Vegas Rich - ISBNLookup.com

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Playing off her bestselling Texas series (Texas Sunrise, 1992, etc.), Michaels ventures into a Vegas trilogy that introduces the Thornton dynasty but also revives the Coleman family of the Texas books. The new saga begins in 1923, when Sallie Coleman, saloon singer and prostitute, inherits a fortune from an eccentric millionaire. Determined to acquire polish and breeding, Sallie moves into her benefactor's mansion and hires Philip Thornton, a handsome tutor whom she eventually marries. The birth of Sallie's first son, Ash, is quickly followed by the arrival of her second, Simon, with whom she forms a deep bond that eventually pits the boys against one another. Before then, however, Philip's distaste for his wife's vigorous sexuality has propelled Sallie into a love affair with attorney Devin Rollins that's destined to last for decades. After Philip suffers a massive stroke, Sallie assumes responsibility for his care, losing her dream of someday marrying her lover. Meanwhile, her sons wage a rivalry that culminates when Ash's wife falls in love with Simon. Further plot bumps will keep readers on their toes, including a severe accident and the building of a palatial gambling hall. Michaels isn't a master stylist ("You don't know me at all, Ash. I'm not that stupid, starry-eyed girl you married 30 years ago"), but her characters are well constructed, with appropriately dysfunctional flaws, and she lays on enough melodrama to please a J.R. Ewing or Alexis Carrington. Major ad/promo; author tour. (Aug.)

Melanie Duncan

Best-selling author Michaels returns to the sweeping family saga reminiscent of her Texas series with the start of a new trilogy set in Las Vegas. The first book is solidly launched and will be eagerly snapped up by Michaels' fans. When Sallie Coleman first came to Las Vegas in 1923, she worked in a bingo parlor and occasionally picked up money on the side by doing things that her mama wouldn't approve of. One of her admirers leaves his vast fortune to the illiterate Sallie, and she uses it to improve herself, her friends, and the growing little town of Las Vegas. As her power and influence grow, Sallie marries a Thornton and they have two sons. When the marriage becomes increasingly bitter and the two sons are divided between parents, Sallie meets the love of her life and begins an affair that will span decades. But she never forgets that her older brother, Seth Coleman (of the Texas series), abandoned their family, and she relentlessly searches for him through all the years of her own family's triumphs and tragedies. Covering the Thornton family through each generation until 1979, "Vegas Rich" captures the founding of a dynasty. Fans will catch up on characters familiar from the Texas books and meet new ones who will have them anxiously awaiting the second volume, "Vegas Heat". A necessary purchase for all popular-fiction collections.

A third hardcover (Seasons of Her Life, 1994, etc.) and the first of a trilogy from Michaels, no stranger to the saga series (the bestselling paperbacks Texas Rich, Texas Heat, etc.). Here, the author takes on Vegas with her hallmark blend of sweeping melodrama and immorality galore.

When, in 1922, Sallie Coleman, the proverbial hooker with a heart of gold, inherits a multimillion-dollar fortune from a recently deceased client, Las Vegas is in for a major shake-up. After Sallie hires a tutor, one Philip Thornton, from Boston, to "give her an education," she single-handedly transforms the dusty mining town into an entertainment mecca, building bingo palaces, becoming a lounge singer herself, even institutionalizing prostitution; before long, she is known as Mrs. Nevada. Along the way, Philip becomes her husband but never the love of her life—that role is reserved for her attorney, Devin Rollins, although she and Philip never divorce and he fathers her two sons, Ash and Simon—the first a conceited daddy's boy, the latter a humble genius with his mother's spunk and gumption. After WW II (both boys enlist secretly), Simon heads for New York, to make his fortune on Wall Street, while Ash stays at home in Vegas and marries Fanny Logan, a Pennsylvania girl who, in looks and personality, is a carbon copy of Sallie. The second and third generations of Thorntons further transform Vegas: Ash pours money into the creation of a mega-casino, Simon strives to maintain his mother's more cautious vision. Through it all, Sallie remains a matriarch to be reckoned with, but her twin grandsons, Sage and Birch, appear to be the future of Vegas . . . for better or worse.

Two more installments to go, with tie-ins to the Texas books. It's hard to imagine what more can befall this family, but if history doesn't lie, Michaels won't disappoint her fans, and she'll sell this trio like hotcakes, too.