After the Jacobson siblings win a life-changing fortune in the lottery, they assume their messy lives will transform into sleek, storybook perfection–but they couldn’t be more wrong.
Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Elyssa Friedland’s Jackpot Summer, which is out June 11th 2024.
The four Jacobson children were raised to respect the value of a dollar. Their mother reused tea bags and refused to pay retail; their father taught them to budget before he taught them to ride a bike. And yet, now that they’re adults, their financial lives are in disarray.
The siblings reunite when their newly widowed father puts their Jersey Shore beach house on the market. Packing up childhood memories isn’t easy, especially when there’s other drama brewing. Matthew is miserable at his corporate law job and wishes he had more time with his son; Laura’s marriage is imploding in spectacular fashion; Sophie’s art career is stalled while her boyfriend’s is on the rise; and Noah’s total failure to launch has him doing tech repair for pennies.
When Noah sees an ad for a Powerball drawing, he and his sisters go in on tickets while their brother Matthew passes. All hell breaks loose when one of the tickets is a winner and three of the four Jacobsons become overnight millionaires. Without their mother’s guidance, and with their father busy playing pickleball in a Florida retirement village, the once close-knit siblings search for comfort in shiny new toys instead of each other.
It’s not long before the Jacobsons start to realize that they’ll never feel rich unless they can pull their family back together.
“C’mon, Noah, not now,” a breathy voice said in the background when Noah answered Sophie’s call.
“Robin, shh, it’s my sister,” came Noah’s muffled voice. “Soph, what’s up? I’m at work.”
“Noah, I don’t care what you’re up to. I need you to focus. What numbers did you pick for the Powerball tickets?”
She heard the sound of covers swishing and the groan of the woman waiting on Noah’s “customer service.”
“My birthday, one ticket with Yankee player numbers, one with the Giants and our home phone number plus—” he said.
“The phone number one—you need six numbers, right? Did you do the extra digits before or after the phone number?” Sophie was asking questions that prolonged the possibility of them having won. She wanted to extend the fantasy that her life was about to change in a glamorous, unfathomable way, and the moment Noah said the wrong number, or the right number but in the wrong position, it was all over. “I did it after,” he said. He didn’t appear to be catching on that there was a chance they had won. Maybe he already knew they hadn’t and was irritated Sophie had interrupted him.
“What numbers did you pick?” This was it. The sink-or-swim moment. Her breath caught in her throat. Ravi motioned for her to put the phone on speaker. Together they stared at the screen, as if the digit would appear.
“I picked eight, because it’s my lucky number. Then thirty, because I’m thirty. And twenty-six, for our house number. Yes, I know, I’m the only sentimental one that cares about the—”
“Noah Samuel Jacobson. I could freaking kiss you right now.
WE WON! WE WON THE FUCKING POWERBALL!”
“Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit! No way!” Noah started screaming. Ravi and Sophie were hugging, jumping up and down until the phone clattered to the floor. Sophie dove to pick it up.
“What do we do now?” Noah asked. “This is so insane. Did you tell Laura?”
“No, I didn’t know we won yet!”
“Noah, what in the world is going on?” Breathy Voice asked. “Robin, I just won the Powerball.”
The woman let out a glass-shattering shriek.
“Noah, Noah, focus,” Sophie yelled. “Where do we turn the ticket in? What does it say on the back? Noah, read it to me.”
Sophie waited for Noah’s response, but there was only silence. Even his companion was quiet. It gave Sophie a moment to regain her faculties. Her heart was thudding so forcefully she put a hand on her chest to keep it from bursting out. To think she was worried about getting kicked out of SHART. Now she could buy the building! She could buy whatever she liked!
“Noah? Hello? Do you need me to help you with the ticket? I can come down now. We can celebrate at Black-Eyed Susans. I’m getting lobster. No, two lobsters. And champagne. Noah—are you listening?”
“Soph, I—” Noah’s voice was strained, as if squeezing through a colander. She was antsy to call Laura. Winning the lottery ought to take the sting out of Doug’s departure.
“I know. You’re with someone now. That’s fine. Do your business and just be ready for me when I get there. It won’t be for another three hours anyway.”
“Sophie, listen, there’s—” Noah tried again.
“Noah, it’s all good. I need to hang up to get an Uber.” “Sophie, let him speak.” Ravi put a firm hand on her shoulder.
“Yes, let me speak,” Noah said. “Sophie, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I have absolutely no idea what I did with the tickets.”
Excerpted from JACKPOT SUMMER by Elyssa Friedland, published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2023
