by Rae D. Magdon
F/F near-future dystopia
Fun, fast, action-packed sci-fi heist
poc x poc stud/femme enemies to lovers
secrets, lies, metaverse
My rating: I loved it!
Summary
This had everything I wanted in a heist story–it was fun, fast and filled with diverse characters.
Lucky 7 is a sci-fi heist novel with queer characters, found family, and an enemies-to-lovers stud/femme relationship.
This is book 1 of a (3?) part series; book 2 is already out although I haven’t read it yet. A large focus of this book is the ‘putting together the team’ trope but there’s also plenty of fun, found-family/slightly dysfunctional group dynamics going on once the team does get assembled. The heist team has a real RPG/videogame vibe to their roles, with a leader (MC), tech specialist (MC), tank, medic, bard/shifter and explosives expert. The shifter’s a non-binary Palestinian and the explosives expert is a South American transwoman. I think the medic and tank are white/cis from memory but if that’s wrong, I’m sorry. But that’s only six characters, you might think! Well, to say more would be a spoiler.
Pairing
The book opens in Elena’s first person pov. She’s a Mexican femme jacker (metaverse tech specialist/mage equivalent from the perspective of heist group dynamics). Her love interest is Sacha, a Black US-born, Russian-raised stud and the leader of the heist group (generalist role). The second half of the book is in Sacha’s first person pov.
They have a delicious enemies to lovers vibe. I found the progression in their relationship so satisfying and charming.
Setting
The sci-fi setting and the visual elements of the metaverse in this book (its shared virtual world) gave parts of it an MMO (massively multiplayer online videogame) vibe. I enjoyed that, but part of me kind of wanted the virtual battling to look more like two nerds plugged into an interface, which I realise is much less fun and less dramatic but idk the thought of it was kind of amusing to me (have you ever watched someone play with a VR headset, just the flailing and the random body movements?? that. I wanted that, lol. I doubt anyone else wanted that, though).
The ending
Because it’s an action story, there wasn’t a huge amount of time at the ending to process some heavy revelations/complicated emotional baggage that came up during the endgame mission. I’m hoping the next book will pick up those dangling threads because Everyone Needs a Therapist and also there’s some massive baggage I’m dying for Elena to unpack.
This book ends with a HEA (happily ever after) and no cliffhangers.
My rating
I loved it, and I plan to read the rest of the series.
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