Lucky Stars

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read
Review: Great book that was funny and easy to read. Good storylne, maybe a bit frustrating at times how the mither ignores the daughter, but overall great book with a good ending - already have checked out many more Jane Heller books from the library.

Rating:
Summary: just ok
Review: Having read Ms. Heller's Best Enemies and Name Dropping, I had high hopes for this book. I like her style of writing: romance/comedy/mystery all in one. This book started off well, but somewhere in the middle I just got tired of Stacey's constant complaining about EVERYTHING! Enough already! I managed to keep reading and closer to the end, I got into it again. I wouldn't buy it, check it out from the library. It's worth reading if your a fan of the author. This won't stop me from reading her other books. Hopefully they will be better.

Rating:
Summary: A bit of a disappointment...
Review: Having read several of Heller's novels, I was looking forward to reading Lucky Stars. However, I found it to be a disappointment: the dialogue was contrived, the characters were flat, and the plot itself was slow. Heller describes her heroine, Stacey, as savvy, intelligent, and street-smart, but she is portrayed as completely the opposite. She is too quick to fall for whatever information she finds on the antagonist, Victor Chellus, and is even quicker to tattle-tale to her mother. Her romance with Jack Rawlins is completely unbelievable, given the fact that he is portrayed as a pompous jerk in the beginning--he fell for her too easily, and the whole thing comes off as entirely contrived. The book has its moments, but overall, it was a big disappointment. My advice? Save your money--not to mention your time--for something more enjoyable and worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: Lucky Stars: a cheerful and entertaining read
Review: I enjoy Jane Heller's cheerful and entertaining style. A young woman moves to Hollywood to pursue her acting career and get away from her overbearing but well-meaning mother. A hallmark of the author's style is her main characters have funny personality flaws that constantly get them into ridiculous situations. They are human and easy to identify with. Mother and daughter try iron things out in comical ways that make this book a great read.



Rating:
Summary: Heller's Best Book Yet
Review: I think that I have read all of author Jane Heller's novels. Some of them, I've liked a great deal and some of them...well, I didn't like a few of the others at all. Now, I safely can say that I enjoyed LUCKY STARS the best of her books.

What makes LUCKY STARS so good? For one thing, Heller's writing, but her prose always is lively and reliable. So there must be an additional element and, here, it's the story. The tale of aspiring actress Stacy Reiser rings true, and the turns that Stacy's life takes seems plausible, if unlikely. Yet that's the point of fiction, to take the unreal and make it real, and Heller makes this transformation beautifully here.

By a quirk of fate, I've followed Heller's path in a literal sense, living in a New York area suburb when she did, relocating part-time to the same area of South Florida at the exact time she moved there and moving, yet again, to Los Angeles at just about the same moment. Thus, it is with authority that I can say that no one captures the rhythms of a community better than Jane Heller does in her books, and LUCKY STARS is no exception.

After reading LUCKY STARS, one will have a true sense of what life is like in Los Angeles for those aspiring to their big breaks in the entertainment industry, the "company" for which this large city is little more than a company town.

As always, Heller's story is quick and endearing, her dialogue crackles and there's a laugh on every page. The supporting cast is wonderful, too, particularly Stacy's mother and best friend.

LUCKY STARS is a terrific and easy read.

Rating:
Summary: Lucky stars reaches, but...
Review: I usually love this kind of novel -- a mystery plot with a strong blend of romance is my kind of escapism. Unfortunately, I found this novel lacking in both departments and I regret shelling out money for it.

I thought the plot was poorly developed. The mystery with the mother was excecuted how it should have been but I found it lacking of any suspense or substance. I didn't care what happened to the mother since she was designed to be so aggrevating in the beginning and never gained my support. Ultimately, the mystery didn't seem very mysterious, it had been solved at the very beginning by Stacey's imagination. She becomes accusatory at the very beginning, and her belief in Victor's guilt is almost paranoid. At that point, I lost my empathy with Stacey.

Jack and Stacey's romance wasn't red-hot at all. It had a nice start and a lot of potential but then Jack became cardboard and pretty standard fare. Romance took a backseat to the mystery which is why it probably died, since it relied so heavily on an already flimsy mystery.

Ms. Keller's style of writing, however, is her crucial flaw. She prefers to "tell" rather than to "show." So she straight out informs us of how the character is developing instead of letting us watch the character change ourselves She states several times that Stacey has become her mother and now we don't get to just watch the transformation as Ms. Keller doesn't trust us enough to understand without words.

LUCKY STARS is an okay novel for when you don't have anything better to do, but I'd recommend borrowing from the library instead of buying it.

Rating:
Summary: Lucky stars reaches, but...
Review: I usually love this kind of novel -- a mystery plot with a strong blend of romance is my kind of escapism. Unfortunately, I found this novel lacking in both departments and I regret shelling out money for it.

I thought the plot was poorly developed. The mystery with the mother was excecuted how it should have been but I found it lacking of any suspense or substance. I didn't care what happened to the mother since she was designed to be so aggrevating in the beginning and never gained my support. Ultimately, the mystery didn't seem very mysterious, it had been solved at the very beginning by Stacey's imagination. She becomes accusatory at the very beginning, and her belief in Victor's guilt is almost paranoid. At that point, I lost my empathy with Stacey.

Jack and Stacey's romance wasn't red-hot at all. It had a nice start and a lot of potential but then Jack became cardboard and pretty standard fare. Romance took a backseat to the mystery which is why it probably died, since it relied so heavily on an already flimsy mystery.

Ms. Keller's style of writing, however, is her crucial flaw. She prefers to "tell" rather than to "show." So she straight out informs us of how the character is developing instead of letting us watch the character change ourselves She states several times that Stacey has become her mother and now we don't get to just watch the transformation as Ms. Keller doesn't trust us enough to understand without words.

LUCKY STARS is an okay novel for when you don't have anything better to do, but I'd recommend borrowing from the library instead of buying it.

Rating:
Summary: Jane Heller does it again!!
Review: Jane Heller has a nack for always keeping her books new and fresh.

Stacy Rieser is a budding star and she is trying so hard to make it in Hollywood. She goes on some auditions and lands a really great part in a movie that a famous movie critic pans. He makes mention of her part and how terrible she was in the movie. While she is realing in her self pity - her mother who is a very possive and intrudes on all aspects of Stacy's life, moves from the midwest to Hollywood. She is a constant complainer, and whiner and she is making tuna for her daughter and she finds a bone. She complains to the company who invites her to the plant to look over the factory and she makes such a scene that they LOVE her and NEED her for their new advertising compaign. Stacy is now going crazy.

Stacy gets a job in a retail shop and she inadvertently meets the critic who gives her a rotten write up. She lets him know that she is annoyed and he feels bad that he eventually invites her out to dinner.

The Mother, Helen, is now a HUGE star ( just like the "wheres the beef lady) and she meets a man who wants to marry her. Stacy is now over protective of her mother and goes out to prove that the mother's boyfriend is a murderer.

I liked the book alot, I would recommend this book to anyone.

Ellen

Rating:
Summary: A well-paced book with excellent characters
Review: Okay, those of you who know me know we're really going into uncharted territory here when I am reading a romantic mystery. My usual formula for evaluating a mystery or suspense novel is explosions X karate battles = Great Book. LUCKY STARS however is a romantic mystery, which is to say it's light on the mystery and heavy on the romance and life situations, though the touch on those topics is actually pretty light, too.

It's what I call a poolside (as opposed to beach) book. I have a friend who has a closetful of books like this, by authors of whom I've never heard; my friend has friends who have a closetful of these books as well and they trade them around and around. There's a heck of a fan base here and, while the writers who mine that base aren't exactly as well known as the Parkers and the Burkes and the Grishams, they have their serious fans. And after reading LUCKY STARS by Jane Heller, I can see why.

This isn't deep or tricky stuff. The heroine of the piece, Stacey Reiser, moves from Cleveland to Hollywood, seeking fame and hopefully fortune as an actress. It is not incidental that, in the process, she also leaves her mother Helen behind. Helen, however, decides to move to Hollywood to look after Stacey. Her meddlesome ways would be bad enough all by themselves. To make matters worse, though, Helen suddenly finds herself to be an overnight Hollywood sensation, with all of the trappings that go along with it, such as fame, fortune and romance --- all of the things that Stacey has been working for but that continue to elude her. Suddenly, their roles are reversed and, when Helen's boyfriend, who seems to be the perfect catch, arouses Stacey's suspicions, it's Helen who resents the meddling. Stacey's suspicions are well placed of course and it's subtly obvious she is right. Neither the reader nor Stacey quite knows why, however, but finding out is part of the fun of LUCKY STARS. Along the way Stacey finds true love and, while she doesn't get everything she wants, she gets what she wants the most.

Escapist? Sure, but what fiction isn't? It's not Raymond Chandler, but not everyone wants, or needs, Chandler. Heller is quite good at what she does. She makes you care about what happens to her characters --- even Helen --- and LUCKY STARS moves along quite quickly and quite nicely. I've already told my friend to make more room, as she'll want to add LUCKY STARS to her collection.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Rating:
Summary: first class dramatic comedy
Review: She loves her mother but budding actress Stacey Reiser really wishes that she would get a life. Stacy is tired of her mother's frequent phone calls, unsolicited advice and suggestions on how to hold on to a man. Even though there is not a man in her life at present, she is getting roles in movies and televisions shows instead of commercials. When Helen Reiser sells her home in Cleveland and moves close to her daughter in L.A. Stacey goes into shock.

Stacey becomes persona no grata in movieland when Jack Rawlings of Good Morning Hollywood trashes her part in a movie. Through a quirky set of circumstances Helen becomes the star in a series of tuna fish commercials, which leads to her to becoming a Hollywood icon. Stacey is happy for her mother even though she has to take a sales job to pay the bills. She becomes very concerned when her mother falls for a man with a shady reputation. Stacey, with the help of Jack (the pair are now an item), try to dig up some evidence against him because her mother won't have her daughter dissing her boyfriend.

LUCKY STARS is a first class dramatic comedy starring two strong-willed women who are experiencing role reversal. Readers will find themselves chuckling out loud at some of the conversations these two women exchange. The romance between the actress and the film critic adds another layer of complexity to the plot, as does Stacey's antipathy of her mother's beau. Jane Heller is a talented writer whose latest work crosses genre lines with this lush witty melodrama.

Harriet Klausner