Heather Skyler

4.5 stars.

Vegas Girls by Heather Skyler is a lovely novel of friendship that will resonate with readers of contemporary women's fiction. This poignant story spans a weeklong reunion between three childhood friends who are at a crossroads in their respective lives.

Ivy Jacobsen and her husband Frank have recently returned to Las Vegas and she is playing host to her childhood friends Ramona and Jane in the week leading up to her son's first birthday. A chance encounter with her former boyfriend Jeremy Burnham resurrects both bittersweet and painful memories from a tumultuous time during her teenage years. While their romance was somewhat rocky, Ivy cannot forget how he thoughtful and sweet he was during a painful period in her life. Seeing him again stirs up her unresolved issues and raises fears that history will eventually repeat itself now that Ivy is a mom.

Jane now lives in Wisconsin with her husband Adam and their two young children. Depressed after recently losing her job, she is growing increasingly dissatisfied with her marriage and she is seriously considering a divorce. Hoping the week with her friends will provide her with some much needed clarity, Jane keeps her problems to herself as she grows frustrated with the demands of parenting two young kids. She is attracted to a newly divorced father of two in Ivy's neighborhood but will Jane act on her feelings for the handsome stranger?

Both Jane and Ivy wonder if their never married friend Ramona will bail on the reunion so they are pleasantly surprised by her arrival. A successful musician, she is still playing in local venues while her band regroups after losing some of their members. While she is looking forward to reconnecting with her friends, Ramona is secretly searching for the son she gave up for adoption years earlier. Haunted by regrets, will finding her son help Ramona come to terms with the events that are occurring in the present?

With the non-glamorous side of Las Vegas serving as a backdrop, Vegas Girls by Heather Skyler is a beautifully rendered novel of friendship. The characters are multi-faceted with relatable struggles and issues to overcome. The storyline is well-developed and quite riveting with the chapters alternating between each of the various characters' perspectives. I greatly enjoyed and highly recommend this compelling story that perfectly captures the complexities of friendship, the regret for past choices and the hope for a happy future.
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its more like a coming of age then the title "the Perfect Age". i felt so sorry for helen who seems to grow up too fast and has to deal with adult issues especially her mom having an affair. her mother having an affair is bad enough but she handles it so poorly as well and makes a mess of her relatioship wit her daughter. I could not relate to this woman at all as she is so terribly self centered.
this novel has lots of symbolism and I liked the setting of Vegas, however it was very dull in many places with not a lot of storyline happening.… (plus d'informations)