Just Our Luck

Happy book birthday to Just Our Luck by Denise Williams! Donuts, a winning lottery ticket, and fake dating make for a sweet and escapist romance between two total opposites. Although I picked up her first book, How to Fail at Flirting, a couple years ago, this is my first time reading Denise Williams, but not my last.

Why I Chose This Book:

I’ve been wanting to read Denise Williams’s books for a while, and there’s no time like the present! Just Our Luck caught my particular interest for its donuts and lottery win; who doesn’t like baked goods and the fantasy of suddenly coming into lots of money? It looked like a cute and fun romance to start with.

What I Liked:

• Sybil is so joyous and fun. As far as sunshine characters go, Sybil is spot-on. For all her faults, I enjoyed reading her in nearly every scene. She just lights up a room and I loved her character.
• Kieran is a grumpy Virgo. Her total opposite, Kieran is a responsible and structured guy who hates being late or bending rules. He’s grumpy but a good person. Kieran reveals that he’s a Virgo, and honestly, that sounds accurate. My husband is also a Virgo, and I can see the similarities!
• Winning the lottery. Anyone who’s ever struggled with money dreams of one day winning the lottery and no longer having those debts and worries anymore. It also made for a cute reunion for Kieran and Sybil.
• ADHD representation. Sybil comes across as absent-minded, irresponsible, impulsive, unreliable… things that she’s self-conscious about. But Kieran sees the good in her qualities and helps her believe in herself. Swoon! A late ADHD diagnosis puts a lot of her behavior into perspective.
• Donuts! I have a sweet tooth, so it was fun reading a book centered around a donut shop with delicious-sounding flavors.

What Didn’t Work for Me:

• Fake dating premise was a bit flimsy. Look, fake dating romances are often far-fetched. It’s not my favorite trope, and it’s easy to mess up, especially in contemporary romances. Unfortunately, the reasons behind the fake relationship here seem rather frail.
• Kieran’s so different from their first interaction to everything after. How does he go from their initial one-night-stand to the stiff and awkward fake boyfriend? His actions at the beginning don’t match how he’s characterized the rest of the book.
• Kieran’s goals suddenly shifted partway through. Speaking of Kieran’s inconsistencies, I didn’t like how his goal of going back to medical school is suddenly thrown out the window halfway through the book. Where did that doubt come from? I didn’t like it.
• Weird ending. The whole ending with Sybil’s good intentions causing a major issue, Kieran’s apologizing for justifiably being mad about that (seriously??), and the situation with the donut shop just… didn’t sit well with me.
• Lottery is kind of minimized. I thought Sybil suddenly being rich would be more than just a reason for her to get together with Kieran. Or a chance for more character growth.
• Kieran is a Virgo—he literally said so and it matches his personality throughout the book—so his birthday could not have been in early spring, i.e. Aries season. (And he’s so not an Aries!) It irked me, so in my mind I corrected it from a birthday party to just a random celebration.

Final Thoughts

While there’s a lot I liked about Just Our Luck, it had some plot and characterization issues, too. It’s a cheerful and easy read, and I enjoyed the style and characters overall, but some parts felt incongruous or insubstantial. That said, I would like to try more of Denise Williams’s books and hopefully will like them better.

Special thanks to the publicists at Penguin Random House, Berkley, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy Just Our Luck here – it’s available as a paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

Just Our Luck by Denise Williams
Audience	Adult
Genre	Contemporary Romance
Setting	Des Moines, Iowa
Number of Pages	400
Format I Read	Ebook (NetGalley ARC)
Original Publication Date	March 25, 2025
Publisher	Berkley

Official Summary

“I’m a forever fan.”—Tarah DeWitt, USA Today Bestselling Author of Savor It

LibraryReads Pick

A lottery ticket + donuts = love in this steamy new fake dating romance from beloved author Denise Williams.

Sybil Sweet has always been lucky, but lately she can’t catch a break. After years of bouncing from job to job in search of something that feels right and from man to man in search of something special, Sybil is worried that she’s the directionless, floundering daughter her family thinks she is. All she really wants now is a little financial stability and carb comfort. Lucky for her, she’s got just enough in the bank to buy a lottery ticket, and the late-night donut store is open.

Kieran Anderson put his dreams of becoming a doctor on hold to take over running his family’s bakery, and after fighting a losing battle to save the place, he’s exhausted, broke, and no closer to getting back to school. But when a whirlwind of a woman sweeps in late one night, flirty energy gives way to more…until she runs out the next morning, leaving behind her winning lottery ticket.

Lucky for Kieran, his attempt to return the ticket looks like a grand romantic gesture and goes viral, sending sales through the roof. In an effort to keep the store afloat and to convince Sybil’s family she can make good relationship choices, they agree to fake a relationship for three months. Even with hundreds of millions of dollars, finding each other might end up being the sweetest bit of luck for both of them.