Kind of a trashy in a good way read.
The book is actually written by 2 women writing as “Cassidy Lucas” it is a Big Little Lies knockoff but the story is nowhere near as good.
The book is about a bunch of narcissistic, self absorbed, fitness crazy Southern California- specifically Santa Monica not that it really Matters housewives, and their interactions with Zack a gym rat personal trainer at the gym of the month they all belong to.
Of course it also has the 1 New Yorker who is super rich but doesn’t fit in.
Add in the usual liberal fluff of Trump hating and pretending to care about illegal immigrants and you have this book.
The biggest problem with the book is that it really is as shallow as my description but for some reason it is over 400 pages! At least 150 pages of it were completely unneeded.
A fun book again for the beach or a long plane ride. ( )

I found it a little slow to start, but I ended up really liking it. I really disliked some of the characters, but that just makes them more believable. ( )

Fans of Liane Moriarty's books should make room on their shelves for Cassidy Lucas' debut novel, Santa Monica. Set in a wealthy enclave of Santa Monica, we have sex, adultery, secret relationships, immigration issues, an unexplained death and so much more in this propulsive page-turner.

Zack is the sexy trainer that all the ladies in his exercise classes pine after. When he is found dead by his half-sister Leticia, an undocumented worker from Mexico, the book grabs us and never lets us go until the very end.

The story moves back in time five months and we discover that Leticia cleans house for several wealthy families in Santa Monica, including Mel Goldberg, a Brooklyn transplant. Mel's husband Adam wrote a hot screenplay and now they have made the move to Hollywood.

Adam has settled into the Hollywood scene, but Mel misses her business, her friends, and pretty much everything about Brooklyn. She doesn't fit in with the thin, blonde, surgically enhanced women who spend a lot of time at the gym where Zack works. She's a little overweight, and openly speaks her mind on everything, including her politics, which differ from many of the other women.

Her one friend Regina is an exercise addict, and convinces Mel to host an exercise class at her house. Zack is the instructor and he finds himself drawn to Mel, which enrages Regina, who has her eye on Zack. Regina has involved Zack in a shady financial scheme which she hopes will get her out of debt before her husband finds out.

Zack doesn't want anyone to know that Leticia is his half-sister. Leticia works several housecleaning jobs, babysitting jobs, dog walking jobs, anything she can to support herself and her young son, who is disabled after an accident. Zack feels guilty, and tries to help Leticia in any way he can, and he adores his nephew.

All of these stories circle each other until they collide. The juxtaposition of the wealthy Santa Monica residents and people like Zack and Leticia, who scramble everyday to keep their heads above water, is thought-provoking. Leticia's fear of being discovered by ICE agents, deported and having to leave her son gives the reader a window into the daily stress of living with that fear.

The characters here are multi-dimensional. We see their good sides and the bad decisions they make; we root for them to make good choices and cringe when when they don't. When a book gets me that me invested, I know it's good read. There are also some very steamy sex scenes here that will raise your pulse like you just took a strenuous class at the exercise studio.

Santa Monica is a stellar debut, a satisfying mystery with incisive social commentary. I hope to read more from Cassidy Lucas and I can see this as an HBO miniseries, ala Big Little Lies. I recommend it, I read it in one day as I couldn't put it down. ( )