Rating: 
Summary: Oh, no! Not more yucky characters!
Review: I must tell you that I didn't finish this book. I barely started it. I got to something like chapter 5 and put it down. The writing is captivating, the characters well made, the plot entertaining. However, I'm not really interested in a disection of prejudiced, uneducated sickos. I'm also not interested in knowing what happens to people who take the law into their own hands. We have enough problems around here without someone offering us more ways to subvert the system. Maybe you like that kind of thing. So then read this book. Otherwise, pick up something by Robert B. Parker.
Rating: 
Summary: A vacation book
Review: This is an easy book to read, but definitely is not a thriller, this book is ideal for your vacation because you can stop reading whenever you have another thing to do no matter at what part of the book you are, nevertheless is a nice story that when you will take the book again you will enjoy reading and again you can stop reading if you have another thing to do.
The end of the book is like a fairy tale but is a nice ending.
Rating: 
Summary: a predictably funny Hiaasen novel ... lucky us!
Review: Carl Hiaasen's books are very predictable. His "baddies" are crooked politicians, corrupt businessmen, rascists, polluters and the media. His good guys are invariably simple, easy-going folks just trying to live a happy life but are being thwarted by the baddies. In the end the good guys win. I should add that his stories are always set in Florida, most often in wild Miami. Most importantly, Hiaasen has a very wicked satiric sense of humour; it's this laugh-out-loud quality that makes his books bestsellers.In Lucky You we have a couple of baddies (rascist rednecks), owners of a winning lottery ticket, out to double their earnings by stealing the other winning ticket. Their criminal intent is enhanced when they learn the owner of the other ticket is a black woman. Of course this woman, with help of her friends, becomes a formidable opponent. The story is enhanced with some very bizarre and hilarious vignettes of Florida weirdness: a corrupt judge, religious fanatics who see the image of Christ (and apostles) in the most curious places (eg, in an oil stain on a major highway), and a Hooter's waitress with brains to match her looks. Bottom line: among Hiaasen's better efforts. A true giggle-rama.
Rating:
Summary: Feels like its trying too hard to be zany.
Review: I think I may have been spoiled by the fact that the first Hiaasen I read was Sick Puppy. That book made me laugh out loud. Since then, I've read nearly a half dozen more books by Hiaasen and, while all were enjoyable, none have really reached the heights of enjoyment for me that Sick Puppy did. Lucky You has the wacky characters and the environmentalist slant as usual but it just seemed to be working overtime to be wild and wacky...kind of a piling-on effect that became a bit obnoxious. Not a BAD book, but a more mediocre one than I've come to expect from this author.
Rating:
Summary: One of Hiaasen's best.
Review: I've read many of Hiaasen's books. They're always a lot of fun, with very powerful political leanings. If nothing else, I am always firmly convinced after finishing one that I would rather gargle battery acid than live in Florida.
Rating: 
Summary: Skip this one - read something else by Hiaasen
Review: This book gets some positive reviews largely because Hiaasen's targets of ridicule are so widely despised. Religious fanatics and white supremacists are easy to skewer, and Hiaasen's talent is largely wasted in this throwaway because the good half of the story is dragged down by the bad half. His talent is evident in his ability to keep his characters just this side of cartoonish but still believable, but in this book the turtle worshiping character, for example, would not even be believable or add anything to a cartoon - just a little bit creepy and troublesome really. Same for having one of the villains run around for a good bit of the time naked or near so -- just would not happen. Finally, the book is way too long, way too farcical, way too (in an oddly mediocre way) "ambitious". Finally, I think that Hiaasen's talent for character development within light fiction is undeniable, but I think that comparisons to Elmore Leonard are silly - moreso, the southeastern version of Kinky Friedman. For those who like him, I recommend trying out one of the Kinkster's tomes.
Rating:
Summary: Lady Lucks
Review: JoLayne Lucks lives in Grange, Florida, a town famous for its so-called miracles (the weeping fiberglass Madonna that cries "real" tears scented with Charlie perfume and the famous Road-Stain Jesus). Now there's Lady Luck, for JoLayne has just won the Florida Lotto and plans to save a rare piece of Florida wildlife from being bulldozed into another useless strip mall. Problem: there's a second winner to split the $28 million jackpot. Bodean Gazzer and his sidekick, known only as Chub, are eager to start their own underground militia "before NATO troops invade America." $14 million certainly isn't enough for these guys. They beat up JoLayne and swipe her winning ticket. Reporter Tom Krome, who initially is sent to Grange for an interview with "Lady Lucks," offers his help to track down the ticket swipers. The never-ending chase of Lucky You is a typical Carl Hiaasen ride including kidnapping, blackmail, arson, murder, adultery, even a Hooter's waitress. This is my 4th Hiaasen book and one of the better ones. I'm not a huge fan. Let's just say I'm a Florida resident who "appreciates" his work.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Author
Review: I think that Carl Hiaasen is a fantastic author. I would recommend any of his books. In this story, you are following a newspaper reporter and a woman down on her luck as they try to get back the lottery ticket she had stolen from her by two losers! The things that happen to these people are so hilarious and things you wouldn't even think could happen to people. There are a ton of characters, and the names can get confusing...especially since two frequently mentioned characters are Demencio and Dominico...but it is a great story!
Rating:
Summary: Fair to average
Review: This is the book is pretty weak by Hiaasen's standards. I have read "Double Whammy", "Tourist Season", & "Stormy Weather", and this book stands below them. While Hiaasen excels in satire, and in both outlandish characters and stories, this book stretches that limit, and creates both characters and a story that are so absurd that it drags on and on. In his other books the central character at least has a semblance of normality to them that makes them easy to relate to, and keeps you interested in the story and how events unfold. In Lucky You, all of the characters lives are the extreme, and while events are amusing it goes overboard to the point that you lose interest. I have found myself putting this book down several times. The only thing that has me picking it back up, is that I have been a fan of Hiaasen's other books. So unless you're a diehard fan of Hiaasen's, I would suggest you skip this one, and move on to another book.
Rating:
Summary: Three & a half stars
Review: "Lucky You" is one of those books that is very difficult to rate. For what it is, a light, humorous caper, it was very good. This being my first Carl Hiaasen novel, I can see why he is so popular. He successfully creates a pool of zany, memorable characters who are put in a variety of interesting, interrelated storylines that are funny and suspenseful. If a novel is judged on how quickly you read it because you are so anxious to see how everything turns out, this novel is deserving of high praise. I read most of this book in over 100 page increments. I had one major criticism of "Lucky You" that prevented it, in my opinion, from reaching the four star level. The white supremacist militia members who beat up and steal JoLayne Lucks lottery ticket and set the plot in motion, were portrayed as extraordinarily dumb and ignorant. While Hiaasen was successful in making sure that these men had absolutely no redeeming qualities that would make them sympathetic to the reader, he was also successful in making sure that they were also completely unbelievable as characters. Hiaasen seems to either not understand, or more likely chose not to deal with the more complicated issue that sometimes people can be reasonably intelligent as well as evil and hateful all at once. I realize that this isn't really the type of book that one reads for deep philosophical ponderings on complex issues, but by making these guys just a bunch of bumbling idiots and thus vastly oversimplifying the issue of hate groups and their mindset, Hiaasen proved how unambitious this book really is. I enjoyed "Lucky You" a lot; I just wish Hiaasen would have at least made some sort of attempt to explore the more complex issue his novel brings up.
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