Hassie Calhoun: A Las Vegas Novel of Innocence

Lovely and talented Hassie Calhoun arrives in Las Vegas to make it as a singer. Her beauty immediately opens doors at the Sands Hotel, but that beauty draws her into a dangerous relationship with her brooding lover, Jake, and attracts the attention of the powerful Frank Sinatra. Like the goddess Persephone, Hassie finds herself torn between the darkness and the light the two men offer. Jake is her personal Hades, whose love borders on obsession, and Hassie's innocence keeps her from recognizing the dangers that she invites.

With her innocence and identity on the line, the road to stardom puts Hassie in several compromising situations. Cory offers a deceptively sophisticated look into the life of an ambitious young woman during the era of the Rat Pack, whose very passions impede her dreams in a way that many women could secretly relate to.
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Written by Pamela Cory, Hassie Calhoun, the first of a trilogy, is a gripping tale of a 17 year old girl from Texas who left home to make it as a singer in 1960s Las Vegas. Striking out at the start, she talks Jake, the manager of the Sands Hotel, into hiring her as a waitress in the Copa Room. Her world then starts to change.

I liked Hassie as a character, though she was incredibly naive and made one mistake after another. Endearing her had me turning the pages in anticipation, to see if she would finally leave Jake or to see what she was doing with Frank Sinatra, or more importantly, to see how she fared. Her situation with Jake was troubling, he being manipulative and abusive, and I kept waiting for Hassie to awaken from the spell he had put her under. Jake was a great villain, one that, unfortunately, a lot of women have seen before in their own lives, and one that I kept inwardly screaming at Hassie to stay away from.

It was a wonderful tale, and one that was written well enough that I felt transported to Rat Pack-era Vegas. I look forward to the future releases in this heartwarming and heart-breaking trilogy, and cannot wait to see her story unfold further.

4 Stars

You can buy Hassie Calhoun here at Amazon.com.

This book was provided by the author for an honest review. The opinions in said review are entirely my own.