[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Page Street Publishing in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]
Summary
Fortuna Jane Belleweather has a secret. Well, actually, she has 58 million secrets. Jane bought the sole winning lottery ticket for a prize of $58 million.
Jane’s first problem is that she’s 17 for 2 more weeks. So she can’t turn the ticket in by herself yet. And it’s stressful to leave it hidden in random places in her house.
Second, Jane’s mom is a hoarder. It seemed to start when Jane’s dad died, and it’s progressively getting worse. She should never have access to this much money.
Third, Jane lives in a small rural community in Wisconsin. Everyone knows everyone else’s business. And they all know someone bought the ticket. So everyone is obsessing over it.
The more Jane learns about her situation and about the pitfalls of winning the lottery, the more panicked she feels about it. It might be better to tear up the ticket and let the town always wonder who the winner was.
Review
Woah, this was more stressful than I expected! Every time Jane left the winning ticket somewhere, I felt the panic of what might happen. Ugh. Jane is really in a pickle (and it only gets worse). I found it fascinating that the community would be so hateful and resentful over the unclaimed money. They seemed to feel entitled to know who won – or entitled to criticize anyone who would keep it a secret.
I was relieved by the author’s solution in the end. It was the best outcome I could have imagined – better that the solution I exclaimed out loud when things got progressively out of control.
I didn’t love any of the characters in this. I had a lot of sympathy for Jane and her mom, though. And I despised the ex. There’s a great epilogue to show the reader what happens next that was satisfying. If you like lottery stories you might also check out Windfall or Too Lucky to Live. (Language, LGBTQ+, references to sex)
Rating: ♥♥♥*
*♥♥♥ = Find/solid/good