Customer Reviews

Lucky's Lady

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Serena Sheridan is a psychologist who returns to her ancestral home in Louisiana for a vacation. When she returns she has to deal with her seventy-eight year old grandfather who has gone out to his fishing cabin and refuses to return. She has a calculating twin sister that she has never gotten along with. And a politician brother-in-law who is very wishy-washy.

Serena finds out that a chemical company wants to buy the family property for a plant that will endanger wildlife. Her sister wants the property sold, of course, so she can have the money to advance her husband's political career.

The hunk of the story, Lucky, lives in the bayou and is a type of Robin Hood crusader. He keeps out the poachers and helps the people who live in the bayou. Lucky is put to the test by his inner demons when he finds himself falling in love with Serena.

Hoag fans who have read more recent books of hers, will find this more of a romance novel then Ashes to Ashes, Guilty as Sin and Night Sins. However, it is a great book with a good mystery, if a little more romantic then we've gotten accustomed to with Ms. Hoag.

I checked this book out from my local library. When I started reading it, I found I could not put it down. Tami Hoag took me into the world of Cajun Country. Women dream of finding a man like Lucky. Tami Hoag makes that dream come true, just reading the book. I'm a Tami Hoag fan. She knows her romance. I try to read all of her books.

Lucky's Lady is an amazing novel. Some may say it's hackneyed and boring but I disagree. How can you ever get sick of a classic romance novel mixed in with a little suspense? As always, Tami Hoag drags you into the plot with her surreal desciption of Louisiana's bayou, her intriguing characters who you grow to love, and the erotic/suspensful mood of her novel. Personally I am Tami Hoag's biggest fan and she never fails to disappoint me (Lucky's Lady is no exception). Like all her books, Lucky's Lady is a page-turner that you can't put down until you reach the ending. The finale is touching and deeply moving, if I continue I'm sure I'll spoil it for those you haven't read the book yet. I would reccomend it to anyone.

The herione is wimpy. Evidently she didn't get a backbone with the PhD. The description of the scenery is lush though, and the book reads well. I've read ALL of Tami's books and this one is the one I gave away first.

I just absolutely loved this book. The romance.. the suspense.. the characters.. all make for a nice package. It is one of those books that I can easily read over and over again. The details are superb and Tami really develops the characters well.. The little bit of french Lucky speaks throughout the novel add that extra something. I just loved the ending, but was so sad to see the book end. You must ready this!

I could not put this book down! I felt like I was in the story myself. Tami Hoag always does a super job with descriptions. It has suspense, romance (great romance), greed, etc. I will probably read this book again. I wish she would write some other books like this one. Of coarse, I love every book she has ever written.

I don't know what it is about this...i just didn't like it half as much as her others. ALl her wonderful and colourful characters are here as per usual, but the plot and book lacks a certain something. the people interact wonderfully, and the plot follows behind them. I think in this one she got the balance a bit wrong.

The plot is good, but there is no real mystery. I wouldn't normally mind this, if it was only professing to be a romance, i would be perfectly happy to read it. But it wasn't. It was trying to be a crime thriller, and it just wasn't. Magic was a far better example of her when she wants to write a romance with a tinge of mystery. With this one, the balance is off kilter, and the thriller part of the plot seems 2d.

Much more interesting is the fight for the native lands of the french triangle. If she had just left it at that, the book would have been fine. But she went a bit too far.

Nonetheless, this still contains all her usual trademarks. An excellently evoked setting, and some great characters. She is the best character writer in the business.

But hey, if this is her worst, and it still gets three stars, that must be a good thing, right?

This is a decent first attempt at the romantic suspense genre. Having read other Tami Hoag novels, I believe she gets better with each try and would recommend Cry Wolf or Dark Paradise as more solid contributions. If you liked this setting, a more substantial and developed novel with similar themes can be found in Sandra Brown's Slow Heat in Heaven (which was written a few years prior to Lucky's Lady and, I believe, is also Ms. Brown's first attempt away from serial romance). Both novels center around the return of a wayward daughter to her ancestral plantation in rural Louisiana, a sinister sister, a placid brother-in-law, an aging, cantankerous patriarch, and, of course, the mysterious, sexy, and dangerous Cajun living in the Bayou. Throw in a family business on the verge of collapse and the potential loss of said ancestral plantation through means fair or foul and these novels are at times spookily similar. However, where Lucky's Lady fails to completely shed some of the cliches of serial romance, retaining a rushed and shallow feeling (I believe the heroine and hero fall into bed after about a day together and are "in love" a day after that...), for another hundred pages or so, Slow Heat in Heaven more satisfying captures what is great about the romantic suspense genre, building sexual tension between the heroine and (in this case) anti-hero while weaving an intricate plot around more developed characters. It remains one of my all time favorite Sandra Brown novels.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
My thoughts as I read this were: bad things happening to good people and what a mess. I wondered how it would work out, but it was not fun or exciting. Other romantic suspense novels pull me in more. This seemed like "ooh what a bad situation to walk into." The hero is good at fighting bad guys, but instead of feeling good about it, I felt more like "ooh got out of that one." I think what was missing was someone to get excited about or identify with. The hero and heroine were interesting, but that was it. The sex scenes were ok but could have been more emotionally exciting.

The ending felt empty - not enough emotional fulfillment. He had left her "for her own good" and because he wanted to "spend his life suffering." Then all of a sudden he changes his mind. I didn't get to see the process of changing his mind or emotions. The romantic ending felt convenient - like lets wrap this and call it done.

I found it hard to believe that Lucky would drop out of college and join the military because Shelby dated and then broke up with him. I guess it was a way to add more evil to Shelby's character. I was annoyed with Serena for not wanting to believe the worst about Shelby. She kept ignoring Shelby's bad actions and wanting to bond.

I was disappointed about lack of justice for Lucky's evil commanding officer. The author never described what happened to the officer which contributed to the downer feel of the book. I also wanted to know more about Lucky's escape. It might have added something positive.

We also have a case of TSTL - heroine stupidity. Why did she go off alone to meet a bad guy? She intended to take someone with her, but apparently didn't have time to find someone she liked.

There were a lot of Cajun French phrases. I was pleased that the author had a glossary in the back of the book, but it needed to be at the front of the book - or at least a big note in the front saying where it was. I didn't discover it until I was half-way through the book. After that I used it frequently, but I regret not knowing about it earlier.

There is an author's note in the book that states this was her first romantic suspense book. Previously she wrote romantic comedy.

STORY BRIEF:
The Sheridan family owned a sugar cane plantation sitting next to the swamp for generations. Finances have been tight due to recent crop failures. A Texas chemical company wants to buy the land and use it for illegal dumping in the swamp. Grandpa won't sell.

Due to loss of their parents at age 15, Grandpa has been raising twin girls Serena and Shelby. Shelby is selfish and cruel. As a teen she left her sister lost in the swamp as a joke - which lasted for two nights due to bad weather. Serena nearly died. Ever since, Serena has had a phobia of the swamp. Shelby married Mason who wants to run for political office. She needs to sell Grandpa's land for money to finance Mason's campaign and to pay for her own lavish lifestyle. She plans to have Grandpa declared mentally incompetent if necessary. Grandpa leaves the plantation and is currently living in his fishing hut in the swamp. Serena became a psychologist and has a practice in Charleston. She had no idea any of this was going on until she came for a two-week vacation. She wants to visit Grandpa and find out why he left home. The only person available to take her there is Lucky. He takes her in his boat. Grandpa won't leave his fishing hut. Other bad things start happening.

Years ago Lucky dated Shelby for a short while. She was using him to get Mason to marry her. Lucky went into the military and found his commanding officer on the take. The officer caused Lucky to be held prisoner in Central America for a year. Lucky was kept in a dark cell and only taken out to be tortured. Now he lives alone with nightmares and flashbacks. He's sort of a vigilante hero. He stops bad guys from taking food from poor families, and he wants to protect the swamp from ecological damage the Texas company will do.

CAUTION SPOILER (about one of the bad guys):

I was disappointed that Shelby didn't go to jail. She participated in fraud and conspiracy to kidnap. As a result, my theme for this book is "Shelby is never held accountable and never pays the price for her bad actions." Throughout the book Serena would not believe Shelby's evil, and in the end the justice system ignored it as well. I doubt this theme was the author's intent, but I did not like the lack of justice.

DATA:
Story length: 368 pages. Swearing language: mild, including religious swear words. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 7. Estimated number of sex scene pages: 20. Setting: current day southern Louisiana. Copyright: 1992. Genre: romantic suspense.

I have just read Lucky's Lady for about the 4th or 5th time. I first read it in 1992 and every once in a while I need to get away from my Serial Killer/Child Abduction/Murder & Mayham books and just read a nice romantic novel. And this one is the greatest... I read it about every two years. It's one of those books I will not part with...This is tied for my all time first place books right alongside French Silk by Sandra Brown... Maybe it's that hot Cajun setting.