Beginner's Luck

By Kate Clayborn

A popular ebook original now in print for the first time, here is the debut novel in a whip-smart, witty, and thoughtful romantic trilogy about three friends who impulsively buy a lottery ticket, and never suspect the many ways their lives will change—or that for each of them, love will be the biggest win of all. Will appeal to fans of Emily Henry and classic romance with a fresh, contemporary flair.

Kit Averin is anything but a gambler. A scientist with a quiet, steady job at a university, Kit’s focus has always been maintaining the acceptable status quo. A sudden windfall doesn’t change that, with one exception: the fixer-upper she plans to buy, her first and only real home. It’s more than enough to keep her busy, until an unsettlingly handsome, charming, and determined corporate recruiter shows up in her lab—and manages to work his way into her heart . . .
 
Ben Tucker is surprised to find that the scientist he wants for his company’s engineering division is a young woman—and a beautiful, sharp-witted one at that. Talking her into a big-money corporate position is harder than he expects, but he’s willing to put in the time, especially when sticking around for the summer gives him a chance to reconnect with his dad. But the longer he stays, the more questions he has about his own future—and who might be in it.
 
What begins as a chilly rebuff soon heats up into an attraction neither Kit nor Ben can deny—and finding themselves lucky in love might just be priceless . . .
 
PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF KATE CLAYBORN
 
“A classic author writing in the modern age, Clayborn is in a league entirely her own.” —Christina Lauren, New York Times bestselling authors of The Soulmate Equation

“A sweet novel that reminds you going back is sometimes the best path forward . . . and that planning is never as rewarding as doing.” —Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Wish You Were Here

“Kate Clayborn’s writing is magnetic and witty and expansive.” —Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lyrical Press
• Release date: Oct 31, 2017
• ISBN: 9781516105106

Kate Clayborn

Double RITA(R) nominee Kate Clayborn lives in Virginia, where she spends her days reading and talking about all kinds of great books. Kate loves to hear from and connect with readers—follow her on Twitter, on Instagram, and on Facebook. Visit her at www.kateclayborn.com to sign up for her newsletter.

Book preview

Cover Copy

When three friends impulsively buy a lottery ticket, they never suspect the many ways their lives will change—or that for each of them, love will be the biggest win of all.

Kit Averin is anything but a gambler. A scientist with a quiet, steady job at a university, Kit’s focus has always been maintaining the acceptable status quo. Being a sudden millionaire doesn’t change that, with one exception: the fixer-upper she plans to buy, her first and only real home. It’s more than enough to keep her busy, until an unsettlingly handsome, charming, and determined corporate recruiter shows up in her lab—and manages to work his way into her heart . . .

Ben Tucker is surprised to find that the scientist he wants for Beaumont Materials is a young woman—and a beautiful, sharp-witted one at that. Talking her into a big-money position with his firm is harder than he expects, but he’s willing to put in the time, especially when sticking around for the summer gives him a chance to reconnect with his dad. But the longer he stays, the more questions he has about his own future—and who might be in it.

What begins as a chilly rebuff soon heats up into an attraction neither Kit nor Ben can deny—and finding themselves lucky in love might just be priceless . . .

www.kensingtonbooks.com

Books by Kate Clayborn

Beginner’s Luck

Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation

Beginner’s Luck

A Chance of a Lifetime Romance

Kate Clayborn

LYRICAL PRESS

Kensington Publishing Corp.

www.kensingtonbooks.com

Copyright

Lyrical Press books are published by

Kensington Publishing Corp. 119 West 40th Street New York, NY 10018

Copyright © 2017 by Kate Clayborn

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First Electronic Edition: October 2017

eISBN-13: 978-1-5161-0510-6

eISBN-10: 1-5161-0510-9

First Print Edition: October 2017

eISBN-13: 978-1-5161-0511-3

eISBN-10: 1-5161-0511-7

Printed in the United States of America

Prologue

They never could remember whose idea it had been, finally, to buy the ticket.

This was frustrating for them all, not because any one of them wanted to have special claim on the ticket—whatever else they’d forgotten about the night, none of them ever questioned the fact that the ticket had been for all three of them, that they’d split the winnings on the off-chance they won. It was frustrating because it seemed so unlike all of them to even think of buying a lottery ticket.

Kit wasn’t the type to quote you statistical unlikelihoods, but she was one of the most talented observational scientists around, and anyone with a shred of observational talent knew going in for a lottery ticket wasn’t altogether sensible. Plus, of the three of them, she was the most practical about money. She still lived in a shitty one-bedroom above One-Eyed Betty’s Bar and Restaurant, swearing that she wouldn’t buy a place of her own until she had a certain percentage of her student loans paid off and at least a twenty percent down payment for a house. No way could it have been Kit.

Zoe was the most impulsive of their group; she sang karaoke and threw darts with whatever bearded hipster dude at the bar asked her and always ordered the special and also jetted off to exotic locales every year for vacation. But Zoe was also the most successful, and she didn’t need the money, and she wasn’t the kind of woman to want more of what she already had enough of. Zoe wouldn’t have thought to buy herself a ticket.

And Greer thought the lottery was bad luck. She thought lots of things were bad luck, actually—the usual stuff, like black cats and walking under ladders and hats on the bed. But she had other ones too: goldfish, old brooms in new houses, opals, candles with two wicks. Mostly she accepted teasing about these superstitions, but Zoe and Kit both remembered clearly that Greer had once said lottery bad luck was real—she’d watched a whole show about it on TLC. Greer wouldn’t schedule a doctor’s appointment on the thirteenth of any month, so there was no way she’d buy a lottery ticket without some real coaxing.

And yet—they’d bought a lottery ticket. There was even grainy surveillance video of their purchase, all three of them at the Seventh Street Quick Mart, looking like they’d had a bit too much to drink (they had—Betty ran a good happy hour), which was embarrassing, but maybe not quite as embarrassing as the fact that they were also purchasing twelve Snickers bars, a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, and a box of tampons. One of the local news blogs had run a headline under a screenshot of the video: Gal pals find best cure for PMS is a jackpot. Zoe wanted to sue over that quip, and knowing Zoe, she would have done her hot-shot lawyer thing until the blog was wiped off the internet forever, but Kit—who was more concerned about keeping it quiet than any of them—had reminded her that it would just draw more attention to the whole thing.

What they wanted, once they learned of their winnings—Gary from the Quick Mart called Betty, Betty called Kit, and Kit called Zoe and Greer—was to absorb the shock, to the collect their shares as privately as possible, and to make sense of their new lives.

But that all came later.

What came first was the three of them at Betty’s on a Wednesday night, where and when they’d met almost every week for the last four years. Seven total alcoholic beverages, two total plates of nachos, and three terrible days between them, and someone, at some point, brought up that night’s lottery.

Maybe it was that others at the bar had been discussing it—last week’s jackpot had reached record proportions owing to a long stretch of no winners, but a group of twenty postal workers from the next state over had claimed the four hundred million, doing a press conference over the weekend all together, looking stunned and joyful and a little uncomfortable on camera. It was a big news story, and it seemed as if everyone was devoting at least a brief amount of dinner conversation to the life-changing implications of winning that kind of money.

Six of them said they’re going back to work, said Greer, going straight for the newly deposited plate of nachos. "Can you imagine? You win four hundred million dollars and go back to delivering the mail."

It’s really only around two-hundred-forty-eight million, Zoe said. Taxes.

I’d go back to work, said Kit.

We know, honey, Greer said, patting Kit’s arm affectionately. It’s you and that big microscope until the end of time. The greatest love story of the century.

I wouldn’t, said Zoe, more firmly than perhaps any of them would have anticipated, since Zoe seemed to both love her work and do amazingly well at it. Zoe waved a hand dismissively. It’d be just—a lifetime of spa treatments and male strippers, I’m pretty sure.

Jesus, Zoe, Kit said, on a laugh. Why does your mind always go to male strippers?

"I think that Magic Mike movie rewired my brain."

At least one of those twenty will do something like that, though, said Greer. I mean, maybe not the male strippers. But you’ll read about one of them buying a six-million-dollar RV and a gold-plated pickup truck or something.

Judge not, lest ye be judged, said Betty, snaking her tattooed arm between them to refill Greer’s beer. Betty winked at them, her trademark move when she served a drink. Betty actually, literally only had one natural eye, the left one a very convincing prosthetic, and all the regulars here had heard a different story from Betty herself on how she came to have it. I saw that on a fridge magnet, she said.

Oh, I’m not judging, Greer said, embarrassed, though it’s not as though Betty herself had a multi-million-dollar RV or a gold pickup truck. I mean, people can—you know, do whatever. I’m not judging!

This was classic Greer—quick to feel as if she’d said the wrong thing, always apologizing. Zoe kept telling her she needed to let her balls drop, but so far this hadn’t worked to make Greer any more assertive.

Betty smiled, bright red lips passing over her white teeth. "I’m teasing. So what would you ladies do if you won the lottery?"

There’d been a pause, a too-long one, because then Betty had shrugged and said, Well, you three sort that out while I go serve some more drinks, shimmying away in her vintage dress, little lemon and lime and orange slices printed all over it, her jet-black hair stiff in its pompadour. Except for the tattoos, Betty could’ve walked straight off a vintage poster, the kind that’d keep soldiers going.

She must not have heard me about the strippers, Zoe said.

Seriously, though, said Greer. What would we buy?

Another pause, while they all took a drink. Maybe on another day, they would have taken Zoe’s lead and riffed on all their ridiculous, overindulgent ideas—the ones where you speculate on how many shoes you could fit in a walk-in closet the size of your current apartment, on whether you could afford a private plane, on the likelihood of being able to purchase some rare piece of historically important jewelry.

But on that day—when Kit had spent two hours cleaning up after a pipe burst in her apartment, when Zoe had, not for the first time, watched a grown man cry at a conference table, and when Greer had, for the third time in a single calendar year, decided to quit a job—not a single one of them was feeling all that overindulgent.

Kit said, A house, but what she thought was, home.

Zoe said, An adventure, but what she thought was, forgiveness.

Greer said, An education, but what she thought was, freedom.

So in the end, it didn’t matter all that much who had said, at the Quick Mart, to add the ticket to their bill. What mattered was that the three of them had heard each other’s desire.

And not a single one of them was going to see the other waste the opportunity.

Chapter 1

Kit

So the thing is, I haven’t quite worked out how to live like a millionaire.

Not that I have much acquaintance with millionaires, really, except for Greer and Zoe, but they’re new to the game too. In my mind, millionaires probably do not keep wearing a pair of black pants long after they don’t really look black anymore. They probably buy new glasses instead of buying tiny screw kits to fix old ones. They probably do not drive a fourteen-year-old hatchback with no radio, nor do they live in one-bedroom apartments above bars, even really nice bars.

Millionaires also probably do not spend four hours of a workday wiping what was about fifty years of accumulated dirt off lab equipment, because millionaires probably have people they pay for that sort of thing.

I tip a bit more ethanol onto my rag to polish one last spot on the steel creep frame we’ve recently inherited—it’s old, but it’ll still do the job for some of our most aggressive stress testing. At this point, it’s started to gleam under my attentions, and I get a little thrill of pride at seeing things coming together. This morning when I’d come in, I’d hoped to steal some time on the microscope, especially since in these early weeks of summer, most of the graduate students who use the scopes, untethered from their teaching assignments, are working irregular hours, sometimes coming out of the building rumpled and bleary-eyed at seven a.m. when I’m usually arriving. But when Dr. Singh had asked if I could spare some time getting the lab in shape for the campus photographer, I hadn’t hesitated. This lab is where I’d done most of the work for my master’s thesis, and it’s where I still, almost four years later, train some of the newcomers.

Millionaires like me, I guess, get a little thrill from this kind of thing, and if I wish that some of the graduate students around here shared in my sense of protectiveness about this lab—well, that’s okay.

Once I feel the rag slide easily over the steel, I take a step back and turn in a slow circle, admiring my work. I may need to hit the windows one more time—a few are looking a little streaky still. Dr. Singh’s lab is the most modest in the materials science department, but damn if I didn’t get it the cleanest. It probably won’t even make the cut for the photographer, but it’s the principle of the thing.

I snort a little, just thinking this. Principles, I suspect, are also part of the reason I have so far been a shitty millionaire. Aside from the fact that I’d lived in a state of near-panic right after the win, begging Zoe and Greer to be the ones to do the Virginia state lottery’s mandated press appearance so my name could be left out of it as much as possible, I’d also second-guessed almost every purchase I even thought about making, and consequently made hardly any at all. Three months ago, Greer, newly thrilled by every single college course she was enrolled in, told me I was acting like Silas Marner. Which I found very offensive, once I googled Silas Marner.

But no more miserly Kit, not after today. Today, I’m taking the afternoon off and finally, officially—six months after winning the jackpot—making my biggest dream come true. Thinking about it puts a wide smile on my face, which I can see reflected in those shiny windows I cleaned all morning.

Excuse me, comes a deep voice from behind me, and it’s so unexpected that I jump a little, hitting my elbow on the creep frame I’ve just finished cleaning.

Ow, I mutter, turning to meet—oh, only the most attractive person I have ever actually seen in real life, unless something is happening to my vision. I raise a hand immediately to my face, noting the lab goggles I am wearing—right, this is ideal—over my actual glasses. I pull them off, the rubbery strap getting a little stuck in my hair, and wince when a few strands come out. Once I’ve got my glasses straightened, I have another look.

And, yeah. Still the most attractive person I’ve ever seen, tall and broad-shouldered with sandy-blond hair and a square, set jaw, eyes so blue I can see them even from several feet away, where he’s standing in the doorway. I don’t usually go for guys in suits, probably because most of the men in my line of work are more the rumpled-khakis or jeans type, but damn. This guy wears a suit like it’s his job. Which, it probably is his job, since it’s noon on a Friday.

I’m looking for E.R. Averin. Excellent voice too—deep and smooth, and I had not really realized until this moment that I am so hard up if I am noticing this man’s voice so forcefully. Maybe there was something to Zoe’s constant haranguing about my nonexistent dating life.

Well, you found her, I say, glad to hear that my own voice, at least, sounds normal.

I— He paused, looked back over his shoulder. I have?

You have. He blinks, unbuttons and then rebuttons his jacket. It is awkward to a high degree, and let me tell you what, you don’t spend your life around a bunch of experimental scientists without getting a real skewed sense of what’s awkward. This guy seems completely thrown.

You’re E.R. Averin? he says, a little edge of doubt in his voice, and it’s at this point that I get almost relieved to know what I’m dealing with. Not for nothing am I the only female—not to mention the youngest—lab technician to ever work in this department, and in fact the only woman working in a lab tech role in the College of Engineering. I’ve dealt with a lot of dudes who have doubted me.

I think I’ve made that clear, Mr.…?

He has the decency to look genuinely chastened. My apologies, Professor Averin. I’m Ben Tucker.

He steps forward, holding out his—well, very nice, very large—hand, but I hold up the bottle of ethanol and my rag, shrugging in half-hearted apology. Hello, Mr. Tucker. I’m not a professor.

Right, yes. I apologize.

That’s okay, I say, and I almost feel sorry for him. There’s something about him, some weary feature behind his handsomeness, that gives me the sense I’m getting him on a bad day.

Please, call me Ben.

Okay, Ben. Call me Ms. Averin.

He smiles at that, and I suspect on anyone else it would seem condescending, that smile. But his seems genuine—wide and a little crooked on the left side, chasing a dimple that appears in his cheek. Right, he says again.

There’s a beat of silence, while I take in that smile of his, that dimple. I probably smile back a little, despite my best efforts to look stoic and completely unaffected by him.

How can I help you, Ben?

I’m here representing Beaumont Materials.

I know Beaumont Materials—anyone who works in my field, who does any kind of work at all in materials science, knows about a company that manufactures everything from pipelines to jet engines to those little plastic thingamajigs you can use to hang pictures without nails. But some additional thread of familiarity tugs at my brain. I generally have a good memory, but probably this guy’s jerk-hotness has scrambled it. I decide not to try and sort it, and head instead over to the steel storage cabinet where we keep supplies, putting some distance between me and my new visitor. Go on, I say, appreciating the opportunity to look busy. I just need to start packing up here.

"We’ve reached out to you recently, Ms. Averin, regarding the article you and your coauthors published in Metallurgy International."

Oh. Oh, fuck, I do remember now what that tug of memory is, and my palms go a little more sweaty beneath my latex gloves. Ah. Yes. I saw a couple of emails. I don’t remember seeing your name, though.

I wasn’t part of the original contact team, he says, stepping farther into the room. But I read your paper, and I decided I had to meet you, and talk to you about the opportunities Beaumont could offer you for your research.

I don’t want any opportunities from Beaumont, I say, more quickly, more defensively than I intend. I’m immediately grateful for the fact that I’m here alone today—just as I don’t want anyone here knowing about the lottery, I don’t want them catching wind of Beaumont trying to contact me. When those emails had come in, I’d deleted them almost right away, same as I did with any message from potential employers. I’m happy here, and I don’t even want there to be a suggestion to anyone around that I’m otherwise.

He smiles again, and—ugh. I need to get this guy out of here; he is terrible for my self-preservation. I think we got that message from your silence, he says, but I’m afraid we couldn’t let this go without having the chance to tell you what exactly it is we are willing to do for you. He looks around the lab as he says this, and I suppress a wince—all right, so it may be super clean in here, but it is far from state-of-the art, and to a guy coming from Beaumont Materials, it probably looks budget as all get-out. Even after ten years of being here, Dr. Singh was still the most recent faculty hire, and he’d inherited this, the oldest lab, on a side of the building where the HVAC was unreliable and the floors had never been replaced.

I’ve got everything I need here, I say, but at that exact moment yet another handle from the already-dilapidated steel cabinet falls off, clattering on the peeling, faded linoleum. I mean except for functional handles.

Hell. That dimple. We could take care of that.

I’m sure you could, I say, hooking a finger through the hole left by the wayward handle and pulling open the cabinet.

As I’m sure you know, state-of-the-art equipment is the least of what we’d be willing to do to have you on board. Beaumont is working on alloy technologies that relate directly to your research, and we think we could make a real difference working together.

I let out an unladylike snort at this, this cookie-cutter pitch he’s giving me. And anyways, I know what alloy technology Beaumont’s been pouring most of its money into in the last five years—big oil and big guns—and I want no part of either. My work’s always been about figuring out weaknesses in old materials, studying bridge or pipeline failures, figuring out how to make what’s already here work better. I’m not looking to make that kind of difference, I say, setting the jug of ethanol back in its place.

Many of the scientists we work with have that reaction initially, I can assure you. But Beaumont’s packages are very attractive—we’re talking a great deal of funding sources for your work. Let me take you to lunch and tell you—

I cut him off here, bored with everything he has to say, and that’s in spite of the fact that I’m pretty sure I could look at him for a good, long time. Tell me about the nondisclosure agreement you’re going to make me sign, so I can’t publish research that might hurt your bottom line? Tell me about the devil’s bargain this will turn out to be, when Beaumont uses my research to make some product that is horrible for the environment, or that you put on some weapon that you sell to the government at huge cost? Tell me about all the fine print that says you can terminate my contract if I’m not producing patentable material in the next two years? Listen, no offense to you, Ben, but there’s a reason I’ve avoided private funding in the work I do. There’s a reason I work here.

Two of your colleagues here are backed with corporate funding. Don’t I know it. Dr. Harroway and Dr. Wagner both have massive corporate support, and there’s no kind of fifty-plus years of dirt on any of their equipment. If my lottery money would have made any kind of dent in what we’d need to match corporate funding, I would’ve donated it all. And the College of Engineering is exploring avenues for long-term partnerships with industry.

I can feel my eyes narrow at him. This kind of guy was the reason academic research was becoming—was already—a patsy for big money. "Let me ask you something about that Metallurgy International article, I say, rising to my full—not very full, frankly—height. What did you think of the technique I used to prepare samples for heat treatment in step three of my experiments?"

It’s fleeting, but I catch it, I think: a flash of something near surprise in his eyes, but he so quickly arranges his features into a sly, I’m-not-ashamed-that-you-caught-me devilishness that I suspect Ben Tucker never really lets himself get taken off guard. To this, I shrug my shoulders casually. I don’t really blame you, actually. I didn’t write it with a corporate audience—with someone like you—in mind. But this is why I’m not interested in working for your company. I enjoy working with people who really know what it is that I do, and more importantly, with people who know what I really want to do with it.

He lowers his eyes for a moment, looking down to where the cabinet handle rests on the floor. Damn, he has long eyelashes, a dark contrast to his light hair, which is actually unacceptable for me to be noticing at this time.

He looks back up and smiles at me. I like you, he says, and I stiffen in surprise and a fair bit of anger.

Because this is also unacceptable. What does he think, that I’ll roll right over and show him my belly, in gratitude for a little male attention? I’ve known guys like this. I’d taken notes all through general chemistry for a guy like this in my first year of college, stupidly not realizing that for him, the notes were all that I was good for.

Oh, is this the part where you skate right over the fact that you didn’t actually read my paper, and instead tell me I’ve got ‘spunk,’ that I’m exactly what Beaumont needs?

No. That’s me telling you. Independent of Beaumont. He says this firmly, with more conviction than he’s said anything else so far.

Well. I know your type, and flattery isn’t going to work, either.

My type?

I feel it, right here, that I’m losing a little control over the conversation, but I’m stuck with it, so I barrel on. Oh, sure. You come in here, with your—I pause here, to gesture vaguely in the direction of his body—your suit. And your face, and… I swallow the rest of it. I want him out of here. I’m afraid someone will come in, Dr. Singh, or any one of the faculty or graduate students who would probably wet their pants at meeting a Beaumont executive who seems to be handing out jobs. Listen, it’s very kind of you to come all this way. But I did read those emails, so I know something about what you’re offering. I’m just really, really not interested. And I do, actually, have an appointment.

He takes a deep breath and nods. His skin is golden-brown, a light tan, but I think I see flags of color on his cheeks. This is his fault, coming in here sleek but unprepared, but suddenly I feel a little guilty for being so dismissive. Before I can say anything, though, he speaks again. I understand. I’m… he trails off, long enough to run a hand through his hair, before continuing, …sorry to have wasted your time.

He steps forward a little, holding out his hand. I catch a little scent of something—pine, maybe. Whatever it is, it’s not what I’m expecting. With the suit he’s wearing, I’d expected some upmarket version of that heinous body spray I sometimes get a whiff of when one of the undergrads is trying to compensate for not-very-clean-laundry. Ben, though, he smells—clean. Natural.

Male.

I take his hand and shake it, forgetting the glove I still have on. He looks down and chuckles a little at the contact, and I try not to be ashamed of the little shiver that chases down my spine at the sound of that.

It was very nice to meet you, Ms. Averin, he says, and then he turns and leaves the room, as quietly as he’d come in.

For a minute, I stare after him, a little confused, thrown off. I’ve been recruited before, especially back when I was finishing up my thesis, but never quite that way, never by someone that looked like him. One thing about it was the same, though—that quick-shot feeling of fear that would go through me at the very idea of having to pick up and leave here, start all over again. I can’t do that anymore. I’ve had my fill of it.

I strip off my gloves and shrug out of my lab coat, cast my eyes up at the clock. There’s no time for me to be distracted by Ben Tucker or by my disproportionate reaction to his offer. If there’s any day when I don’t need to feel threatened by an upheaval, it’s today.

Today, I’ve got millionaire dreams to make come true.

* * * *

It’s like a four, Zoe says, peering out the back window to the small, overgrown yard, on a scale of shithole to ten.

It’s Saturday morning, and I’ve been a homeowner now for less than a full twenty-four hours. I’d spent most of yesterday afternoon at the closing, signing a stack of documents that Satan obviously prepared, and then had made my way over, alone, to take it all in and drop off a few boxes—but also, I guess, to get prepared for this, the morning I was showing my two best friends my new place for the first time.

When I’d first started looking for a place, Zoe and Greer had gone with me to dozens of open houses, had helped me scour real estate websites for prospects. They each had their own opinions about where I belonged—condo, Zoe had said, lobbying especially hard for her own posh downtown building, while Greer said she pictured me somewhere with a big yard, a place to spread out a little.

Of course I valued their opinions. For the last few years, since the night we’d all literally, hilariously, run into each other outside of the entrance to my apartment—Greer walking home from the pet store with a plastic bag filled with water and a single goldfish, Zoe yelling into her phone outside of the yoga studio next door to Betty’s, and me, trying to wave a bat outside of the doorway with an old hairbrush—Greer and Zoe had been my confidantes, my cheerleaders, my companions. They were family. But buying this house was so important, so personal to me that I was afraid I’d lose my own voice somewhere in the shuffle, and more than that, I’d known almost since I first moved to Barden and drove through its most historic district that I wanted to live in this neighborhood, on this medium-sized city’s southern edge, someday. I think I was stalling, really, until I saw one of the Queen Anne style row houses come available, and when one did, I’d gone on my own to the first showing, fully intending to call them, to have them see it another time, once I’d checked it out.

But the house was in rough shape—lots to be done, lots of people to be hired, lots of planning and patience required. I was afraid they’d talk me out of it, and so I’d made an offer that first day, had held off, despite their pleading protests, on showing it to them before today—moving day, when the truck was outside, unloading the boxes that had been picked up from my old apartment this morning.

So if my friends are a little skeptical, it may be because I’ve made them that way. And also because this house—it probably is a four.

Greer tsks, nudging Zoe in the back. Kit, it’s beautiful, really. And don’t listen to Zoe. Her mother called this morning and you know what that means.

Zoe waves a hand dismissively. I’m fine. It’s just that my garlic necklace doesn’t work through the phone. Anyways, Kit-Kat, I’m totally kidding. This is a great house.

I smile at their gentle approval, but I need, today, to press for more. There’s two dudes carrying my mattress upstairs, after all. I am in this thing. You really think so?

It’s a little tough, standing in this kitchen, trying to recapture the calm, joyful feeling I’d had when I’d first seen the house. Then, I’d taken in the flaws, understood the need for many renovations—but I’d somehow known. I’d felt a certainty unlike anything else, except for maybe the first time I’d solved a thermodynamics equation. Now, though, I only see the mismatched cabinets, some painted so many times the doors won’t shut, the peeling laminate countertop, the floor

Reviews for Beginner's Luck

[Leena Aluru · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

2.5 stars actually. The book's average. A pleasant one time read. Everyone is a likeable and very plausible character who you could meet. I liked the story layers of the surrounding cast las in Henry/Alex. But not a book that makes you go WOW !nothing that is unexpected or out of the ordinary. Actually quite predictable. What I didn't like at all is how towards te end she branches off as a consultant and there is no mention of her mentor Dr.Singh at all. Does he get the grant.For someone who has been relentlessly explaining how wshe would do anything for him there is absolutely no mention of him at all.

[rmarcin-630843 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Beginner's Luck is the first in a trilogy about 3 friends, Kit, Zoe, and Greer, who win the Virginia state lottery. Kit is a lab tech / research assistant who gets recruited by Ben Tucker, who works for Beaumont Materials in Texas. Kit is not interested in the offer, but she is interested in Ben. When she believes that Ben betrayed her, her world is turned upside down.This was a romance, but I wasn't as invested in Kit and Ben as I was in the 2nd installment, with Zoe and Aiden (yes, I read them out of order). I did like the ending, especially as I was surprised by the wedding.

[n.w.moors-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kit Averin is a smart research scientist who suddenly wins the lottery with her two best friends. She doesn't really let it change her life besides buying an old house of her own. She's gradually fixing it up using finds from Tucker's Renovations when she discovers that son Ben Tucker is also the recruiter trying to talk her into giving up her small college position to move to a corporate gig in Texas. Ben is also really nice and cute despite Kit's determination to not move or give up her well-loved job.I first read Ms. Clayborn's Love Lettering which I absolutely loved and then went looking for more of her work. This is a nice contemporary romance featuring intelligent people (a la Penny Reid) wrestling with the demands of today's working world. It's nicely written and has a good supporting cast of characters. Kit and Ben are sweethearts and I was rooting for them all the way. Nice start to the series.

[samnreader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Well...yay!
This feels like it belongs on that shelf with Act Like It or The Hating Game (if anything belongs on that shelf with the Hating Game) in terms of contemporary debuts. There were so many many great things about this book.

The heroine and her relationships: I'm including her relationship to her job, her friends, her town, her brother (they had me tearing up-sibling relationships are so crazy deep and this was well done IMO). What was wonderful is this all gave us a great idea of who Kit is. And who she wanted to be. And girl, I'm all for comfort zones and an ambition of having a stable, content life. That said, it was truly wonderful how this STEM heroine was portrayed, for that piece wasn't at all glossed over and I even noticed subtle and wonderful things by the author--For example, there was no assumption by the hero that a doctor was male-and then the heroine describes her-things like this make me giddy. It is a sign of a wonderful feminist author. I lamented a few weeks ago about someone telling us how competent a STEM heroine was (again!) and how a book tried to have such a feminist feel that it actually weakened this point for me. This was not the case in Beginner's Luck. Our heroine is competent, and they continually show us.

So the secondary characters were all wonderful and I want to befriend every one of them. I cannot wait to read on for the next installment of (or maybe the one after that as I have high hopes for Greer)

And then there's the hero. And the hero's dad. And the hero's, well everything felt very purposeful here too. He had me when he told her upon first meeting "I like you." And that first kiss..whew...He's not perfect. He holds his hopes and wants close, but it is clear from the outset that he begins to care deeply about Kit. He humors and even adores her friends for being who they are to her, he LISTENS. I kept finding myself thinking how adored that makes people feel to have someone who pays such careful attention to them. And there's that heartbreaking fuck-up that was not really his doing, but certainly led to his undoing. The hospital scene killed me, both at the time and when they referred back to it. I don't usually cry from books, but this one burned. "I'll do anything." And the fact that that included leaving. sigh. And he certainly had me when he looked around his bare Houston apartment and realized he didn't want to be there anymore.

Then there's the final chapter in the salvage yard. "Don't expect his back." And then there's what follows....


Maybe I should've come down from this book a bit, it was such a delightful surprise (despite two reviewers I follow closely adoring it as well!). My review feels unfocused and gushy, but it just makes me so happy to read a great book with excellent secondary characters and a love story that feels totally fresh.

[jbarr5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beginner's luck by Kate ClaybornStory starts out with three women and they're going over their day from hell at work while drinking and on the way out buy a lottery ticket.They win and their lives change. Kate is a biologist and nobody understands her work even the man, Ben who's there offering corporate financing if she'll join his team. He has no clue as to what she even does but she likes the looks of him. She had wanted a home and bought a house with her winnings.Zoey and Greer are her friends, like family. Story also follows Ben who's in the middle of getting his father discharged from the hospital and fixing up his house so he can stay in it as he ages and needs aids.Enjoyed both characters as it's a learning experience: her with her house that needs a lot of repairs and him helping and living with his dad.His dad works at the salvage yard and he has many things Kate can use at her new house.Heated scenes enhance this story.I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).

[arthistorychick · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Beginner’s Luck by Kate ClaybornBook #1: Chance of a Lifetime SeriesSource: NetgalleyMy Rating: 2½/5 starsKit Averin’s life runs on a tight schedule, a routine designed to make her comfortable and feel as if she has the home and family sadly lacking in her childhood. Even with her miraculous lottery win, Kit has no interest breaking out of her comfort zone and living up to her actual potential. Ben Tucker and his partner see Kit’s potential and want, more than anything to get Kit out of her current job, town, and life. She’s an incredibly intelligent and talented scientist who refuses to leave her university job. Though Kit finds the job satisfying, it doesn’t truly challenge her or push her scientific limits. In fact, Kit is the only one who can’t, or refuses to see how stagnant her job and life has become. When Ben Tucker walks into her lab and pitches her a totally new job, in a new state, with state of the art everything, he expects her to jump at the opportunity. What he gets is a resounding “NO!”The minute Ben Tucker leaves Kit’s presence he not only knows he screwed up horribly and he must see her again. Kit is Ben and his partner’s way out of a job they have both worked very hard to get out of, but that inexplicably isn’t the reason he wants to see her again. Behind the glasses, shy demeanor, and adamant refusal of his spectacular job offer, Ben sees a beautiful woman with a world of potential he wants to know absolutely everything about. Getting to know Kit isn’t the easiest thing in the world and Ben’s in with her happens quite by accident. With part of her lottery winnings, Kit bought a ramshackle home that needs a ton of repairs. As fate would have it, Ben’s father owns an architectural salvage yard that has so much of what Kit wants for her home. As the days and weeks go by, Kit and Ben become so much a part of each other’s lives which forces each to confront some hard truths. Ben must admit to himself and his partner his true involvement with Kit and how he no longer cares if she takes the job, and Kit must confront the fact that she is indeed in something of a rut and she doesn’t find a way to deal with her issues, she won’t ever be able to find true happiness. The Bottom Line: While there were parts of this book I liked, I found the read as a whole to be somewhat flat. Kit is so much of an introvert as to be a nearly non-existent character, and that’s a special kind of talent when you’re the lead female in a story. Ben is somewhat more extroverted and interesting, but only just. In truth, the most significant character in this book is Ben’s dad, who is loud and funny and really makes his presence felt. I genuinely liked the plot of this book but feel it would have been much better served by stronger, more forceful characters. Because of the plot and the plot alone, I stuck with this book to the bitter end but can’t honestly say I’ll be sticking around for the coming books in the series.