www.kirkusreviews.com gave Just Our Luck a Starred review and wrote;
"Leo’s singular voice keeps pages turning and chuckles coming but also communicates a wealth of insight on topics from mental health stigma to toxic masculinity. Shared in the form of journal entries, the first-person narrative carefully manages readers’ emotions while sharing Leo’s own. The growth of Leo’s unlikely connection with his erstwhile bully illuminates the vulnerable humanity that can bloom when the veil of knee-jerk stereotypes falls away.
A masterpiece and a delight. (author's note) (Fiction. 13-18)"
"Bad luck follows lies." That was the first rule for life that Leo's Greek grandmother, Yia Yia, gave him before she died. But Leo's anxiety just caused a fight at school, and though he didn't lie, he wasn't exactly honest about how it all went down . . . how he went down. Now Leo's father thinks a self-defense class is exactly what his son needs to "man up."
"Leave the Paros family alone." That was Yia Yia's second rule for life. But who does Leo see sitting at the front desk of the local gym? Evey Paros, whose family supposedly cursed Leo's with bad luck. Seeing that Leo is desperate to enroll in anything but self-defense class, Evey cuts him a deal: she'll secretly enroll him in hot yoga instead—for a price. But what could the brilliant, ruthless, forbidden Evey Paros want from Leo?
Sharp, honest, and compulsively readable, Just Our Luck is as funny as it is heartwarming.
"A feel-good story, with shades of Holes and The Karate Kid" —Bulletin
Paperback
Julia Walton
272 pages
H: 210mm W: 139mm