Vegas Girls: A Novel - Softcover

Praise for Vegas Girls "Set against the backdrop of Las Vegas, with its penetrating summer heat, mountains, and flashy casinos, this novel creates a heat all its own. Perfect for readers who love Liane Moriarty, Sarah Pekkanen, and Jennifer Weiner." Booklist "With a candid writing style and crafted from five unique voices, this novel reminds us that the past always finds a way to stick with us, and lifelong friends are our true rocks. . . . Readers will relate to the underlying themes and desire for closure." -RT Book Reviews "I am a sucker for stories about friendships, old loves, new loves, and how going back somehow helps us move forward. And in Vegas Girls Heather Skyler satisfies all my cravings while also writing like a dream. A dream of a novel!" Ann Hood, bestselling author of The Knitting Circle and The Obituary Writer "Intimate, generous, and frank, Vegas Girls is wise to the doldrums of adulthood and humane about its failures. These characters may walk a perilous balancing act between hard knowledge and hope, but Heather Skyler aces it." Michelle Wildgen, author of You're Not You and Bread and Butter "A rich, multilayered novel that beautifully explores the complicated edges of nostalgia, and all the mysterious, unexpected, and emotionally charged drama that comes when old friends reunite in the old neighborhood. Heather Skyler is a wonderfully insightful writer, and Vegas Girls is an illuminating and pleasurable read." Dean Bakopoulos, author of Summerlong "When a group of friends, navigating their mid-thirties, reunites in their hometown, old shadows, new dreams, and unexpected complications arise. Set in the dazzling, all-consuming city of Las Vegas, Heather Skyler vividly captures the hidden edges of long friendship and the strange unspoken secrets we carry around in our hearts." Alissa Nutting, author of Tampa "Vegas Girls is a now story, sometimes touching, other times troubling. Heather Skyler knows her locale and brings Vegas to life." Fresh Fiction "Born and raised here, Skyler knows Las Vegas as only a native can. . . . Skyler has created a fictional landscape that more accurately captures Las Vegas than many nonfiction narratives do. . . . The story is smart, honest, and surprising. Skyler's prose, at times poetic, is layered, fluid, and smooth a total pleasure to read." Living Las Vegas "It is almost a coming of age story of how the past affects the present." Las Vegas Woman Praise for The Perfect Age "Sultry, reflective . . . perfectly captures the languid heat of long Las Vegas summers and the irresistible temptations of love at any age." Publishers Weekly "[A] beautifully wrought coming-of-age story . . . rich, smart, and nuanced . . . brutally realistic and starkly honest." Library Journal "Sensitively explores family dynamics, particularly the line between privacy and secrecy." Kirkus Reviews "Skillful, sensitive . . . traces the twin trajectories of a mother aching for change and her budding teenage daughter." Elle "A compulsively readable story." Wisconsin Trails magazine, Editors Pick "Effortlessly graceful . . . astute." Marisa Silver, New York Times bestselling author of Mary Coin "A gorgeous debut." Ann Hood, New York Times bestselling author of The Obituary Writer and The Red Thread "A lovely, winning novel, full of moments of startling emotional truth." Jessica Shattuck, author of The Hazards of Good Breeding "A sultry tale of sexual awakening . . . absorbing, evocative and observant." Guardian (UK) "Atmospheric . . . Skyler's descriptive powers create a place that is at the same time thoroughly sexual, oppressively hot and occasionally downright grubby." Independent (UK) "A compelling read." YM "An author to watch." Spring Grove Herald (Minnesota) "Skyler has her finger firmly on the pulse of this family, sensitive to the unnerving upheavals they experience over three summers that spell an end to innocence, the beginning of a more imperfect, if more livable peace." CurledUp.com Praise for Vegas Girls "Set against the backdrop of Las Vegas, with its penetrating summer heat, mountains, and flashy casinos, this novel creates a heat all its own. Perfect for readers who love Liane Moriarty, Sarah Pekkanen, and Jennifer Weiner." Booklist "With a candid writing style and crafted from five unique voices, this novel reminds us that the past always finds a way to stick with us, and lifelong friends are our true rocks. . . . Readers will relate to the underlying themes and desire for closure." -RT Book Reviews "I am a sucker for stories about friendships, old loves, new loves, and how going back somehow helps us move forward. And in Vegas Girls Heather Skyler satisfies all my cravings while also writing like a dream. A dream of a novel!" Ann Hood, bestselling author of The Knitting Circle and The Obituary Writer "Intimate, generous, and frank, Vegas Girls is wise to the doldrums of adulthood and humane about its failures. These characters may walk a perilous balancing act between hard knowledge and hope, but Heather Skyler aces it." Michelle Wildgen, author of You're Not You and Bread and Butter "A rich, multilayered novel that beautifully explores the complicated edges of nostalgia, and all the mysterious, unexpected, and emotionally charged drama that comes when old friends reunite in the old neighborhood. Heather Skyler is a wonderfully insightful writer, and Vegas Girls is an illuminating and pleasurable read." Dean Bakopoulos, author of Summerlong "When a group of friends, navigating their mid-thirties, reunites in their hometown, old shadows, new dreams, and unexpected complications arise. Set in the dazzling, all-consuming city of Las Vegas, Heather Skyler vividly captures the hidden edges of long friendship and the strange unspoken secrets we carry around in our hearts." Alissa Nutting, author of Tampa "Vegas Girls is a now story, sometimes touching, other times troubling. Heather Skyler knows her locale and brings Vegas to life." Fresh Fiction "Born and raised here, Skyler knows Las Vegas as only a native can. . . . Skyler has created a fictional landscape that more accurately captures Las Vegas than many nonfiction narratives do. . . . The story is smart, honest, and surprising. Skyler's prose, at times poetic, is layered, fluid, and smooth a total pleasure to read." Living Las Vegas "It is almost a coming of age story of how the past affects the present." Las Vegas Woman Praise for The Perfect Age "Sultry, reflective . . . perfectly captures the languid heat of long Las Vegas summers and the irresistible temptations of love at any age." Publishers Weekly "[A] beautifully wrought coming-of-age story . . . rich, smart, and nuanced . . . brutally realistic and starkly honest." Library Journal "Sensitively explores family dynamics, particularly the line between privacy and secrecy." Kirkus Reviews "Skillful, sensitive . . . traces the twin trajectories of a mother aching for change and her budding teenage daughter." Elle "A compulsively readable story." Wisconsin Trails magazine, Editors Pick "Effortlessly graceful . . . astute." Marisa Silver, New York Times bestselling author of Mary Coin "A gorgeous debut." Ann Hood, New York Times bestselling author of The Obituary Writer and The Red Thread "A lovely, winning novel, full of moments of startling emotional truth." Jessica Shattuck, author of The Hazards of Good Breeding "A sultry tale of sexual awakening . . . absorbing, evocative and observant." Guardian (UK) "Atmospheric . . . Skyler's descriptive powers create a place that is at the same time thoroughly sexual, oppressively hot and occasionally downright grubby." Independent (UK) "A compelling read." YM "An author to watch." Spring Grove Herald (Minnesota) "Skyler has her finger firmly on the pulse of this family, sensitive to the unnerving upheavals they experience over three summers that spell an end to innocence, the beginning of a more imperfect, if more livable peace." CurledUp.com

For Fans of Julia Glass and Ann Hood, a Novel about How the Choices We Make Last a Lifetime Vegas Girls begins when three former high school friends, now in their mid-thirties, reunite in their hometown of Las Vegas a city they vowed to escape as soon as they could to celebrate their new lives and revisit old haunts. But what starts out as a week-long, sun-kissed reunion takes a strange turn as mysterious gifts appear, familiar faces pop up in unexpected places, and each woman reveals a secret, private quest. Ramona is searching for a son she gave up for adoption before their high-school graduation. Jane is trying to leave her husband of eleven years, even with her two kids in tow. And Ivy, who has a new baby, is haunted by the memory of her mother abandoning her twenty years ago and she has begun spotting her everywhere. Add to this a darkly charismatic ex-boyfriend of Ivy's who won't give up hope of rekindling their romance, and a strange, new friend of Jane's in need of help, and the week quickly begins to unravel. Set against desert heat, swimming pools, and casino lights, and told masterfully through five different points of view, Vegas Girls is about how we navigate the present while carrying the ghosts of our past; about growing up with one eye glued to the rearview mirror; and about what happens when the past you thought you left behind turns out to have been with you all along.