Luck

The book began with Phillip's death.

It was not a dramatic death. He slipped away in the night, not making enough noise to rouse his wife, Nora, slumbering peacefully beside him.

But Nora's scream when she found him, dead, the next morning woke the whole house. Sophie and Beth soon joined Nora in the bedroom.

Luck by Joan Barfoot is the surprisingly fast-paced story of the three days after Phillip's death, and its effect on the lives of the three women he lived with.

As his wife, Nora was obviously grieving. She didn't really know what to do with herself, but she had a very clear idea of what she wanted to do with Phillip's remains. She wanted him cremated, and she wanted to turn his ashes into paint. She left the execution of her unusual request to Sophie.

Sophie, as a house manager of sorts, was in charge of funeral arrangements and calling everyone to inform them of Phillip's untimely demise. Unbeknownst but suspected by Nora, she was actually sleeping with Phillip as well, so she was going through her own grief but doing her best to hide it.

But Beth? Beth felt light. Phillip's death was certainly a surprise, and although she never harbored any ill-will towards him, she never quite liked him either. As Nora's model, she spent countless hours being adjusted and posing for Nora. This intimate relationship had given Beth a false sense of connection, even love, between herself and Nora. She was gleefully awaiting the day when they could be together.

I really enjoyed this book. It's not my typical read, but you know I love well-written female characters, and this book had three. Three complex, interesting, flawed women with fleshed out backstories. Three women who came together to live in this house for vastly different reasons. Three women whose worlds changed overnight. Honestly, I would have read a whole book on the backstory of each woman.

I like that the end of the book flashes forward to the 1 year anniversary of Phillip's death. Books that have a flash forward to wrap it up (outside of an epilogue) often seem like lazy storytelling, but this felt necessary. So much happened in the first three days, but those changes needed some time to breathe so each woman could individually grow from them. One year down the line, so much has changed, but they still feel so genuinely themselves.