The lucky list by Rachael Lippincott

Emily and her Mum were always lucky in small town Huckabee… until the luck ran out and her mother succumbed to cancer. For three years since her mother’s death Emily has been less than she once was. Now she is facing her final school year and the appalling realisation that she has yet again offended Matt, her former flame, leaving him in a world of confusion and isolating herself from her former friendship group. The only friend she has retained is going away on a summer camp and Emily is left alone in every way and still stuck in her post-grief wallowing. Her luck has run out. Into this maelstrom of emotion comes Blake, the daughter of her parents’ old school friend. Blake understands what it is to have lost a mother but is able to provide a stimulus to rediscovering life. When they find a list of personal challenges that Emily’s mother had written many years before, Emily is talked into breaking through her fears by the charming Blake and attempts to re-visit the tasks her mother had set. Along the way she also discovers the spark that had been missing from her life… but does it include Matt or Blake?

This is a romance that involves a young teen exploring her gender sexual preference and breaking through the restrictions of her small-town community. It is also about the difficulties of grief and the long journey that sometimes must occur when someone that you love dies. Emily is warmly described despite her attempts to keep people from getting close, and her exploration of her romantic interests is not trite but is slow and inevitable.  The psychological journey of growth out of the difficulties of grief and heartbreak are also gently explored. Written obviously for those exploring their sexual identity, it is though just a coming-out, romantic story. For LGBTIQ collection.

Themes: LGBTIQ, Romance, Grief, Relationships.

Carolyn Hull