Chick Lit

She's funny! She is writer named Deborah Coonts and her credits include practicing law, flying planes and having written a humor column for a national magazine.

Lucky O'Toole is the head of Customer Relations at a big Las Vegas casino. Her mother is the owner and manager of a whorehouse in Pahrump, NV, which is quite legal - there. Her best friend "The Fabulous Teddy!" is a professional transvestite who's decided to take their relationship to the next level. Problem is ... he looks better in women's clothing than she does.

The book opens with a dramatic scene -- a woman who formerly worked at the casino falls (or was pushed) out of a sightseeing helicopter over Treasure Island and drops into the lagoon during the pirate battle. Yes, quite an opening.

Janet Evanovich perfected the zany heroine character in her long-running series featuring Stephanie Plum, a New Jersey bail bondsman. Plum has a grandmother who carries; a long-suffering mother ("Why don't you just get married already?") and a father largely disconnected from the family insanity. Plum is forever blowing up mortuaries and having her cars burned up beneath her.

What both heroines have in common is the fact that are not "easy." A handsome guy comes along, inteligent, fun, interested and instead of throwing their hats in the air (along with other bits of clothing) and plunging into a red hot sexual affair, they dither.

This ... dithering ... goes all the way back to the 1950s when nice girls didn't. Have sex, not dither. Clearly the double standard still exists more than 50 years later! Quite disappointing when you think about it.

If you can get past this extremely unlikely plot point, you should have an amusing read.
"Wanna Get Lucky?" by Deborah Coonts A Tom Doherty Associates Book 352 pages $24.99