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.