Best Bet: A Novel (The Hallie Palmer Series, 4) - Softcover

Pedersen, Laura

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1440170177 ISBN 13: 9781440170171

Publisher: iUniverse, 2009

Synopsis

Since Hallie's father died and left behind ten children, money at the Palmer household is tighter than ever. And just when Hallie thought she was graduating from college, it turns out she's four credits short. A professor needs one more student for a project that will take her around the world, only longtime boyfriend Craig has another proposition for Hallie.

Thus begins Hallie's great odyssey, for the first time she ventures outside the safety of Cosgrove County and the sixty-mile radius in which she's functioned for her entire life. But somehow, escaping home doesn't translate into leaving behind all of her problems, and, unfortunately, not all can be solved by putting her superior gambling skills to work.

Eventually, it's time to return home to all the good people who are great at driving each other crazy. Hallie must finally face the biggest decision of her life.

Humorous and heartfelt, Best Bet underscores the importance of friends, family, and a sense of belonging. The characters in this modest, but neighborly, small town prove that an ordinary existence made up of small but genuine moments can satisfy a soul that's hungry for life in all of its glories and disappointments.

About this title

About the Author

Laura Pedersen grew up Buffalo, New York; she now lives in New York City. Laura's first novel, Going Away Party, won the Three Oaks Prize for Fiction and her second novel, Beginner's Luck, was selected for Barnes & Noble's "Discover Great New Writers" program. To read more about the author, visit www.LauraPedersenBooks.com.

Review

A delightful fourth and final book about the rich, quirky life of 21-year-old college student Hallie Palmer. When the story opens, Hallie is days away from donning graduation cap and gown to begin her post-college life when she discovers a clerical error has left her one social-sciences class short. Minutes later, she bumps into Josh, an old crush of hers who tells her she can get the course credit if she signs up with a sociology team (of which Josh is part) to travel the world, dropping wallets containing $20 each, as part of a professor's doctoral study on humanity's global honesty. But if Hallie embarks on this globe-trotting mission, it will throw a jumbo-sized wrench into her plans to move in with her longtime boyfriend Craig and start work at her new job. However, for this small-town girl, the opportunity is too irresistible to refuse and just before she departs, a stung Craig bestows a free-spirit status on them both. While her journey is fraught with food poisoning, an earthquake and various assorted comical conundrums, Hallie must also try to remain in her professor's good graces as well as withstand life with her roommate Mandy, a Mennonite who suddenly morphs into a henna-tattooed siren on the second day of the journey. Wiser for her tribulations, Hallie returns home to her family with eight siblings, her hysterically funny gay friend Bernard, and his perpetually politically correct mother, Olivia, and Craig. What follows is a marvelous ending with a funny domino-like sequence of surprises for Hallie and others. Though the book can be found on young-adult shelves, the story is more than sufficiently sophisticated to grab adults as well. Literary and cultural references add a wonderful depth to the anecdotes and metaphors. The book's laugh-out-loud funny, and readers will find themselves rereading lines just for the sheer joy of it. They may also find that going back to the preceding three books will prove irresistible. A sure bet. --Kirkus

Home may be where the heart is, but sometimes it takes a trip around the world to figure out exactly where your heart belongs. Reading BEST BET is like being at a party with some very funny people; Laura Pedersen, who has won prizes for her fiction and whose second novel was selected for the Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" program, has a distinct knack for creating spirited characters. Hallie, her saintly mother, her nine brothers and sisters, her friends Bernard, Olivia, Mandy, and Banjo, and even the giggling gaggle of girl scouts all leap fully formed from the binding, ready to make us laugh. One-liners pepper each page with savvy wit. Snuggled among bouts of laughter, moments of emotional clarity lie in wait. While Hallie's life is an enviable series of funny skits, she's also searching for a sense of grace. "Every day is a bounty and your best bet is to make it count," Pedersen writes, "just like the flowers come up after the darkness and the rain, not in spite of it, but because of it." --ForeWord Reviews

BEST BET is an excellent read and well worth the gamble. --Novel Talk

Edition details

• Publisher: iUniverse
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1440170177
• ISBN 13: 9781440170171
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320