dark and beautifully written novel full of strife and character development. It’s a dystopian fantasy novel that is perfect for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale or Westworld.

In a world where slavery is common, a system of welcome houses exists. These houses sell time with women – whom they call Good Luck Girls. In this world, five Good Luck Girls have taken it upon themselves to run away to change their fates.

But nothing is ever as simple as it seems. For one thing, our girls don’t have a choice but to run. For another, their magical tattoos will give them away to any who even bothers to glance at their faces. But they’ve got to try.

A dark but emotionally compelling tale follows as our girls learn to survive in the wilds. And how to strike back. If you’re looking for a fantasy series with a character-driven plot, this is one worth checking out.

Writing

Charlotte Nicole Davis did an excellent job of writing a tense and emotionally compelling novel. It’s impossible not to see these girls in such a situation and not root for them. She introduced them in such a way that their world and situation were immediately apparent.

The world of the Good Luck Girls is a fascinating one. It may be on the dark side, but I found myself desperate to see more of the world. More accurately, I found the hope written within the pages – a hope for a better world. I found myself grasping at that and hoping that later novels would show us the world slowly getting better.

The characters were fascinating and dynamic. Admittedly, not all of the five Good Luck Girls got as much attention as others. Aster and her sister, Clementine, got the most attention. But everybody else had enough for us to have a basic understanding of their desire to be free.

The Good Luck Girls is a perfect novel for anybody seeking a tale of women overcoming adversaries. It also has a touch of Wild West and survivalism, along with dozens of other elements. It’s one of the many reasons it was such an interesting read.

Development

The Good Luck Girls wasted no time throwing us into the thick of things. We were immediately introduced to the main characters and their world – as small and dark as it may have been. It doesn’t take long for the main event to occur, forcing them to change their lives forever.

From there, the pace is a bit more leisurely. It picks up as needed but also lets us get to know the characters that make up this tale. Each girl has a different past that resulted in her getting sent to a welcome house. And each girl has her reason for wanting to be free. Some of their stories were more complex than others, and trying to figure out how it all tied together made for something much more complicated than you might expect.

Davis did a good job of making many of the twists unpredictable. Other moments one could see coming, but only in the broadest sense. That’s because the decisions fit the characters we had spent an entire novel getting to know.

Conclusion

The Good Luck Girls was an intense yet brilliant read. These girls are a strong reminder that one can face so much yet still hope for more. Their tale was fascinating, and since this was only the first novel in a series, we know it has only just begun.

This review was originally written for Word of the Nerd, but has been ported over to Quirky Cat’s Fat Stacks now that the site has shut down.

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