When the publisher reached out to me with a copy of this, I went back and forth on whether to accept.* I was still making my way through the first in the series and it was a bit of a slog, but as I neared the end I found myself really enjoying that one and wanted to know what happened so I grabbed a digital copy of it—but for real go look at the physical copy . . . I mean those green edges are GORGEOUS!
Picking up immediately after The Nightmare Before Kissmass, we find ourselves with Kris, the Christmas spare, as he’s woefully moping around having confessed his feelings to the Princess of Easter. He’s back at university and looking for an outlet. Unfortunately, that outlet ends up being a massive prank involving a ton of tinsel in a room occupied by Loch, who unbeknownst to Kris is the Prince of St. Patrick’s Day. And it goes from there.
Raasch got to the chemistry between Kris and Loch a lot faster than she did with Coal and Hex, and that’s understandable because she had to build the world around Holidays and royalty and what not, but for me it worked better this time—even with all the family drama.
The library I was in with Lock, where he gave me those books. I should’ve known then. It was like a scene from a queer Beauty and the Beast. (Ch. 10)
It also didn’t hurt that you had Kris, who wanted to be a writer and is obsessed with literature, and Loch, an artist who loves his people and his holiday, so there was more for me to identify with right away. There were so many mentions of famous authors and books that I couldn’t help but be giddy throughout.
They’re books I loved when I was younger. Books I read when I was at the peak of my writing obsession, when I was so certain all these happy endings could be mine if I . . . if I was more. And yeah, this is what started me off on my-fucked up belief system, but at the time, I was so innocent in my joy, and that’s what I miss more than anything. To be happy and not analyze why. (Ch. 13)
Similar to the last novel, this could be classed in multiple ways. It is absolutely a MM Romance and Raasch did a great job writing them, but there was also familial drama and political intrigue. The difference this time is that both of those took a backseat to the romance. We weren’t spending pages and pages on the drama between Loch and his uncle Malachy or the whodunnit of siphoning off Christmas joy or the on-going evolution of the winter holidays, we were spending time with Kris and Loch as they annoyed the crap out of each other.
I have to give a shout out to Raasch and an Aran sweater appearance and how they can take someone from meh to super sexy super fast. This was actually the second mention and I love that it was a blue (the first was the traditional beige/off-white):
Loch is off to the side of the hall’s entrance, arms folded, a bag hooked around one wrist. He’s in another Aran sweater, this one a deep blue that sets off coppery undertones in his hair and beard.
Goddamn those sweaters. Like he’s a sexy, mysterious lighthouse fisherman. (Ch. 14)
As for the romance of this novel it was pretty good. It was definitely a grower not a shower (see what I did there :-D), as most enemies to lovers tropes are. From that fateful prank that the Holiday press got hold of to the coronation this is a slow burn with moments of spark that definitely make you fan yourself and say ‘oh my’ like George Takei. That being said, there were some totally cheesy moments that I rolled my eyes at (see the fifth quote in the additional quotes), but there were also moments that at first pass were cheesy AF, and were actually incredibly beautiful in the broader context.
‘You aren’t an awakening,’ I whisper. ‘You’re the whole dawn. And I can’t believe I ever thought I’d seen the sun before you.’ (Ch.15)
There were two things I was disappointed in. The first is that I think these would be really interesting if we got split narrative, I mean I would’ve loved to hear more from Hex’s perspective in the first novel and from Loch’s in this novel. Sure we get a lot, but we don’t get their side of the story. The second, and by FAR the biggest was that the sneak-peak at the end wasn’t Iris’s story. Instead it was a preview of her upcoming novel The Entanglement of Rival Wizards (so I can’t really hold that against Raasch).
Recommendation: Worth the read! I very much enjoyed this one and it didn’t have to do as much world building as the first novel in the series. Kris and Loch were both believable characters and their chemistry from enemies to lovers kept me engaged. I’m not going to fully unpack the daddy/boyo thing because you do you boo, but there were moments of levity and hilarity and definite sexiness. I hope Raasch revisits this world and gives Iris the due she deserves, because I want to read that story, maybe a pun about Green Eggs and Ma’am or Somebunny to Love.
*I received a copy of Go Luck Yourself via NetGalley in return for my honest opinion. No goods or money were exchanged.
Opening Line: “I really was making a concerted effort not to be a prick today.”
Closing Line: “A happy ever after that we make together.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)
Additional Quotes from Go Luck Yourself
“Coal and Iris have never been shy about their bisexualities, but I’ve always been more fluid with any labels. It’s a feeling I’m after rather than a person, the one Iris first ignited in me. This is right. This is safe.” (Ch. 2)
“Holy shit Irish whiskey is strong. Do they know how strong it is? They should warn people about how strong it is.” (Ch. 4)
“What is it with the rulers of Holidays fucking off their duties so the heirs have to step in? Loch and I should start a club with Coal and Iris.” (Ch. 7)
“It’s a celebration of our people. A celebration of their survival in the face of political and religious instability. In the face of starvation and oppression and the fucking English’s attempts at genocide. It’s everyone from Queen Medb to Grace O’Malley to Mary Robinson. It has na always been that, I know, and there are problematic parts to be sure. I mentioned earlier the luck of the Irish? The phrase itself came from racist pricks who thought Irish success could only be because of luck, rather than any skill; but even that’s na fair. We do have luck, in our folklore and pantheons. We were built on luck long before arseholes bastardized it. St. Patrick’s Day has become the one thing we agree on even when we’re divided, even when we’re scattered across the globe. So we embrace the bad with the good, because you would na only see someone as the shite they’ve overcome, but as the fact that they did overcome it at all. My Holiday is a uniting thread of who we are and what we’re capable of and I—” (Ch. 9)
“There are stars shooting all around, supernovas thrown into ruin by the way he works his lips across my jaw, laving, sucking, drawing an abstract curve with his mouth the way he paints them with his fingers. Those fingers. Those fingers—they’re tangled in my belt, tugging, and I rock my head back and I’m so drunk and he feels so right.” (Ch. 9)
“There is no fantasy, no alternate dimension, no manufactured fictional world where I do not fall for this guy.
I mean, our version of post-sex talk is about the structure of art, for Christ’s sake.” (Ch. 15)
“‘And do na pretend,’ he growls into the skin there, ‘that getting screwed proper nice in a library does na turn you on.’
I laugh, head arched back. ‘And they say romance is dead.'” (Ch. 18)
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