A successful Web designer, forty-year-old India has a fabulously hip life in Denver and a sexy Irish lover in New York who jets out to see her on bi-weekly visits. The long-distance romance suits India just fine: Though Jack is the only man who has ever made India feel truly alive, she doesn’t want things to get too serious. But then her father passes away, and India must honor the promise she made to him: to look after her mother when he’s gone. Suddenly India finds herself back in Colorado Springs with the woman who both intrigues and infuriates her. Eldora is sixty something and exquisitely gorgeous, but her larger-than-life personality can suck the air out of a room. True to form, Eldora throws India a curveball, insisting that they hit the road to look for India’s twin, Gypsy, a brilliant artist who lives a vagabond’s existence in the remote mountain towns of New Mexico. It looks like India can’t avoid her mother’s intensity any longer, especially after she discovers stunning secrets from Eldora’s past. Thirty years ago, Eldora regaled her twin girls with glamorous stories about her days as a Las Vegas showgirl– stories of martinis and music at the Sahara, back when Frank and Sammy ruled the town. But the story of how she really ended up in Sin City, and the unsavory life she’d run from with her daughters in tow, is full of details she’s never seen fit to share–until now. As mother and daughter sail down Route 66, the very road Eldora drove those many years ago, looking for Gypsy, while passing motels, diners, and souvenir shops, Eldora must relive a lifetime of memories that have tormented her before she can put them to rest once and for all. . . . Award-winning author Barbara Samuel brings us a heartfelt story of second chances and unexpected detours. As two women come to terms with themselves and each other, the past unravels and the future spreads out before them like the open road. With her rhinestoned, cat's-eye sunglasses, traffic-stopping figure, and smoldering sexuality, India's outgrageous mother, Eldora, drives her nuts, so she's not exactly looking forward to driving her to Las Vegas, where the recently widowed 63-year-old is determined to revisit the scenes of her wild-and-crazy youth. Their Thelma and Louise -style road trip in Eldora's vintage '57 T-bird has another, more pressing mission, however: India's schizophrenic twin, Gypsy, is missing. As they follow Gypsy's nomadic wanderings through the Southwest from one homeless shelter to another, Eldora unburdens herself of the shameful secrets of her past with a capital P , but the more Eldora reveals, the harder it is for India to conceal a secret of her own. Her long-distance romance with the dashing Jack Shea has encountered a serious complication, and India's newfound insights into her family's past threaten her future happiness. An engaging storyteller, Samuel excels at creating memorable characters through crisp dialogue, evincing a poignant humanity and a sublime sensitivity for the fragile nature of complex family relationships. Carol Haggas Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved PRAISE FOR BARBARA SAMUEL Lady Luck’s Map of Vegas “Lady Luck’s Map of Vegas is my favorite kind of novel–a fun, fabulous, fast-paced story that takes me right to the heart of what it means to be a family. A magical road trip . . . a pair of unforgettable women on a quest to understand their own lives . . . and a drop-dead gorgeous man looking for love. What more could a reader want? This is a complex, beautiful, and moving story that will resonate with you until long after you’ve finished the final pages.” –Kristin Hannah The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue “A compelling emotional portrait . . . Samuel’s writing is a gift to readers, her voice, a demand for us to feel everything in our lives and to meet it with courage. . . . Samuel has crafted a truly luminous novel.” –Contra Costa Times “Barbara Samuel’s writing is, quite simply, splendid. . . . These women are as familiar as your next-door neighbor and as exotic as the goddesses who archetype their lives. Samuel soars with genius in the humanity of her storytelling.” –BookPage A Piece of Heaven “A deep and wise love story . . . Mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and daughters–there’s something wonderful here for every reader.” –Jo-Ann Mapson, author of Bad Girl Creek and Along Came Mary “Barbara Samuel is irresistible. She writes compelling, poignant stories that will touch the heart of any woman.” –Susan Elizabeth Phillips BARBARA SAMUEL is the author of several novels, including The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue, A Piece of Heaven, and No Place Like Home. She lives in Pueblo, Colorado, with her two sons, where she is currently writing her next novel. Visit the author’s website at www.barbarasamuel.com Chapter One India The sun is setting over Pikes Peak when I get home Tuesday afternoon. The play of pink light is as delicate as a teacup, so beautiful that a muscl