Nikol’s review of Lucky Chica by Berta Platas.

Hero: Brad Merritt
Heroine: Rosie Caballero
Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Rosie Caballero hates her nagging boss, her “ditch-me” dating history, her second-hand wardrobe and third-rate job–nothing is easy. She can’t even afford to pay for her dog Tootie’s food.

And then, Rosie wins the largest lottery jackpot ever: 600 million. Rosie can hardly believe her new life: she spends thousands on diamonds, makeup, clothes, and promises. Rosie parties like a celebrity—and even meets the hottest actor on the planet, Brad Merritt, who sweeps her off her feet and seems to good to be true. But he’s not the only one in her dizzying world—former boyfriends, larcenous advisors, paparazzi all swarm around her, vying for her attention (and money).

In between shopping sprees and photo shoots, Rosie has to find out who she trusts—and what money can (and just can’t) buy.

What a fun book this turned out to be. I’ve never read anything by this author before and when I saw that Wena got this book, I immediately wanted it. The cover is cute and the synopsis on the back seemed pretty good so I dug right in.

I liked the book right from the very beginning. This book is about Rosie Caballero. Rosie is a receptionist who wins the $600 million lottery. Yes, you read that right; $600 million. Because she’s a nice person with only two living relatives, she shares her bounty with both her grandmother and her cousin, Cheeto. You read that right too, his damn name was Cheeto…like Cheetos the Chips. And her last name was Caballero, like that one Donald Duck song, “We’re three caballeros, three gay caballeros, they say we are birds of a feather….” Haha. I’m telling you, reading their names in this book alone was enough to make me laugh.

But all laughing aside, this book was too cute for words. So after Rosie wins the lottery, she splits it with her grandma and Cheeto. After taxes, they all got approximately $100 million each. That’s still a lot of cheese to have and they immediately rise to rock star status. Paparazzi is snapping their pictures everywhere they go and TMZ-like reporters are reporting on every little thing that they do.

It’s funny how different all three of them are. Grandma used her money to pay off all of her friends medical bills and then takes them all on a four week cruise. Cheeto uses his money to buy himself a hummer and then he buys all of his friends cars and then he lives the life of a party boy, jetting to Vegas every weekend and all of that madness. Rosie, who doesn’t really have any friends takes her dog shopping. They get makeovers and she buys some jewelry from Tiffany’s. While she’s out and about, she runs into Brad frickin’ Merritt. The A-list Actor that Rosie has been in love with forEVER.

They are formally introduced at a party and Rosie’s infatuation for Brad grows with the each hour that she spends in his company. Brad is just as smitten with Rosie as she is with him. Before the night is over, Brad tries to seduce Rosie but Rosie doesn’t let her passion run away with her. She wasn’t raised in this spotlight, loose morals kind of life. She is different from anyone that Brad’s ever encountered before and what I really liked about Rosie is that even though her life has drastically changed, not all of it was good and she kept her head about her while she stumbled along trying to adjust to her new life.

Watching, Brad and Rosie fall for each other made for some good reading and everything that came out of Cheeto’s mouth had me laughing my guts out. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a hysterical story about how money doesn’t automatically mean problems solved. It usually brings about more problems that make your head hurt and makes you want to hunt for blood. It’s a laugh out loud story that I enjoyed and I would definitely like to read more from this author.

This book is available from St. Martin’s Press. You can buy it here.