The Divorce Lottery #1: Vegas by Caty Callahan is a love story about a guy who thinks he knows it all and a girl devoted to her grandmother.
10 out of 10 stars. Loved every moment. Read it twice in one sitting.
For a very long time now I’ve been a huge fan of Caty Callahan’s lottery series. They’re wholesome romance novels that are safe for teenage girls to read. For me, it’s about the romance, actual romance where a man woos a woman and goes to the ends of the earth for her. This is one of those novels.
Tad Ingersoll comes from a big family of successful businesses. He owns a huge ranch sixty miles away from Walnut Ridge but his Uncle Mack, the mortician for Walnut Ridge and the patriarch of their huge family, tells him he’s got a better shot at being called and getting a bride if he enters the Walnut Ridge lottery instead of his home town lottery in Winterset. Therein lies the problem with this couple from the start because Blue Bennett only enters the lottery when she’s assured Jacob Alexander’s name will be drawn first and she’ll be able to stay in Walnut Ridge to take care of her grandmother.
Like all good plans, this one goes horribly awry. Tad isn’t the only Ingersoll to enter the lottery; his beautiful cousin Annette enters too and catches Jacob’s eye. One minute he’s in love with Blue; the next he’s drawing Annette’s name and walking off the field with her, leaving Blue for Tad. As difficult as it is leaving her grandmother, Blue does and eventually falls for Tad, but he’s always busy and she feels more and more alone. He promises to take her to see her grandmother and breaks that promise again and again until she finally goes alone. Then their love story becomes a tragedy. She doesn’t know that she’s pregnant and she miscarries. And her once loving husband refuses to forgive her.
All of this happens in the first act. The second act is about Blue’s new life in San Francisco and Tad trying to find her. She makes new friends and he changes–he grows up. The third act is the divorce lottery, a three week marriage therapy session the Brennanmen put together that takes place in Vegas. The aim isn’t actually to divorce people but to enable them to fall in love with each other a second time.
10 out of 10 stars. I loved it. There are no good or bad guys here, just people making mistakes some big some small.
Reviewed by Colleen
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