Go Luck Yourself by Sara Raasch Review

It’s enemies to lovers in this sexy and delightful holiday mash up that pairs the spare prince of Christmas with the crown prince of St. Patrick’s Day!
 

Someone has been stealing Christmas’s joy, and there’s only one clue to the culprit—a single shamrock.
 

With Coal busy restructuring Christmas—and their dad now having a full midlife crisis in the Caribbean—Kris volunteers to investigate St. Patrick’s Day. His cover: an ambassador from Christmas to foster goodwill. What could go wrong?
 

Everything, it seems. Because Prince Lochlann Patrick, Crown Prince of St. Patrick’s Day, happens to be the mysterious student that Kris has been in a small war with at Cambridge. They attempt to play nice for the tabloids, but Kris can’t get through one conversation without wanting to smash Loch’s face in—he’s infuriating, stubborn, loud, obstinate, hot—
 

Wait—hot?
 

Kris might be in some trouble. Especially when it turns out that the mystery behind Christmas’s stolen magic isn’t as simple as an outright theft. But why would a Holiday that Christmas has never had contact with, one that’s always been the very basis of carefree, want to steal joy? Can a spare prince even hope to unravel all this, or will Kris lose something way more valuable than his Holiday’s resources—like his heart?

Book #2 in Sara Raasch’s Royals and Romance series, Go Luck Yourself is a fun and highly entertaining romance novel continuing Raasch’s unique blend of royalty woes mixed with holiday shenanigans. Contrary to what I thought was an anthology series due the main character being Coal’s younger brother Kris this time around, Go Luck Yourself is a direct sequel that picks up immediately after the events of The Nightmare Before Kissmas which is a required read in order to understand this book’s plot (I made the mistake of trying to read this book without context and it simply doesn’t work). Although more or less following the same formula as the first book, this one felt more refined, cohesive, and thematically strong paired with outstanding character work (not to mention steamy scenes). Tweaking and addressing many of my previous nitpicks, I thoroughly loved Go Luck Yourself and found it to be an ambitiously crafted and all-around perfect romance novel that can be read at any time of the year.

Set a few months after The Nightmare Before Kissmas’s conclusion and shifting the main character to Coal’s younger brother Kris, Go Luck Yourself revolves around his struggle to figure out his place within the Christmas royal family and his own self-happiness. While following the same general formula of holidays personified as magic-filled royal families along with cross-season M/M romance, Go Luck Yourself is not simply just a new royal romance and a holiday swap of Christmas x Halloween for Christmas x St. Patrick’s Day (a pairing that is far more random and unexpected I might add). Previously portrayed as the younger, more reserved and put together Clause boi, Kris’s narration, internal reflections and insecurities are an entirely different beast from Coal’s which directly affects the trajectory and contents of the story. While endearingly sweet, well-meaning, and hilariously punny, The Nightmare Before Kissmas would frequently veer into cringe territory during Coal’s particularly messy and unhinged moments along with some rather contrived romance trope scenes. While still having excellent comedic timing, Go Luck Yourself consistently feels more refined and mostly avoids its predecessor’s more silly and ridiculous situations. I can’t tell if that’s due to Kris being a far more responsible main character than Coal or the natural progression of the series as Raasch settles into the style and direction of the series, this novel across the board feels more cohesive, intentional, and narratively ambitious, which is saying something as the overall series’ blend of concepts is ambitious to begin with.

While the Nightmare Before Kissmas felt like one part character growth/romance and one part holiday politics, to me Go Luck Yourself felt considerably heavier on the character growth story with the holiday accents surrounding it. While I personally enjoyed the previous Christmas politics and Winter power play storylines, I’m aware that many other readers felt that its focus detracted from Coal and Hex’s romance (an opinion I disagreed with in my original review for the novel, though I did agree that Hex could’ve had more presence in the story). This time around, the story is almost entirely focused on Kris’s story and his enemies to lovers story arc with Loch, the Irish royal prince of St. Patrick’s day. While the story’s overall premise is holiday politics-based, revolving around Kris investigating who from St. Patrick’s day has been stealing Christmas’s Joy (the series’ form of magical currency, not literal joy), the holiday storyline is balanced and integrated into Kris’s character story and romance far more effectively. While the core conflict and neglect within the St. Patrick’s day royal family and Loch’s status as the royal heir who was passed over as the King of the holiday is compelling material and a refreshing shift from the first book (Christmas is largely uninvolved here except for the magic being stolen from them), the politics and conflict a bit more straightforward and simplified than Kissmas’s. While the villain in St. Patrick’s day is far more of a caricature and their motivations far more basic than Coal and Kris’s father’s ploy, the royal conflict is a lot easier to manage and more time is devoted to Kris’s character growth as he is more of an outside observer witnessing the mess of the holiday rather having to directly fix it himself.

Interestingly, in many ways Go Luck Yourself feels like a perfect counterpart to The Nightmare Before Kissmas and intentionally flips the script based on what the reader knows and expects from the first book. While the first story involved a prince from another holiday witnessing the Christmas holiday on their home turf, this one has Kris experiencing St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland as an ambassador and guest. Compared to the extravagance and shimmer of the Christmas estate, the emptiness and cold void of St. Patrick’s castle caused by their limited resources is an interesting comparison, not to mention the more restrained nature and use of Loch’s magic. While Coal was constantly burdened by the responsibilities and role of being the Christmas heir, Loch has the opposite situation of having no role at all while watching his own holiday fade from neglect. The parallel opposites in terms of concepts and plotting in Go Luck Yourself are not mere coincidences, and instead are entirely intentional thematic choices that I greatly appreciated. Even Kris’s romance and dynamics with Loch is a completely different flavor from Coal and Hex (more on that shortly).

While first and foremost being a romance novel, Go Luck Yourself also features outstanding character work and amazing character growth for Kris, and to a lesser extent Loch. Initially appearing poised and in control during the events of the first book, upon a closer read, there were numerous signs and breadcrumbs that suggested otherwise. Less chaotic but far more critical than his brother Coal, this novel heavily explores Kris’s inner demons and themes of self-loathing, feeling lost without purpose or place, fear of abandonment, and making choices for one’s own happiness vs their obligations or others’ expectations. While I enjoyed Coal a lot as a character, I connected and found Kris to be considerably more relatable, even a few of his internal monologue echoing some of my own personal feelings when I was younger. Balancing his task with investigating who is stealing Christmas’s joy while unexpectedly falling for Loch who he initially hates, the story is just as much about Kris rediscovering himself, his passions in life, and in a reverse twist of how he would take care of Coal, reconnecting with his brother and Iris following his disastrous awkward confession at the end of the first book. Kris’s character growth over the course of the novel is excellent and the way both his and Loch’s feelings of unworthiness are tied to the overall story and romance is chef’s kiss. And while obviously not having the same focus and details as Kris, Loch’s character growth is also solid, following a similar direction as Coal with Kris providing outside support similar to how Hex helped Coal. The novel’s pacing, progression, plot & character developments and conclusion are so well done, the story just flies by and is perfect as-is, no complaints from me.

While there were moments of poetic lyricism in the Nightmare Before Kissmas’s quieter moments, there are far more opportunities in Go Luck Yourself for Raasch to flex her writing chops. I don’t know if it was an intentional choice given that Kris is a more sensitive character than Coal and as a once aspiring writer, a more nuanced tone and sophisticated prose narratively makes sense, but I found the overall writing to be far more ambitious in this book. While it was mentioned in passing previously, the discussion around Kris ‘s mother abandoning them and then manipulating him with the damage done is a topic I didn’t expect the novel to tackle, and the extended reference to Bridge to Terabithia in Kris’s childhood was effective and heartbreaking (if you read the novel or even the movie adaptation as a child, you will know). And while I don’t consider it to necessarily be a benchmark for a good romance novel, Raasch is able to seamlessly incorporate great character work and introspection in-between and during Go Luck Yourself’s steamy sex scenes. The second scene in particular involving Kris’s emotional venting letters and the vulnerability of that chapter in general is very well done (what can I say, I like my sexy content to also be smart not brainlessly trashy). It’s intentional choices like these that gave the novel a sense of quality and intention beyond being just a simple slapstick spicy romance novel.

Speaking of romance, Go Luck Yourself has a lot of it, though it’s notably a completely different flavor from The Nightmare Before Kissmas’s romance. While Coal and Hex’s romance was intended to follow the rivals to lovers arc, it wasn’t really the case due to the rivals setup and the Coal’s fake dating trope with Iris being orchestrated for political power play purposes. As the story progressed, Coal and Hex’s romance was more or less opposites attract and sweet soft bois falling for each other in a forbidden romance. Unlike their romance that sort of followed common tropes but not really due to the context of the story, Kris and Loch’s romance is 100% clearly enemies to lovers starting with a very comical meet-hate introduction. While the “hate” part of the trope is quite basic and an obvious overreaction on Kris’s part, the overall banter and verbal sparring is considerably more fiery and spicy compared to Coal and Hex’s tamer back-handed sarcasm.

<blockquote> “our misunderstanding in the library was entirely my fault. Prince Lochlann was merely a harmless, ignorant—” His grip pinches on my shoulder. “All right, now.” “—witless, I mean, unwitting, victim. I am honored to spend these next few days with him to draw light to what the press should be focused on: St. Patrick’s Day’s magnificent grandness. Their outstanding generosity. Their kind, welcoming, marvelous spirit that I have seen reflected so beatifically in Prince Lochlann himself.”

“Was that the apology you had in mind?” I whisper up at him. “Or should I go on about how all the rainbows in Ireland point to the pot of gold in your asshole?” <blockquote>

While I got the impression that Coal and Hex complemented each other and their moral support naturally lent itself to romance sweetly, it was a bit tame and soft for my taste. Sharply contrasting that, to me Kris and Loch’s romance has stronger chemistry that’s far more volatile and impassioned. As someone who’s own love language is decidedly not words of affirmation and instead affectionately roasting the hell out of people I love, their romance was far more my speed, summarized by Loch’s own words of “I’m Irish, boyo. Talking shite is how we flirt.” That being said, while there is a bit of miscommunication involved and their romance takes a while to get going apart from early thirty gazes, it fully makes sense within the context of the story. One aspect I thought was especially well done was Kris’s internal fallout and realizations following his blunder with Iris. His dynamics with Loch are everything that was missing or wrong with his previous relationships and its connection back to the Bridge to Terabithia reference was something I also could really relate to (the following is a concept Raasch portrayed very well):

<blockquote> Attraction was always so soft with other people. With some of them, I’d find myself having to actively remember Oh yeah, I like them. Which, in retrospect, should’ve been pretty telling. In my defense, liking people that way was easy and calm, and I wanted easy and calm. I wanted simple and drama-free and steady. Now, I’m wondering if I ever wanted that, or if I thought it would make me happy as a contrast to how torn up I always am about my other life stressors. I thought the balance to being in a constant state of anxiety was peace; but what if it’s chaos? Not fighting my own chaos or trying to tamp down my emotions, but leaning into it until I’m yelling and he’s yelling and honestly, it’s hot. <blockquote>

And Go Luck Yourself is indeed quite hot. While I won’t go into too much detail for spoilers for the sake of the review, to me Kris and Loch’s open-door content have far more spice and intensity than Coal and Hex’s, particularly a very visual scene in Loch’s art studio. While I generally don’t pick up romance novels based on the quality of their spice, this one’s spice is great.

Romance aside, Go Luck Yourself also continues the great banter and friendship between Kris, Coal, and Iris. While there is considerably less group text messaging involved due to the awkwardness between Kris and Iris, the chats continue to be a riot. In general, their core friendship was always one aspect that was portrayed really well and this novel keeps it up. Kris and Coal’s brotherly bond and previous care-giving roles are completely flipped in this novel and having already experienced Coal’s character growth and new-found maturity over the course of The Nightmare Before Kissmas, seeing it demonstrated and coming full circle was a great touch. I also mentioned it  in my previous review, but Iris continues to be far more distinctive and well-written than her female best friend role in M/M novels tends to be and she is without question still the best wingman- er wingwoman out there. I also concur with other reviewers that it would be amazing to see a future novel written from Iris’s perspective, there were definitely some breadcrumbs and possible material to work with sprinkled in here. While I understand it’s unlikely to happen given this series’ established appeal is M/M princely romances and to my knowledge Raasch hasn’t written a queer female-led romance novel yet (I think there’s an F/F pairing in her Stream Raiders series but I don’t know its extent), Iris is too good of a character not to be featured. Unless Raasch is content with leaving Royals and Romance as a duology or writing a companion novel from Hex or Loch’s perspective, I don’t see there being any other characters or romantic pairings left to explore outside of Iris without doing a spin-off anthology approach.

While I had many highlights and notes jotted down while reading this novel, I had no notable nitpicks or complaints. Perhaps the only nitpick I had is one that has little to do with Go Luck Yourself itself and more to do with The Nightmare Before Kissmas’s ending. I had previously reviewed that I was mildly disappointed by the lack of resolution to fixing Christmas’s political relations with the other Winter holidays as well as Coal’s criticism of the holiday’s shift towards material consumerism. These plot threads were ones that had no quick and easy solution and likely would’ve substantially increased the page count for that novel. Though I suspected that the jump between the first book and the sequel book would kind of sweep the unanswered questions under the rug and focus on Go Luck Yourself’s new conflicts, I had hoped that the story would try and address those plot threads left hanging. While there were references to Coal working on these concerns, their mentions were half-hearted and mainly used as a plot mechanism to keep Coal busy and force Kris to work through his conflicts by himself.

While I personally did not mind it at all, the holiday-themed aspect of the novel is also less prominent than the Nightmare Before Kissmas. Part of that can potentially be attributed to St. Patrick’s day having less universal traditions world-wide (apart from drinking and good food which is extensively covered) or the limited visual appeal explained narratively by Loch’s lack of resources to run his holiday or even St. Patrick’s day itself having less distinctive décor apart from green banners and clovers. There’s simply no way for a St. Patrick’s day-themed story to match the visual spectacle of Christmas which results in Go Luck Yourself feeling more like a standard royalty romance drama vs a holiday-focused read. Additionally, while the core premise and St. Patrick holiday power struggle between Loch and his uncle runs on the same magic mechanics and lore as the first novel, Loch limited magic resources coupled with Kris’s own limited use of magic by choice results in the story feeling a bit less magical and fantasy-focused than the first book. Again, these are not necessarily negative points but factors worth mentioning for readers that were attracted to the series for the heavy Christmas themes or the fantasy genre which are both still there but playing a supporting role to the character drama and romance elements.

Blending pun-filled humor with ambitious character growth and introspective themes matched with great pacing, I flew through Go Luck Yourself and loved it! Striking a smart balance between The Nightmare Before Kissmas’s winning formula with distinctively fresh differences in tone and character dynamics, this novel has just the right amount of everything, resulting in an all-around excellent and satisfying romance read. While there’s certainly a lot of holiday content and festivities to be had, the story is more than good enough and appealing to be read at any time of the year without the holiday intent needed. My reads so far for 2025 have been incredibly solid compared to the last two years but without question, Go Luck Yourself has been one of the most enjoyable and fun reads this year. You’re going to have to read the first novel before this one, but if you like that one, you will certainly also love this one too.