Jude is the only guy among his siblings, but he’s okay with that. He is close to all his sisters including his twin, Prue. His best friend Ari is a girl too, even if she isn’t into his Dungeons & Dragons world on Saturdays. What they do share though is music. Ari is a talented song writer, musician and singer, and Jude never tires of listening to her work. They met in Jude’s family record store Ventures Vinyl, and have been friends ever since.

Ari doesn’t go to Jude’s school though, so he hangs out with his D&D friends on breaks. They usually talk nerdy stuff, what happened on their last D&D campaign or what might be coming up. Jude is the Dungeon Master, guiding their game with skill and creativity after spending hours preparing. He’s also a talented artist, his sketch pad never far away, drawing orks, dragons, and dozens of other creatures of fantasy worlds.

Another fantasy he thinks a lot about is going out with a girl named Maya. He has crushed on her for years, but only ever imagines asking her out on a date. Everyone knows about his crush, even Maya herself, but Jude just can’t find the courage to ask her out, until…

One night at a function in Ventures Vinyl, Jude finds a 20 sided dice. It’s the type of dice he and his friends use in D&D, but this one is red with gold lettering, and as far as Jude knows – expensive. He waits to see if anyone owns up to leaving it for him, but when no one does, just puts it in his pocket. Suddenly his life changes.

Everything he does brings brilliant results. Whether it’s just a coin toss at home with his little sister or a dice throw in D&D. School tests and marks become all A+’s without studying, and he finds something valuable in Venus Vinyl that has been in plain sight for years. But the best part of Jude’s good luck is winning two VIP tickets to a concert everyone would give a limb to attend.

All this good luck and exclusive tickets finally gives Jude the confidence to ask Maya out. The concert is a dream come true for both of them. Maya meets a famous and handsome singer and Jude has the date of his dreams.

Life changes for Jude as he begins to hang out with Maya’s friends at lunch instead, and thinks about more dates. Lots of time is also spent with his twin sister Prue, also a bestie of Ari’s as they work on putting a video together of Ari’s new song Downpour. There is a competition coming up which could launch Ari’s music career if she wins. Prue, Jude and their other friends all believe she definitely has a shot, and Jude secretly believes his lucky dice and run of good luck might rub off on Ari.

As Jude spends more time with Maia and Ari, he begins to feel uncomfortable. Things aren’t going as expected with Maia as he misses chance after chance to extend their friendship into something more…. and then Jude loses the red, 20 sided lucky dice.

Life plummets as spectacularly as it rocketed up before. Everything he does goes wrong, until he believes it will be the sum of his life from now on. But the powers of the universe, his friends, his twin sister’s intuition and Jude’s own stumbling courage finally reveal the truth – and maybe it had nothing to do with the strange dice after all.

With a little luck is a love story. Main character Jude’s point of view pulled me in early, as he often talks directly to the reader. He’s a nice guy – to his twin and other sisters, his parents and his friends. He’s popular with them all, but is a little shy with others. I really enjoyed getting to know him and the relationships around him.

But one relationship consumes him – his unrequited crush he’s had for years on a girl named Maya. I cheered him on as he finally finds his courage, then felt for him as he realises things aren’t all as they seemed, or dreamed.

The music thread in the story is compelling as bestie Ari builds her fan base and begins her career, and she too is the kind of person you’d want to hang out with in school. It was refreshing change to have characters that were genuine without hate, spite, or evil agendas so many high school novels have. There were mean girls and jocks all right, but they had minor roles in the story.

Another difference in With a Little Luck were the sections of Dungeons and Dragons adventure played out in the story. I listened to an audio book of With a Little Luck, so was ‘lucky’ enough to have sound effects as I listened, and these were a fun addition in getting to know Jude. Diversity is present as Ari is of Mexican heritage, Maya is black and one of Jude’s friends’ pronouns are them/them.

An enjoyable read, even if I knew (or hoped) what would eventually happen – even I didn’t guess how it would do so.

Author – Marissa Meyer

Age – 12+

(2024, Allen & Unwin, Romance, Love Story, Record Store, Drawing, Sketching, Good luck, Bad Luck, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Nerds, Pop Culture, Singer Songwriter, Crush, Family, Twins, Sisters, Nice Guy, Talented Artist, Roll of the Dice, Music)