Lucky Stiff by Deborah Coonts

4 Star

Lucky O’Toole--Head of Customer Relations at The Babylon, premier mega-resort on the Vegas Strip--thinks it’s just another night in Las Vegas.  A tractor-trailer has spilled its load of a million honeybees, blocking not only the Strip but the entrance to her hotel... the District Attorney for Clark County—apparently the odd man out of a threesome on the twelfth floor—is hiding in the buff in one of the hotel’s laundry rooms... and Numbers Neidermeyer--one of Vegas’ less-than-savory oddsmakers--is arguing with Las Vegas’ ace private investigator, the Beautiful Jeremy Whitlock.

The next day, Lucky discovers Ms. Neidermeyer was tossed into the shark tank at the Mandalay Bay Resort as a snack for the Tiger Shark.  When the police show up at the Babylon with a hastily prepared search warrant, applied for by the District Attorney himself, and Jeremy lands in the hot seat, Lucky realizes her previous night was far from routine.  

Amid the chaos of fight weekend, the hiring of an eccentric new French chef, and her madam mother's intentions to auction off a young woman’s virginity, Lucky is drawn into a deadly game where no one is what they seem, a game that will end only when she discovers who made fish-food out of Numbers Neidermeyer.

Lucky O’Toole and Fabulous Las Vegas—life doesn’t get any better.    

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Lydia - 4 Star

Lucky Stiff is a who-done-it complete with 4-inch-heels and a girl who complains about wearing them and kicks them off as soon as possible. What’s not to love?  The sequel to Wanna Get Lucky, this novel picks up where we left off with Lucky O’Toole.  Everything is running smoothly in Lucky’s life until another murder takes place with ties to a friend and the hotel she’s head of customer relations for.  We are treated to more outrageous antics, politics, sex and intrigue amidst a Las Vegas weekend featuring an eccentric new head chef, a boxing match, a million runaway bees and a virgin auction. What could go wrong?

Lucky is a girl after my own heart with her casual style, voracious appetite and knock ‘em out attitude. I loved her character in the first novel, and that carried throughout the sequel.  She’s sharp, witty, loyal and fun, yet has some insecurity and doubt surrounding her relationships with both her boyfriend and her family.  When her boyfriend’s potential rise to stardom – at Lucky’s doing – throws her for a loop, I loved watching her worry and struggle.  I just plain loved their unconventional relationship from the first book through this one. Every scene with the two of them together put a smile on my face.

The story is as unpredictable as Wanna Get Lucky and there were several hints about something (no spoilers!) that popped out at me that totally surprised me by going in a different direction at the end of the novel.  This is mystery chick lit that’s fun, flirty and romantic and splashes the pages with all the craziness you would expect to find in Las Vegas.

Congrats to Coonts for a sequel that kept me just as entertained as the first novel, which usually does not occur.  Should we be treated to another book in the series, I look forward to seeing what adventures Lucky gets up to and I actually wouldn’t mind seeing either of these novels turned into a movie.

Kathryn - 4 Star

 

I read this sequel to Wanna get lucky? by Deborah Coonts immediately afterwards because I was completely engrossed in Lucky and didn’t want to lose fast paced feel I was enjoying- I wasn’t disappointed as the feel of the second novel was in line with the first.

I have to say though that although my general feelings were positive there were a few things that didn’t ring quite as bright with me in this second book. Although the investigation of the mystery was just as compelling and well interwoven into the plot I sometimes found it a bit confusing and I wasn’t clear until the very last pages what had happened and why- the players in the murder didn’t relate to each other as well for me and so I found myself going around in circles trying to determine who was who and why they didn’t like each other.  At the same time there was also much more time devoted to Lucky and her relationship in this second novel and that may have been distracting me a little bit. 

I also found the developing story between Lucky’s parents a bit soft, there were moments dedicated to their finding their love again and then they would be absent from the story for ages. There wasn’t much closure for me in this area and this wasn’t helped at all by the bizarre situation with her mother trying to sell off a virgin?  This didn’t add much to the plot for me although it was funny in places!

I loved the continued plot development with Lucky’s assistants Miss Patterson and Brandy- their characters were well developed and continued seamlessly from the first novel.  I liked that they were committed to their jobs and still showed realistic flaws and loyalty to both Lucky and their own jobs.

All in all I still found this sequel to be well written and amusing but there were a few holes for me that left me a disappointed.  I will still be looking for a third installment however because Lucky has definitely made an impression on me!

Check out our author interview with Deborah Coonts.

Thank you to Deborah Coonts for our review copy. All opinions are our own.
 
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