Review: The Luckiest

Title: The Luckiest
Series: Lucky Moon
Author: Piper Vaughn & M.J. O'Shea
Publisher: Loose Id
Publication Date: 27 March 2012
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 91,476 words

Rating: 4 out of 5

Blurb:
Rock star Nick Ventura has finally hit rock bottom. Jealous of his brother’s new love, he starts overindulging in his usual vices and winds up crashing his car into a department store in a drunken haze. Publicly humiliated and on the verge of jail time, he enters into a court-ordered rehabilitation program.

Nutritionist Luka Novak is flamboyant, effeminate, the type of gay man that bisexual Nick would normally sneer at. His sunny nature hides a deep hurt from a previous relationship. Luka knows he should be wary of Nick’s reputation, but he’s drawn to Nick despite himself. Their tentative friendship turns into romance, but Luka soon comes to realize that Nick's fear of losing his bad boy reputation means he'll probably never go public with their relationship.

Nick never thought he needed anyone, until Luka Novak came into his life. Now he has to reconcile his carefree past with the future he suddenly wants more than anything. And the first lesson he has to learn is how to become the man that both he and Luka need him to be, rather than stay the boy he always was. Alone.

Review:

Main Characters:
Nick starts out as a very angry man, aggressive in his rebellion. There are masterfully woven hints that he's more than an asshole with a substance abuse problem, especially when he's on the topic of his brother, Shane. As the story progresses, though, he turns into a marshmallow, far more than I can buy, even with the hints of vulnerability. I do like said vulnerability and his inability to marry his old public persona with the man he's become for Luka, but I found that in execution he just became way too sappy. I still liked him rather a lot, but I preferred him with a little more attitude.

Luka, on the other hand, tends toward mellow but has a spine and is not afraid to stand up for himself. He works as a nutritionist at a rehab facility, but also teaches dancing on weekends and the odd weekday with his best friend, Jeana. (Actually, I'm not quite certain if his best friend is Jeana or Stephanie, his dog, but he has a lot of love to share.) He's described in the blurb as flamboyant and effeminate, but it doesn't come out much in the story itself, aside from his calling everyone 'hon' and 'sweetie' and liking musicals; it's enough to be a flavor of his flamboyance without overwhelming his character.

Chemistry:
Nick and Luka are certainly an entertaining couple, playing Luka's stubborn calm off of Nick's equally stubborn aggravation. The evolution from nutritionist and patient to lovers is lovely; I particularly enjoyed Nick's late-night/early-morning phone calls to discuss things he'd be damned if he mentioned to his therapist. The initial build of their relationship is very slow, but the burn of it is appealing, feeding back in on itself until it finally comes together.

I did wonder at times, though, how they actually stayed together as a couple. Nick fucks up. A lot. And Luka makes him suffer for a while but takes him back every time. By the time Nick's final fuck-up is resolved and they're back together for their happily ever after, I was getting a little frustrated. Nick the rock star and Nick the person never quite found a happy medium, despite his final acceptance and announcement of his life with Luka. It goes back to my preferring Nick with a little more attitude.

Secondary Characters:
The supporting cast is mostly returning characters from Moonlight Becomes You. Shane and Jesse both have decent parts (particularly in the later part of the story), and Dre has more of a presence as Nick's best friend. (Will, the fourth member of Luck, still got shafted, though.) On Luka's side, it's primarily Jeana and Stephanie. The secondary cast is mostly fleshed out well, with unique personalities and interesting interactions. I particularly enjoyed Shane in this story; it was interesting to see his evolution from Moonlight Becomes You, as he displayed rather a lot of growth. (I'd imagine he'd display even more if I had knowledge of the free stories that bridged the gap between Moonlight Becomes You and The Luckiest--I haven't read them yet--but what there is with only the two main books is satisfying.)

Story:
The story itself traces Nick's growth as a person by way of his relationship with Luka. It has its ups and downs and is generally well-paced, though it did drag in a few areas. (Honestly, I skimmed a lot of the sex; it got a bit repetitive after a while.)

There were a few unanswered questions for me. A situation comes up with Dr. Miller (the therapist at the rehab facility) in which he's harassing Luka about having someone better who should take his job. Luka resolves to discuss it with his boss, but that's the end of it. It struck me as unfinished and, as such, something that really didn't need to be included. I'm also still confused about the Rohypnol. Never mind that I find the premise that it just so happened to be in a random drink that Luka picked up ridiculous, it also seemed to peter out to nothing but a little bit of angst for Nick that perhaps he was too rough in bed.

There were also some elements that were too evocative of Moonlight Becomes You. There's the revealing talk about the Venturas' shitty childhood. There's the sudden craving for submission. There's the final grand gesture on stage to prove that their love really is true. Had I not read them back to back I might not have noticed or minded as much, but with The Luckiest right on top of Moonlight Becomes you, the redundancy was glaring.

Writing:
The writing style was a high point for me; it was easy to get sucked into. My main complaint is that, as the story progressed, it got harder and harder to tell Nick and Luka's narrations apart. When the story begins, there's a different energy in Nick's narration that's mostly disappeared by the end, leaving Nick and Luka almost identical.

Other Thoughts:
If the third book in the Lucky Moon series is not about Em, I will be very sad.

Overall:
Appealingly flawed characters with interesting evolution both separately and together kept me engaged. Although I missed Nick's attitude by the end and wish that a few loose ends had been tied up, it was still a story that I enjoyed very much. I look forward to picking up the final book in the trilogy.