Published 26th March 2026 by Wildfire.
From the cover of the book:
Having just lost her husband in a freak accident, Paula is gobsmacked when, two days later, she wins the lottery - with a ticket he bought.
Out of nowhere, she is approached by a tight-knit trio of other glamorous jackpot winners who tell her that they've been where she is now. That grief looks good on her. That freedom does, too.
There's just one problem: Paula didn't kill her husband. She loved him, of course.
But something about their world is hard to resist. And when other people come sniffing around for a share of Paula's winnings, she's faced with the ultimate choice: hold onto her old life, or accept help from her new friends, whose methods are a little more . . . unconventional.
***********
To say Paula was having a roller coaster of a week would be an understatement. Trying to cope with the loss of her husband of more than thirty years is shocking enough, but to also discover that she is now in sole charge of a twenty-one million pound lottery win has sent her reeling.
Lost in grief, mired in family ructions, and weighed down with newly discovered secrets about her husband, Paula feels like she is in a walking nightmare - until a trio of glamourous lottery winner widows barrel into her life. They are all for Paula spending her millions on living the high-life, the problem is they think she killed her husband to get her hands on the winnings, just like they did... and they are not the only ones.
When the lovely Lucy Vine decides to change-lanes with a crime thriller, under the pseudonym Elly Vine, she does not do things by halves! Enter stage right the fabulous Lottery Winner Widows - Teddy, Audrey, and Ivy - as The Lottery Winner Widows Club (TLWWC) who draw Paula into their multi-generational gang, and carry her along on an adventure filled with Vine's enjoyable brand of laughs and emotion... but this time with a dark core of murderous mayhem!
Paula suddenly finds herself tied up in knots as she discovers things she never realised about her husband, and the way he has manipulated her over the years. It is time for her to take charge of her own fate, but first she must entangle herself from the 'tentacles of grief' her bossy daughter Tilly seems obsessed with saving her from; work out exactly what is going on with her lackadaisical son Seb; and deal with sinister types after her money - which is going to require the help of the unconventional TLWWC ladies.
This story is a riot. I found myself constantly chuckling along at the antics of the TLWWC and their shambolic plans to rid the world of troublesome men. There are really enjoyable twists and turns in the course of the story that take in the TLWWC and their families, and Vine packs this book with poignant themes that will bring a tear to your eye, particularly when it comes to coercive control, and domestic abuse. Paula's heart-rending situation, as an older woman breaking-free and trying to be seen, is very powerful - and I loved being at her side as she finds the courage to change her fate with the assistance of the glorious TLWWC (and a little help from sweet Seb). There is oodles of thought-provoking stuff about navigating the weird world of lottery winners too.
Uplifting, and with bags of humour and heart, this is an intriguing change of direction from Vine that blurs the edges between feminist buddy story, comic crime caper, and family drama. It totally works with Vine's writing style, and I absorbed it in a single sitting. More please!
The Lottery Winner Widows Club is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Wildfire for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
About the author:
Elly Vine is the pseudonym of bestselling author, Lucy Vine. Lucy Vine is the author of novels Hot Mess, What Fresh Hell, Are We Nearly There Yet?, Bad Choices, Seven Exes, Date with Destiny and Book Boyfriend. Her eighth novel is Good For You.
Her books have been published in seventeen territories, with Hot Mess optioned for a TV series in America.
In a previous life, Lucy was a journalist, writing for publications including Grazia, Stylist, Heat, Fabulous, Marie Claire, Sugar and Cosmopolitan.
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