The Good Luck Charm is a sexy second chance romance that tackles some real issues beyond just the initial breakup. Ethan and Lilah were high school sweethearts until Ethan breaks Lilah’s heart by breaking up with her (over the phone!) to pursue a hockey career. Now, Lilah is a nurse studying to become a nurse practitioner and Ethan has been traded back to his hometown team.

This is a fun, quick read. I like how goofy Ethan is in trying to win Lilah back, and especially one scene where he apologizes using a bag of her favourite candies from the local convenience store. His note includes a pun on the Hot Lips candy, and I love that bit of silliness.

I like that it didn’t take the whole book to resolve the conflict about why they broke up in the first place, and that instead the book chose to focus on how things can realistically work out for them this time around. I love how their present-day relationship made them both realize some uncomfortable truths about the lives they would’ve led if they’d never broken up in the first place. So often in second chance romances, the focus is on how much time was wasted when the couple wasn’t together, so I really like that this book showed how their initial breakup may have actually had some benefits for the lives they now lead.

I also love how realistic the main conflict of their present-day relationship is — how much Ethan wants to make up for lost time by having Lilah be a major part of his life, and how much Lilah (rightly) recognizes the risk of allowing her ambitions to be subsumed by his. I love that the risk to Lilah’s career isn’t the same old story of a man being jealous of his girlfriend’s career — on the contrary, Ethan’s very supportive of Lilah’s ambitions — but rather the more realistic situation of thoughtlessness and miscommunication between the couple. I can understand why Ethan wants to spend more time with Lilah, and I can also understand why Lilah would often acquiesce, even though she needs to study for an exam or work on an assignment, and I like how their decisions have some real consequences to Lilah’s studies.

The title is somewhat misleading, and to be honest, the part about Ethan’s being superstitious about her bringing him luck felt artificial. From the start, it’s pretty obvious he wants her for more than whatever luck she can bring his career, and I think that makes this a much stronger, more compelling story.

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Thank you to Forever Romance for an egalley of this book in exchange for an honest review.