Can two broken people grow together, or will they tear each other apart?
Bad Luck Club, an all-new, not-to-be-missed, opposites attract standalone romance in the laugh-out-loud Asheville Brewery Series by New York Times bestselling author Denise Grover Swank and A.R. Casella is available now!
A grumpy man. A recovering people-pleaser. And the secret club that brings them together.
Lee Buchanan is a hot mess.
Turning one’s father in to the feds can do that to a man.
He had nothing to do with his father’s Ponzi scheme, but he’s blacklisted from commercial real estate all the same. Which is how he ends up in Asheville, working at the brewery he inherited with his siblings. He’s salty as hell, and he doesn’t care who knows it.
Until the gorgeous, intriguing Blue Combs issues the most peculiar invitation he’s ever received: Come to the Bad Luck Club. We can help you.
It sounds like a cult or, worse, a group of Mary Sues, but Blue is different from any woman he’s ever met. For better or worse, he’s drawn to her.
Just like she’s drawn to him, even if she has no intention of going all in with another man. She’s been there, done that, twice, and the life she’s built for herself is too important to risk.
What starts as one person’s desire to help another turns into a connection too powerful to be denied—but can two broken people grow together, or will they tear each other apart?
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Review:
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Bad Luck Club is the fourth book in the Asheville Brewing series by A.R. Casella and Denise Grover Swank. Some secondary characters will get a book so I wouldn't call this an end to the series. This book features the last single Buchanan sibling and I hate to say this but I was disappointed. I had so much fun with the other books and I had very high hopes for this one too. Unfortunately, there were a few things that I didn't enjoy.
Should I start with the fact that Blue is "dating" another man for 1/3 of the book? It doesn't matter that it wasn't anything serious. It matters that she kept bringing him up and he was just an annoying obstacle to her building relationship with Lee. These two actually had a lot of obstacles. I didn't find them all necessary and I wish more time had been spent on Lee fixing his relationship with his siblings. There was drama, that could have been avoided and Lee and Blue could have more time to grow as characters and get over their pasts.
Lee knew that he was messed up and he even told Blue about it and asked her to be understanding and call him out on it. He is a member of the Bad luck club after all. Blue chose to bolt when the time to do what he asked came and I was very frustrated. That's why we cannot have two messed-up characters. At that point, I was rolling my eyes hard. I do feel like Lee had better growth than her which is weird since Blue is the one who was supposed to be a long-time member of the club.
The book had some good parts and I am excited about Cal's book. He intrigued me and I cannot wait to find out how and with who he is going to get his happy ending. The epilogue was great and It only made me want to see more of these characters, which I hope we will in the future books.
Excerpt
She turned into Bear’s long drive, and Lee cursed a little under his breath.
“We’re here, aren’t we?”
“This is it. You’re looking at the Cluster.”
There was plenty of parking for everyone, thankfully, but the people who lived closest to each other usually carpooled for meetings. That made it hard to tell who’d already arrived, but it looked like they were among the last. She couldn’t decide whether that was a good thing.
She parked the car and turned to Lee, who was giving her a pointed glance. “Cloister? That isn’t helping dissuade me about the whole cult thing. The whole cabin in the woods thing doesn’t seem like a great sign either.”
“Not cloister. Cluster, like cluster…fudge.”
A smile played on his lips. “Let me guess, your father didn’t like it when you swore.”
“Of course not,” she said, smiling back. “It wouldn’t be ladylike.”
“And why, may I ask, do they call their own house a cluster—” he gave her a wicked look, “—fudge?”
“I guess you’re about to find out.”
They both unbuckled their seat belts, but he made no move for the door. Gazing at her, the gold flecks in his eyes like mica, he asked, “Blue, what part of last night convinced you to break things off with Dan?”
She didn’t answer right away, her heart still choking her, and he smiled at her—a sexy, unreserved smile—the kind that made her wonder how many people he’d looked at this
way.
“Radical honesty, remember?”
Her whole body hummed like a tuned instrument. It hadn’t been like this since the beginning with Remy.
And if that wasn’t a thought to wake her up . . .
Except it didn’t jar her enough. Because she found herself leaning toward Lee a little, as if caught up in a whirlwind of his making. As if those vines were cinching their very bodies together. “Because I wanted you to kiss me,” she admitted. She silently added, Because I felt more connected to you in one night than I did to him in two months…
But Lee was reaching for her then, his hand weaving into her hair, pulling her to him, and those lips that had driven her to distraction the night before, the ones that had hovered over her neck, were suddenly on hers. They were warm and commanding, and Blue felt lost to the longing that unfurled within her, to the heat that ignited in her core. He’d probably meant it to be a soft kiss, exploratory, but his hand burrowed deeper into her hair, pulling her closer, and she found herself moaning as his tongue swept into her mouth. She wrapped her hands around his arms, mindlessly trying to bring him closer, needing to feel him against her like she had last night, like she’d dreamed of, and suddenly he was lifting her up onto his lap. They were facing each other this time, and she had a flash of what it would have been like if they’d talked like this last night—looking into each other’s eyes, bodies locked together—and the intimacy of it was more arousing than anything she’d ever experienced. She was the one who kissed him this time, reveling in the fact that he’d given her control by pulling her on top of him, until she caught a glimpse of the bench Cal had made, beneath the willow tree in the Cluster’s back yard, and oh God, what the hell was she doing?
About Denise Grover Swank
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Denise Grover Swank was born in Kansas City, Missouri and lived in the area until she was nineteen. Then she became a nomadic gypsy, living in five cities, four states and ten ho uses over the course of ten years before she moved back to her roots. She speaks English and smattering of Spanish and Chinese which she learned through an intensive Nick Jr. immersion period. Her hobbies include witty Facebook comments (in own her mind) and dancing in her kitchen with her children. (Quite badly if you believe her offspring.) Hidden talents include the gift of justification and the ability to drink massive amounts of caffeine and still fall asleep within two minutes. Her lack of the sense of smell allows her to perform many unspeakable tasks. She has six children and hasn’t lost her sanity. Or so she leads you to believe.
About A.R. Casella
A.R. CASELLA is a freelance developmental editor by day, writer by night. She lives in Asheville, NC with her husband, daughter, two dogs, and a variable number of fish. Her pastimes include chasing around her toddler, baking delicious treats, and occasional bouts of crocheting. Any Luck at All, co-written with New York Times bestselling author Denise Grover Swank, is her first book.
Connect with A.R. Casella
Facebook: https://bit.ly/3gOsV5v
Website: https://www.arcasella.com/
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