C
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
Theme: Friends to Lovers, Friends with Benefits/No Strings Attached, Second Chance
Following the events of Written in the Stars and Hang the Moon, Margot is the only single person left in her tight-knit friend group. So, even though she’s not interested in a romantic relationship, Margot is starting to feel lonely and like an afterthought. That is, until her childhood best friend (who Margot was also head over heels for and had her heart broken by) drops back into her life—and her apartment.
Recently divorced from her high school sweetheart and now living in Seattle, Olivia is determined to grab life by the horns. And getting the nod from her boss to plan a quick-turnaround wedding for tech CEO Brendon and his fiancee Annie (from Hang the Moon) is the perfect opportunity to prove herself.
Running into Margot when she first meets the happy couple is a pleasant surprise, even if it brings Olivia’s decade-old heartbreak back to the surface. And when she needs to find a new place to live ASAP, Olivia can’t say to Margot’s offer of her spare room and, eventually, no-strings sex. The chemistry is palpable and they both know it, but can either of them get past their old hurts to trust a new future?
I was thrilled when I heard Margot was finally getting her own book. Margot was by far my fave side character in the series, since she uses snark to hide her tender heart. This is no different in Count Your Lucky Stars, so I appreciated seeing her open to the possibility of love. I was especially glad to learn why she wasn’t open to romance in previous books.
When they were teenagers and Olivia was on a break with Brad, her then-boyfriend/future husband, Margot and Olivia spent a week in bed together. They were both totally into it and thought they were going somewhere. But, when Brad asked Olivia to get back together, Olivia asked Margot for her opinion on the matter.
Margot thought this meant Olivia wasn’t all in with her and told Olivia to go for it. Olivia thought Margot’s response meant that Margot wasn’t all in with HER. Cue drifting apart for years and Margot’s sarcasm as armor.
In some ways, I enjoyed Count Your Lucky Stars because it delivered on my expectations of quippy dialogue, fun adventures with characters I love, and scorching hot sex scenes. I also had a great time getting to know Olivia. She’s sweet and thoughtful, and naturally fits in with Margot’s friends, making her a wonderful addition to the series’ broader cast of characters.
Unfortunately, I was also frustrated and wanted to shake the shit out of Margot and Olivia sometimes. Mainly because it takes FOREVER for them to talk about the situation in the spoiler tag above. And until they finally do, there’s a lot of uncertainty and jealousy that comes across as petty and childish.
This is especially true when Margot insists her friends not know that she and Olivia are sleeping together, but gets upset when Brendon tries to set up Olivia with one of his pals. I understand why the poor communication happened the way it did, since it started years prior with teenagers not having a necessary conversation. However, their communication issues became too much for me during their big fight.
With a quarter of the book left to go, Olivia and Margot finally clear the air on why they didn’t end up together in high school. Then immediately afterward, during some wonderful “we’ve cleared the air” sex, Olivia receives a text from her ex about her dad’s house being up for sale (yes, they stop the sex for this). In a turn of events that I did not expect, but perhaps should have given how poorly they’ve communicated up to this point, they both lose their goddamn grip on reality.
Olivia panics because her dad doesn’t answer her phone call and decides she needs to immediately hop in the car and drive an hour away to make sure he’s okay. She does this because he drove himself to the hospital when he had a heart attack and doesn’t trust that he would tell her if he weren’t okay.
Margot calmly suggests Olivia wait for her dad to call her back. When that doesn’t work, Margot tells Olivia that she’s overreacting and says Olivia needs to stop doing so much for everyone else. In fact, Olivia should stay and take care of herself for once. And when that doesn’t work…
“You can’t.” Margot blurted, immediately cringing at her volume. “You can’t just leave”
Me, reading this: 🤨, because sure, she can.
And when Olivia doesn’t back down, Margot says “I just got you back, and I don’t want to always be worried about whether I’m going to lose you. Whether you’re going to leave.”
I wondered what the fuck is wrong with both of them, since a) an hour isn’t that far to drive, so calm down Margot, but also b) yes, perhaps wait for your dad to call you back, Olivia, since he’s a grown ass man. It was overwrought and ridiculous, and I’d like to thank Shana and my friend Stacey for letting me rant about it to both of them, because I got grumpy reading this scene.
I was disappointed that while Margot acknowledges to Elle (from Written in the Stars) that her abandonment issues contributed to her overreaction, Margot doesn’t say this to Olivia. Instead, when they reunite, she maintains that her out-of-proportion response to an hour’s drive is solely on Olivia’s behalf, rather than a result of her insecurities. I almost threw my Kindle across the room when Olivia accepts Margot’s version, saying “It’s not the easiest, letting someone care about me,” because it felt like gaslighting from Margot and Olivia deserved more emotional maturity from her.
Thankfully the epilogue is so far past the main events of the book that I can actually entertain the idea of their HEA, because whoooo, do Margot and Olivia ever need time to work on their communication skills. A few other things also didn’t work for me, like how oblivious Brendon’s friend is to the thing going on between Margot and Olivia (they were kidding no one but themselves and Brendon), but all other complaints were completely eclipsed by that fight and its resolution.
If you can get past the terrible communication issues, you might enjoy this story. But overall, I’m disappointed in Margot and was left wanting better for her and Olivia. I can’t really recommend it and I won’t be coming back to read this one again.
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I went way higher with this with an A-. I felt like the lack of communication here worked and was realistic for the two of them, so even though it annoyed me a bit as a reader I could stomach it.
I am deeply grateful for the reviews on this site. I decided a while back that I would only purchase books that had no less than a B+ rating. Life is too short and my money too limited for anything but quality.
Have to say I’m with Olivia on the “worried about her father” thing. Her father had a history of heart problems, and every minute counts in a heart attack. My husband had a heart attack and was told it was a good thing he’d come right to the hospital. At the hospital they administered clot-busting drugs so that he suffered no permanent damage, but if he’d waited the heart cells would have died and his heart function would have been significantly diminished. Olivia may have over-reacted – don’t know if her father usually responded quickly or if he had a pattern of delayed responses – but it’s not necessarily unreasonable to respond as she did, I just don’t know from the context as I’ve not read the book.
For some reason this makes me think of that moment in Bet Me by Jennie Crusie towards the end where Min says she was afraid to ask Cal specifically about the bet, and grumbles that people always say everything would be ok if you talk about stuff but talking about stuff is scary, a gamble, you could end up losing something/someone.
I haven’t read the book in this review, but I can see how, even as annoying as it can be to read about, sometimes people have sh*t communication in new relationships, or relationships that are in the process of shifting. (Though it sounds like that is something that maybe could have been handled earlier, narratively, and actively working on that communication could be a larger part of the arc). Idk, late night musings…