That was cute! Full of clichés but I loved the small friendship group that stuck together until the end, all of the characters were really well developed and the character development of Teddy. Sometimes I felt like there were too many stories rolled in one, but in hindsight there was only Alice, Teddy and Leo so it's alright.

ALSO (slight spoiler) the beginning of the book gave me a teeny bit of anxiety because I was 100% sure the lottery ticket was going to get lost in the wind or it would be the wrong numbers or something, but I'm glad the book was about how they spent the money and not how they found it.

// Thank you to NetGalley & the Publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review //

This was a sweet (although a little predictable) story. A nice easy read.

Alice has had her fair share of bad luck so she doesn't expect anything to happen when she buys Teddy, her best friend who she's secretly in love with, a lottery ticket for his birthday.
But the ticket makes Teddy a millionaire and changes his and Alice's lives.
What will Teddy do with the money?
Can Alice come to terms with the loss of her parents all those years ago?

I felt that Windfall was a realistic take on what would happen to a teen/someone if they won the lottery.
I liked how family orientated Windfall was - Alice was close to her cousin, Leo, and Teddy had a close relationship with his mum.
Alice was a good protagonist and I enjoyed reading as she realised things about herself. I didn't mind Teddy, but I preferred Leo.
The romance wasn't a huge part of the plot, which I appreciated.
The plot was enjoyable enough but it dragged a little and nothing happened that shocked me.
The blurb was a bit misleading in the sense that it takes Teddy a long time to decide to 'commit random acts of kindness' (around 70% of the way through).
I liked the writing style and found it easy to follow.

Overall this was an enjoyable read.

This is a really cute book. It's slick, smart, and well written. The teens feel like teens, and it manages to get some moral lessons across in a way that doesn't alienate the reader. The premise is interesting and it's well executed. It's a 3 star read for me purely because it's made me think that perhaps I'm getting too old forYA when something so well done doesn't quite float my boat (excuse the pun).

My Review

The last time I read a book by Miss Smith is The Geography of You and Me (find my review here) and I absolutely adored it. Can you believe that is...... years ago and I can't believe I haven't read anything by her since. After reading Windfall lets just say's I missed her, her bright covers, her gorgeous prose and her gorgeous romantic-filled story from start to end.

After her parents died,, Alice has lived with her aunt and uncle, since she was 9. Her cousin, Leo is just so amazing and so cute too, that he protects her like his own sister. Alice has been in love with their best friend Teddy for as long as she can remember. On his 16th birthday she bought him a lottery ticket... 6 numbers including number 13...Alice didn't believe in luck until that day. Windfall is a windfall of life, in just one day everything can change, and everything can spiral out of control.
I think having this newfound wealth can be a curse in the beginning because it's falling into that uncertainty again of life, that they have both experienced. But it's the smallest things that once again brought them together. Money can never buy you everything you desire, it can pay for your happiness or love, so it's the person, it's up to both Alice and Teddy to see what it can do and how far it can go.

What would you do with $140 million? If you won the lottery what would you spend it on? Teddy got kind of hot-headed when he won the money, he also changed him as well. He never had money before after his dad completely wiped them out. So he wants to give his mum a proper home, the home they had before, he wants to give her that back and it's those acts of kindness that really shine through his character, that's the Teddy we all love including Alice. Alice chose that ticket, those numbers, and she never knew that what would bring them together would be this piece of paper. Although Teddy offered half, she declined it, as her random act of kindness was not taking the money because she felt she didn't deserve it when it was her present to Teddy. It would also feel wrong in her parents passing they saved a trust fund for her and her future. She would feel wrong not to honor that. Alice not only found herself in this novel, but together Alice knocked some sense into Teddy. That you always need that someone even when your high above the clouds, to gradually get you back down to reality.

This book is breath-taking, uplifting and it's a ray of sunshine to read. You can't not laugh, smile and cry and how kind and loving these characters are to you. What I felt that it was a reflection of life, that sometimes your so self-absorbed that you need a bit of perspective. You find yourself wondering what you can you do to make someone else's life just that little bit brighter. I like to smile and say hello to the bus driver, and thank you when I get off, that certainly just either starts and the ends the day in a smile. Like I said it's the smaller things that have the most impact and Alice and Teddy are a reflection of that. This book not only focuses on love and romance, but also kindness, family friendship and grief. Windfall has everything and more, you don't realise how much it impacts on you until you finish it.

Rating - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thank you to Pan Macmillan for the review copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

'Money isn't everything, but not having it is'. Well, I never thought I'd start a review with a Kanye lyric, but here we are. I think everyone has made a list of all the things they would do if they won the lottery, and when Alice buys her best friend a lottery ticket as a joke present for his 18th birthday, it's completely against the odds that Teddy would win.

Teddy and Alice have both been handed pretty terribly luck in their lives, so while Teddy embraces how his luck has changed due to this mammoth win, Alice is reluctant to be a part of this life changing event. I found Teddy's reaction to becoming a lottery winner pretty believable, and although the story mostly focused on Alice (as she was also the narrator) I think we got to see enough of Teddy's arc and how he developed as a character.

Alice's voice was relatable, as a young adult trying to find her way in life, and feeling torn by what she wants, or what she *thinks* she wants. I think most people experience this sort of thing when trying to decide if they want to go to university - and then which university, what course etc.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this, and found it hard to put down. I'd say it would be great for fans of Rainbow Rowell and John Green.

Featured in my May Reading Wrap Up video on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/ZhzvNqhslCs

I received a copy from Netgalley.

As soon as I saw this title pop up on Netgalley I put a request in. Delighted when I was approved.

An interesting enough plot, but I can’t say I really liked the characters all that much. Alice lives with her cousin Leo after the deaths of her parents, and has lived with them for some time. She’s got a hopeless crush on Leo’s best friend Teddy.

Alice is really smart and her dream is to go to college at Stanford because she believes that’s what her parents would have wanted. But when on Teddy’s 18th birthday, Alice buys him a lottery ticket, the ticket is actually winner and Teddy wins a humungous jackpot. Which naturally changes everything. Teddy lives with his mom in a crappy apartment, a downturn after his dad lost all their money due to a gambling habit. Now their lives can massively improve.

I don’t get Alice’s crush on Teddy. He’s self-centred and a jerk. I didn’t like him much at all. Alice herself was too much of a goody-two-shoes for my liking. She had a fairly good emotional journey throughout the course of the novel, dealing with her feelings for Teddy, the huge changes that came about since Teddy’s lottery win, the impact it has on their friendship. And of course a hot new guy comes into her life as well, there may or may not be feelings there. Then there’s Alice’s college issues.

Spoiler, but this bit really annoyed me.

Teddy offers Alice half of the winnings as she was the one who purchased the tickets. She turns him down. SHE TURNS HIM DOWN. I just can’t imagine an 18 year old without parents turning down that much money. It could make a huge difference to her life. She volunteers at a soup kitchen and has a do gooder nature about her. Good for her. But she’s so saintly it became across as very annoying, at least to this reader. I just can’t believe she turned the money down. She didn’t even take a small sum or anything.

Teddy of course achieves instant fame and does what any teenage boy would naturally do – splurge on himself and his friends. With Alice and Leo to try and get him to remain grounded. None of these changes seem to sit well with Alice, who’s still trying to work up the nerve to tell Teddy how she feels but they are arguing more and more. So she distracts herself when a new guy turns up working at the soup kitchen she volunteers at. They hit it off, and suddenly Teddy’s jealous. Insert eye rolling.

While this is going on Alice is trying to help Leo decide where he wants to go to college. Leo’s boyfriend is going to one college and Leo has a dream of going somewhere else, and he’s debating on following his boyfriend or trying a long distance thing. Leo is struggling with the decision, but he was a good friend to Alice. He was there when she needed someone to listen to and cheer her up.

There was some really good parental involvement in this one, from Teddy’s mom and Alice’s uncle and aunt. Likeable adults with good heads on who actually listen to what their kids are telling them. Alice’s aunt and uncle have some good listening skills, her aunt wants to make sure she knows what she wants when applying for colleges, making the choice for herself and not doing something just simply because this was where her parents went or what Alice thinks they wanted for her. To be in a city she barely remembers anymore, even though she may have lived there briefly when she was a kid.

This part of Alice’s journey was quite moving, and had a good emotional impact to it. There were a few scenes when Alice’s dealing with these issues made my eyes mist over. Particularly when she tries to talk to her uncle who was her dad’s brother about what her parents were like after she makes a trip to where she used to live. Quite bitter sweet and a definite tear jerker.

The romance angle was completely unsurprising. Kind of predictable really. Teddy did make some personality improvements by the end of the novel, again, not entirely surprising.

Not my favourite novel by this author, can’t see myself reading this one again. Jennifer E Smith is one of my favourite contemporary YA writers, and usually an autobuy author for me. Though unfortunately this book was a miss for me.

Thank you to Negalley and Pan MacMillan for approving my request to view the title.

We have all brought a lottery ticket and daydreamed about what we would do with the winnings - what we would buy, what we would donate and what we would give to our families. But nobody imagines what the impact of winning the lottery would have. How it could change relationships, create fake friends and draw unwanted attention. Nobody thinks of the consequences and the darker side of winning. Just the rush and have some serious spare change in your pocket.

Windfall takes all this into consideration and more.

I'm not sure that I found Teddy a suitable love interest. In my mind he was shallow and self-absorbed. Even before he won the lottery. He was kind but it felt like he was kind because that was the only thing he had to offer. Or maybe I'm being too harsh. Actually I am being harsh - Teddy is an underdog - he and Alice - have not had an easy start to life. Its only fair that he has some insecurities.

Both have massive insecurities and all their problems come to light after the aftermath of winning the lottery and both end up dealing with their issues and accepting themselves. All have to deal with their past and this is finally an opportunity to reflect and change perspective.

I also really loved Leo. I wished he had a bigger part but you can see why this trio had come together as a friendship. They are so similar to one another, yet different. Each brings something the others need to support them.

Windfall really hits the highs and the lows of winning the lottery. It actually make me think that perhaps winning the lottery is not the best thing one can do. This is a fun quick read that will keep you absorbed and leave you wondering how the money will be spent.

Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith.

This is so much more than your average tale of unrequited love between two childhood friends. Suddenly one has the capacity to do whatever he pleases, will they be torn apart as the shared experiences of childhood become overshadowed by endless possibility, can friendships survive such a life changing event?

This is a book that actually packs in a whole heap of themes in one deliciously bite sized portion. I read it in one tremendous gulp and enjoyed it immensely.

Ms Smith has managed to write a wonderfully entertaining story with a trio of central characters that are so thoroughly likeable and relatable that I was disappointed to leave them. The windfall of the title immediately becomes a catalyst for the examination of every aspect of their lives, their fears, their losses and their regrets. It becomes a symbol of potential and of paths to be taken. It becomes a burden and a boon.

It is a hopeful and positive story that left me feeling lifted and convinced that the world is filled with promise and in today's day and age, that can be no bad thing. Just living Life is the biggest win of all and Love and true friendship the only real jackpot to desire!

I've read (and loved) every book that Jennifer has published so far, so I had high hopes for Windfall. I wasn't disappointed! I thought it was a little slower paced than some of her previous books, but think that is probably because it took place over a series of months rather than days. It was full of Smith's character wit and charm and beautiful passages about love and swoon worthy kisses and it was everything I had hoped for. I can't wait to see what else is coming from her.

Real rating is more of a 2.5.

The premise of this book is brilliant- how would things change it you accidentally gave your best friend/crush millions of dollars for their 18th birthday? This could have been so good, but it wasn't and I'm really upset about that because I really thought I'd love this one.

My main issue here is the fact that both Alice and Teddy are deeply unlikeable. They've both been through a lot of a awful things and I felt for them, but never liked them. Alice acts like a saint, she pretends not to be jealous of Teddy's win but consistently acts like she is (which would have been reasonable), she turns down a life changing amount of money due to stubbornness then berates Teddy for not spending his money in the 'right' way. She is in love with Teddy, doesn't tell him, messes another guy around and is amazed when Teddy doesn't immediately reciprocate her feelings. Teddy is a bit more difficult to criticise- I can't imagine winning so much money at 18 but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gone about it in the same way that he did. He wants to be famous, he expects that he can just throw money at people and get them to do what he wants (also there is no way that everyone living in his old apartment block would have taken the money and gone- it would have been more interesting to deal with the fallout of this not going well too). He does have some good moments though and was ultimately a better character than Alice.

This book would have been better without the forced romance between two generally unlikeable characters. Ultimately, I don't believe that the romance would have happened if it hadn't been for the lottery win. Even though they had apparently been friends for years, there was no chemistry between them at all and I was enjoying the book more before the romance took off.

Positives of this book include the fact that is so easy to read. Smith's writing is breezy and well done, making the reading experience generally pleasant. I enjoyed the style of the book, unfortunately this can't make up for the characters I just didn't enjoy.

Also the side characters were so much more likeable than Alice and Teddy. Leo, Max, Sofia and Jake were all brilliant and offered some humour as well as difficult conversations about life, death and everything in between. They were the only thing that saved this book for me.

When Alice buys her best friend a lottery ticket for his birthday, the last thing they expect to happen is for it to win. But it does and all of a sudden, Teddy has a fortune. I absolutely adore Smith's books, they are simply beautiful but with hidden depths. And in this case, it was all about the happiness that money can't buy.

Alice is still dealing with the death of her parents when she was little, still coming to terms with her definition of "orphan", and now that she's 18, she's not sure whether to follow her parents' dream of Stanford or her own heart. Alice was taken in by her dad's brother and his family, growing up alongside Leo, her cousin. They and Teddy are an inseparable trio.

Teddy has also had his share of bad luck: his dad liked to gamble and after he lost too much, he left Teddy and his mum with his debt and unable to afford their apartment. Teddy has always been self-conscious of his background so when he literally hits the jackpot, he (understandably) goes a little nuts buying all the things he's always wanted, from a sports car to a pinball machine.

Like I said, Smith's stories tend to have hidden depths and the happiness that comes from winning the lottery is soon tainted when Teddy isn't doing anything responsible with it, at least in Alice's opinion. Things are complicated with the fact that Alice has a huge crush on Teddy but the money has created a wedge between them. I really liked seeing how things progressed, from Teddy going through the five stages of shopping, to Alice coming to grips with her identity of the girl with the dead parents.

Luck mingled with fate, happiness with charity, money with gambling, everything interlinked and it took time and some serious maturity for things to finally settle down between Teddy, Alice and Leo. All in all, a surprisingly heart-warming story about responsibility, to your family and yourself, and love before material things.

I have spent many an afternoon daydreaming and planning how I would spend a lottery win, who hasn't? But I guess not many of us stop and consider how it could change our lives negatively or how it would change us as people. That's exactly what Smith explores in this YA novel, when Alice's birthday gift of a lottery ticket to her best friend Teddy, results in a $140 million win.
Alice is an adorable, vulnerable character who I just wanted to see everything work out for. Teddy is equally likeable, as he too has had a rough start in life. Smith gives us two underdogs, who you can't help but root for. Is the storyline predictable? Well, perhaps a little, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. So many books published recently (perhaps especially in YA) are focused on making a point – be it sexuality, racism, gender confusion – and whilst I'm not saying that's not a great thing, it was refreshing to read something that wasn't also trying to really lecture me on anything.
'Windfall' is a heartwarming read that I thoroughly enjoyed – I just wish it hadn't left me daydreaming of winning millions!

My favourite book of the year so far! Such a perfect read. The most uplifting and beautiful book you will have read all year! I've put up a full review on my blog here http://www.isthisreallife.co.uk/2017/05/book-round-up-5.html

This was the first book that I've read by this author and it was nice. A very sweet little book with some good messages included and covers some fairly hard hitting issues.
Sadly though I thought the book was a little slow at actually getting to the main point. I think I was about 25% plus before Alice and Teddy actually had the money

I have been waiting for 'Windfall' to be published for some time, having already read and enjoyed Smith's back catalogue. I really loved reading the novel. The plot was an interesting one to tackle, and the characters were likeable but flawed - it's the character development where I think Smith excels.

We jump into a fully-formed story, as often happens with Smith's plots. Alice has bought her best friend, Teddy, a lottery ticket for his 18th birthday. She has a big crush on Teddy, but thinks they are too different for him to see her in that way - a feeling that's amplified when his ticket wins the jackpot.

A story about a teenager winning the lottery and finding his way could sound bland, but the characters are so well-rounded, believable, and interesting that they shine from the page. I don't want to include spoilers but each main character has a lot going on than it first appears, and the book is as much about the bridge between adolescence and adulthood as it is a lottery win.

I just absolutely love Smith's way with words. I'll share an example, which is my new favourite expression:

"If you give a tiger a cupcake, you can't be annoyed with him for eating it."

It's bonkers, genius, and funny all at once and there are lots more beautiful turns of phrase in the novel. I often wonder if this comes with Smith's editing experience, but I find it characteristic of her work and I really relish it.

It's kind of a geeky thing, but I also love that Smith slips her love of words and grammar (logophilia) into her writing - for example, Alice points out that a congratulatory sign is missing a comma.

There are so many more ways I could enthuse about this book, but instead I will encourage you to read it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

This is a great book about the ups and downs of life. Teddy and Alice haven't had the best of fortune in their lives, but when Teddy wins the lottery, it seems like their luck is going to turn, but it's not quite as easy as it seems. This book really looks into the expectations and media coverage that lottery winners get after their win.

It wasn't as cute and relaxing to read as I've found Jennifer E. Smith's books before. It's not that the other books weren't deep, but I feel that because through most of the book Alice love for Teddy seems unrequited, it didn't have the romantic feel that the other books. I liked it a lot in other ways, but it wasn't what I'd been expecting.

Alice's struggle was really interesting to read. I've read a lot of books about identity and trying to find out what you actually like rather than what you've felt pushed into and the fact that she honestly thought that she was happy until it was time to actually decide on a University felt quite realistic. Freezing when it comes to big decisions and putting it off because I don't want to face it, is something that I do a lot, so it felt very familiar to me.

I'm not completely overwhelmed by this book but it was a good read.