Happy Girl Lucky

LoveReading4Kids Says

Delivering big-hearted, big sisterly insights through smartly entertaining escapism - no mean feat, and something Holly Smale is brilliant at - Happy Girl Lucky is a riveting read-in-one-sitting page-turner. Just like Hope herself, Hope’s story fizzes with heart, humour and a sprinkling of Hollywood stardust, and kicks-off The Valentines series in style.

Fizzily enthusiastic Hope Valentine is prone to malapropisms, and loves horoscopes and romantic movies. Oh, and she’s part of “one of the most famous families on the planet. A dynasty of movie stars stretching back four generations.” Hope cannot wait to turn sixteen, when she’ll finally be allowed into the glitzy public life her older siblings already enjoy. Maybe they’ll pay attention to her then - both her family, and the rest of the world. But right now, her director dad is away working in Hollywood and “Mum’s in rehab”, which has attracted the attention of the paparazzi - to Hope’s glee, and to the chagrin of her esteemed actress grandmother who’s compelled to remind her grandchildren that, “We are not reality-television celebrities or popular musicians. We are not Beauty Loggers or what they call Tubers. We do not air our dirty laundry in public for the entertainment of the masses.”

Everything Hope thinks (and hopes for) is done via the endearingly comic internal romantic movie that plays out in her head - and on the page - including her whirlwind week in London with a cute Californian boy who rescued her from entrapment in train doors. When he returns to LA, where Hope’s dad happens to be directing his latest movie – what a coincidence! What an alignment of their stars! - she has to follow him. Against a Hollywood backdrop, it’s not long before Hope’s ultimate romance looks set to descend into a farce. But then, amidst a maelstrom of romantic and family strife, she has an epiphany: “life is not a romance. It’s not a thriller or a comedy; it’s not a tragedy or a horror or a crime story… Life is every genre, all mixed up together: the scary bits and the funny bits and the sweet bits and the sad bits and the angry bits and the bits that hurt and the bits you want to rush through and the bits you want to hold on to forever.”

This book is an absolute blast. 

Find out more as Holly Smale talks to us about her fabulous new trilogy!

Joanne Owen

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