Cassidy LucasRecensioni

I liked the description of the book but there was such a large cast of characters that it became a bit confusing at times and to add to that, a great many of them were just "window dressing" and had really nothing to do with the story. To Dani Sanders, turning 50 seemed like one more disappointment in her life. Her career has come to a screeching halt, her nineteen-year-old daughter with developmental issues is regressing, and Dani’s ex-husband Craig, a fertility doctor worshipped by Hollywood’s elite, is constantly upending her life. Though she doesn’t feel much like celebrating, she can’t say no when her best friend insists on planning a “creative” birthday weekend in wild, wealthy Topanga Canyon. Dani and six of her closest friends gather in the hills above the canyon at “Celestial Ranch,” 18-acres of rugged, wooded mountainside where they’ll spend three days hiking, meditating, and enjoying catered cuisine. They will also indulge in a little bit of a short-acting psychedelic drug, DMT, designed to open their senses and transport them to a higher plain. As the weekend unfolds, they discover that is often the case when "close" friends know too much about one another long-buried tensions, unresolved grievances, and old secrets usually emerge...this leaves Dani to solve or at least come to grips with these issues in her life. Dani and her friends take the drug late at night on an open hillside beneath the stars. When Dani returns from her intense “trip,” she learns that one of her friends has gone missing. Then another one disappears. Soon, Dani finds herself alone on the dark mountainside, seemingly abandoned by the people who are supposed to love her most....or have they somehow been taken from her? Dani asks herself what could she have possibly done to deserve a devastating birthday night like this...and how will she make it to the morning alone? Overall, "interesting" is the best I can describe it. Not bad but not what I really expected either. If you like a twisty and atmospheric thriller about friendship and illusion, you will probably enjoy this one.

Kind of a trashy in a good way read.
The book is actually written by 2 women writing as “Cassidy Lucas” it is a Big Little Lies knockoff but the story is nowhere near as good.
The book is about a bunch of narcissistic, self absorbed, fitness crazy Southern California- specifically Santa Monica not that it really Matters housewives, and their interactions with Zack a gym rat personal trainer at the gym of the month they all belong to.
Of course it also has the 1 New Yorker who is super rich but doesn’t fit in.
Add in the usual liberal fluff of Trump hating and pretending to care about illegal immigrants and you have this book.
The biggest problem with the book is that it really is as shallow as my description but for some reason it is over 400 pages! At least 150 pages of it were completely unneeded.
A fun book again for the beach or a long plane ride.

I found it a little slow to start, but I ended up really liking it. I really disliked some of the characters, but that just makes them more believable.½

The Last Party is Cassidy Lucas's new book.

It's a first read of this author for me. And quite honestly after reading the first chapter, I thought it might not be.

Each chapter is prefaced with a date and a confirmation of whose point of view we're reading. The first chapter introduces Raj (the Drifter). Raj is mentally ill and/or high as a kite. Or both. I finished that first chapter and wondered about what I'd just read. Did I want to keep going?

It was curiosity that had me picking up the book again. The setting is the Celestial Ranch in the Topango Canyon. Seven old friends get together to celebrate Dawn's fiftieth birthday. Okay, friends might be a stretch. They used to have a connection, but something went wrong many years ago. But it's all good now - right?

Each and everyone of the guests is unlikable, dysfunctional and honestly quite cruel. The ranch staff is only Twyla, her husband and a friend of Twyla's who is a psychic. I liked Twyla and that's about it. Everyone else has their own agenda. And the birthday activities? Seriously? I won't reveal them in case you do choose read The Last Party. Bad decisions abound. Peer pressure at fifty.

The connections and behaviour of each and every player was patently ridiculous. I still kept reading, because I simply had to know what the ending would bring. Why did the author give Raj the final pages? And end it the way they did? Why not tie up the loose ends of the group of seven? What happened after the basement?

On looking at the Cassidy Lucas webpage, I learned that Cassidy Lucas is actually the pen name of writing duo Julia Fierro and Caeli Wolfson Widger. Maybe too many ideas between the two? It felt like every last one seemed to make it into this book. There were some good ideas that would have benefitted from focus, instead of so much and so many. On turning the last page, I felt a kinship with Raj - what the heck just happened....½

Fans of Liane Moriarty's books should make room on their shelves for Cassidy Lucas' debut novel, Santa Monica. Set in a wealthy enclave of Santa Monica, we have sex, adultery, secret relationships, immigration issues, an unexplained death and so much more in this propulsive page-turner.

Zack is the sexy trainer that all the ladies in his exercise classes pine after. When he is found dead by his half-sister Leticia, an undocumented worker from Mexico, the book grabs us and never lets us go until the very end.

The story moves back in time five months and we discover that Leticia cleans house for several wealthy families in Santa Monica, including Mel Goldberg, a Brooklyn transplant. Mel's husband Adam wrote a hot screenplay and now they have made the move to Hollywood.

Adam has settled into the Hollywood scene, but Mel misses her business, her friends, and pretty much everything about Brooklyn. She doesn't fit in with the thin, blonde, surgically enhanced women who spend a lot of time at the gym where Zack works. She's a little overweight, and openly speaks her mind on everything, including her politics, which differ from many of the other women.

Her one friend Regina is an exercise addict, and convinces Mel to host an exercise class at her house. Zack is the instructor and he finds himself drawn to Mel, which enrages Regina, who has her eye on Zack. Regina has involved Zack in a shady financial scheme which she hopes will get her out of debt before her husband finds out.

Zack doesn't want anyone to know that Leticia is his half-sister. Leticia works several housecleaning jobs, babysitting jobs, dog walking jobs, anything she can to support herself and her young son, who is disabled after an accident. Zack feels guilty, and tries to help Leticia in any way he can, and he adores his nephew.

All of these stories circle each other until they collide. The juxtaposition of the wealthy Santa Monica residents and people like Zack and Leticia, who scramble everyday to keep their heads above water, is thought-provoking. Leticia's fear of being discovered by ICE agents, deported and having to leave her son gives the reader a window into the daily stress of living with that fear.

The characters here are multi-dimensional. We see their good sides and the bad decisions they make; we root for them to make good choices and cringe when when they don't. When a book gets me that me invested, I know it's good read. There are also some very steamy sex scenes here that will raise your pulse like you just took a strenuous class at the exercise studio.

Santa Monica is a stellar debut, a satisfying mystery with incisive social commentary. I hope to read more from Cassidy Lucas and I can see this as an HBO miniseries, ala Big Little Lies. I recommend it, I read it in one day as I couldn't put it down.