Beginner's Luck (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780345458308)

"Laura Pedersen delivers . . . Throughout, you can't help but think how hilarious some of the scenes would play on the big screen."--The Hartford Courant

"There could be no doubt left in anyone's mind that my life had all the makings of a country-and-western song."

The second of seven children (with another on the way), Hallie Palmer has one dream: to make it to Vegas. Normally blessed with an uncanny gift for winning at games of chance, she's just hit a losing streak. She' s been kicked out of the casino she frequents during school hours, lost all her money for a car on a bad bet at the track, and has been grounded by her parents. Hallie decides the time as come to cut her losses.

Answering an ad in the local paper, she lands a job as yard person at the elegant home of the sixty-ish Mrs. Olivia Stockton, a wonderfully eccentric rebel who scribes acclaimed poetry along with the occasional soft-core porn story. Under the same wild roof is Olivia's son, Bernard, an antiques dealer and gourmet cook who turns out mouthwatering cuisine and scathing witticisms, and Gil, Bernard's lover, whose down-to-earth sensibilities provide a perfect foil to the Stocktons' outrageous joie de vivre. Here, in this anything-goes household, Hallie has found a new family. And she's about to receive the education of her life.

From a wonderful new voice in fiction comes the freshest and funniest novel to barrel down the pike since Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Caf . In Beginner's Luck, Laura Pedersen introduces us to the endearing oddballs and eccentrics of Cosgrove County, Ohio, who burst to life and steal our hearts-and none more so than Hallie Palmer, sixteen, savvy, and wise beyond her years, a young woman who knows life is a gamble . . . and sometimes you have to bet the house.

Author: Laura Pedersen
ISBN-10: 0345458303
ISBN-13: 9780345458308
Publisher: Ballantine Group
Language: English
Published: 01/01/2003
Pages: 368
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.63lbs
Size: 8.32h x 5.92w x 0.79d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 6.5
Point Value: 20
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 77442 / Beginner's Luck


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 11/01/2002 pg. 1562
Publishers Weekly 12/02/2002 pg. 33
Booklist 12/15/2002 pg. 734
Romantic Times 01/01/2003 pg. 100 - Excellent
Library Journal 01/01/2003 pg. 158
Kliatt 01/01/2003 pg. 18
Voice of Youth Advocates 06/01/2003 pg. 142
Library Journal 01/15/2003