Jackpot by Nic Stone (review)

While cashiering at a gas station right before Christmas, Rico Reneé Danger sold two lottery tickets to a kind old lady: one of them the old lady gifts back to Rico, and the other turns out to be a multi-million dollar winner. The cash-strapped Danger household includes a single mother too stubborn to apply for government assistance and a sick baby brother that Rico sacrifices much of her life to take care of, so Rico gets fixated on tracking down this old lady with hopes of receiving a share in the wealth. Despite her brooding outcast status at school, Rico seeks out Alexander "Zan" Gustavo Macklin, a rich, attractive, popular kid, to help her track down the lotto ticket, leading to an extended meet-cute where Rico's reluctance to accept the obviously budding romance toes the line between frustrating and frustratingly relatable. The premise and the paper trail for the lotto ticket are laughably thin, but the two teens make progress despite growing tensions between them. Zan's wealth, Rico's poverty, and comparable insecurities lead to a falling out when Zan reveals he's had the lotto ticket for some time but simply couldn't manage to end their quest. The novel concludes happily enough with Zan making arrangements for Rico to benefit from the winnings, and a grateful Rico—ignoring how manipulative that is—tracks him down for an awkward reunion that leaves a lot unresolved but may satisfy wide-eyed romantics.