All the Beautiful Girls

 

All the Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J. Church 352 pages

 

The intro on the dust jacket lured me into treading this wonderful novel:  “Amid the glamour and swagger of 1960s Las Vegas, when the Rat Pack ruled the town, a spirited woman tries to conquer her past---and finds unexpected fortune, friendship and love.” They had me at the Rat Pack. Vegas must have been something back then, when Sin City really was Sin City.

 

This book spans three decades, the 1950s through the 1970s,

 

In the 1950s Lilly Decker grows up in Salina, Kansas. Eight-year-old Lilly has just lost her parents and her only sister in an auto accident. She is going to live with her mother’s sister, Aunt Tate, and her husband, Uncle Miles. Aunt Tate is cold and withdrawn from Lily. Uncle Miles can’t wait for Tate to retire so he can sneak into little Lilly’s bedroom. Only the arrival of her menstrual cycles forces Miles to leave her alone.

 

Lily seems to have a benefactor who she calls The Aviator. Readers don’t get a close look at this character until near the end of the novel. The clue we are given is that he was the cause of the accident that killed her family.  I like that bit of mystery in Lilly’s life.

 

Then Lilly takes dance lessons that are paid for by The Aviator. Here she finds solace and comfort. Plus, she’s very, very good at it. When she turns eighteen, she moves to Vegas, and changes her name to Ruby Wilde.  

 

Ruby is gorgeous with the kind of body men lust after. She had high hope of becoming a troupe dancer, but her looks land her jobs as a showgirl across Vegas She spends her night as a showgirl, wearing the mile-high headdresses, five-inch heels and costumes made from feathers and rhinestones. As glamorous as Ruby once thought the profession was, she did not expect to have to entertain men between shows. She wasn’t expected to have sex with the, just lead them spend more money in the casinos.

 

Ruby finds friendships with three other women as she learns to traverse the glittering Vegas Strip. They are there for her, and each other.

 

There are several surprises that begin in the last third of the novel that made me gasp---and stay up later than I should have, reading. All the Beautiful Girls receives 5 out of 5 starts in Julie’s world.