The Book Club Queen suggested that if any of my blog (or other readers) read Milk Money, they could stop by her page and rate the book. If you read and liked Milk Money, feel free to rate it using a star system here.

Also regarding the First Wild Card book that I toured via my blog entitled Lost In Las Vegas; I’ve finished the book and am now posting my review for it. My thoughts? Well, I felt the writing was aimed at the middle-grade reader more so than the high school reader. Carter House has five or six? high-school-aged girls living together. DJ, the main character in this book, is the grand-daughter of the woman who runs Carter House. Also, DJ is a resident in the house. This book is part of a series, but I had a hard time following the story, and I guess it’s because I didn’t read the books in the series that were published before this one. There were too many girls to keep straight in my mind, but it was easier to know who was who during the second half of the book since the second half mainly focused on two girls: Taylor and DJ.

Also, I had a hard time understanding why these girls are living together at Carter House. The living arrangement was a foreign concept to me. Usually, when I hear of such an arrangement nowadays with minors it’s usually one of the following:

1. A group home where the kids have mental, emotional or physical problems that their families are not able to handle.
2. Orphanage (which you don’t really see that much anymore in the U.S. – we seem to use foster homes more so than orphanages)
3. Boarding School

None of these examples seemed to apply to the Carter House Girls. I suppose the living arrangement was explained in one of the earlier books. The “grandmother” who runs the house doesn’t really have much control over the girls and they pretty much do whatever they want. It appeared they were living in an unsupervised environment and were basically raising themselves. I think I could have understood the living arrangement more if the girls were living in a dorm and going to boarding school (like the eighties television series The Facts Of Life.)

I didn’t really feel as if I knew the characters very well. I knew DJ was a Christian, but I didn’t really feel as if I knew her or the other girls. However, this may be because I didn’t read the other books in the series.

I think kids might be able to learn a great lesson about the dangers of drinking if they read this novel. However, I felt the second half of the book got kind of tiresome after awhile because scene after scene DJ kept repeatedly pleading with Taylor to stop drinking as the twosome lurked in clubs, bars, and cabanas.

I’ve enjoyed other Melody Carlson books more so than this one, but middle-graders will probably enjoy this story. Also, when you read it, I’d suggest buying all of the novels and reading them in order so that you don’t feel so lost when reading the later novels. I felt that Lost in Las Vegas was just a small slice of a much bigger story.

Changing the subject, I want to announce that my January Book Giveaway winner is:
Gayla Collins – Sheridan, WY

~Cecelia Dowdy~