Review: Getting Lucky Number Seven by Cindi Madsen

Getting Lucky Number Seven by Cindi Madsen

What's your lucky number?
Lyla Wilder is done being the shy, chemistry nerd extraordinaire. While every other college student is out having fun, Lyla is studying. With her cat. Well, she's played it "safe" quite enough, thank you. So she creates a "College Bucket List"―with item #7 being a night of uninhibited, mind-blowing sex...
But she needs some help from her man-whore best friend.
Hockey player Beck Davenport thought Lyla's transformation would be subtle. Man, was he wrong. With every item she ticks off, Beck finds himself growing seriously hot for his sweet, brainiac best friend. And if he's not careful, he'll end up risking their friendship in order to convince Lyla that he might just be her lucky #7...

Publishes in US: April 28th 2015 by Entangled: Embrace
Genre: NA contemp
Source: bought
Series? no

My reviews of other Madsen books:
 All the Broken Pieces
Cinderella Screwed Me Over

 **   Audience alert: this is a new adult book. It does contain sex scenes that aren't fade to black, as well as drinking and mild violence. If you are under 18, get your parent's advice if this is a book for you.

Buy it: Amazon | B&N | iBooks

Author stalk away:site, blog, twitter, facebook, goodreads

 

    I wanted to read Getting Lucky Number Seven because I like hockey in real life so the male main character intrigued me. I am also kinda nerdy and socially awkward at times so Lyla is certainly a female main character that I can relate with. 

   Lyla is smart, but she also hasn't really been on a date since her and her steady and also nerdy but long distance boyfriend broke it off. She always seems to find the wrong things to say, and she feels plain. She wants to make some changes so she gets her best friend, who is the aforementioned hockey player, who is also gorgeous, and sweet to her, but he does seem to go through girls with no commitments, so a relationship or anything beyond friends has seemed off the table because that is just how their friendship has worked so far. 

   He coaches her and goes with her to a party, her wanting to let loose some and experience alcohol, kissing a stranger, and other seeming rites of passage. But as he helps her learn to flirt more, and as she shows some more skin to go along with her corny jokes, and their easy conversation, he can't help but see her in a new light. 

   They both fight the attraction for above reasons, and that makes it even more delicious for me. The building tension and the theme of friends to lovers kept me involved. I also loved the humor. Cindi writes in a way that makes it easy to get lost in the pages, the romance, the character development, making me alternate between swoon and laughing. 

   The ending was nice, but they did have to deal with some hard issues, both from the past as well as one that Beck created because he thought he was doing the right thing. But I liked that they got the promise of a HEA together. I liked that Beck gave himself options for the future, instead of making decisions based on what others wanted for him. I also liked that Lyla found a nice balance of keeping up her grades, trying new things and being true to herself. 

Bottom Line: Hot and funny story about friends who become more to each other.

My question to you, my lovely readers:
Do you play sports? Or hot for any sports players?