Sallie Coleman follows her dreams from Texas to Las Vegas, where a twist of fate makes her the richest and most powerful businesswoman in Nevada. Spanning more than half a century, this story of Sallie and her family begins Michaels's powerful Vegas trilogy that marked the return of the Coleman family of Texas.
Fern Michaels isn’t a person. I’m not sure she’s an entity either since an entity is something with separate existence. Fern Michaels® is what I DO. Me, Mary Ruth Kuczkir. Growing up in Hastings, Pennsylvania, I was called Ruth. I became Mary when I entered the business world where first names were the order of the day. To this day, family and friends call me Dink, a name my father gave me when I was born because according to him I was ‘a dinky little thing’ weighing in at four and a half pounds. However, I answer to Fern since people are more comfortable with a name they can pronounce.
As they say, the past is prologue. I grew up, got a job, got married, had five kids. When my youngest went off to Kindergarten, my husband told me to get off my ass and get a job. Those were his exact words. I didn’t know how to do anything except be a wife and mother. I was also a voracious reader having cut my teeth on The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Cherry Ames and the like. The library was a magical place for me. It still is to this day. Rather than face the outside world with no skills, I decided to write a book. For some reason that didn’t intimidate me. As my husband said at the time, stupid is as stupid does. Guess what, I don’t have that husband any more. Guess what else! I wrote 99 books, most of them New York Times Best Sellers.
Moving right along here . . . Several years ago I left Ballantine Books, parted company with my agent, sold my house in New Jersey that I had lived in all my married life and in 1993 moved to South Carolina. I figured if I was going to go through trauma let it be all at one time. It was a breeze. The kids were all on their own at that point. The dump was a 300 year old plantation house that is listed in the National Registry that I remodeled. Today it is beyond belief as are the gardens and the equally old Angel Oaks that drip Spanish moss. Unfortunately, I could not get my ghost to relocate. This ghost has been documented by previous owners. Mary Margaret as we call her, is “a friendly”. She is also mischievous. It took me two weeks to figure out that she didn’t like my coffee cups. They would slide off the table or counter or else they’d break in the dishwasher. I bought red checkered ones. All are intact as of this writing. She moves pillows from one room to the other and she stops all the clocks in the house at 9:10 in the a.m. at least once a week. When the Azaleas are in bloom, and only then, I find blooms on my night stand. I have this glorious front porch and during the warm months I see my swing moving early in the morning when the air is still and again late in the day. She doesn’t spook the dogs. I always know when she’s around because the five of them line up and look like they’re at a tennis match. As of this writing we’re co-habiting nicely.
Most writers love what they do and I’m no exception. I love it when I get a germ of an idea and get it down on paper. I love breathing life into my characters. I love writing about women who persevere and prevail because that’s what I had to do to get to this point in time. It’s another way of saying it doesn’t matter where you’ve been, what matters is where you’re going and how you get there. The day I finally prevailed was the day I was inducted into the New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame. For me it was an awesome day and there are no words to describe it. I’ve been telling stories and scribbling for 37 years. I hope I can continue for another 37 years. It wasn’t easy during some of those years. As I said, I had to persevere. My old Polish grandmother said something to me when I was little that I never forgot. She said when God is good to you, you have to give back. For a while I didn’t know how to do that. When I finally figured it out I set up The Fern Michaels® Foundation.
So I gave this 3 stars ONLY in deference to Fern Michaels, who is a good writer, but I have to tell you that I couldn't wait to be done with these people. With over 500 pages you think there would be ONE CHARACTER that didn't make me roll my eyes at some point. Too mean. Too self-serving. Too weak. To self-important. Too unforgiving. Too many jerks!!! I really need to identify with the characters to enjoy a book. These people got on my last nerve....
This is the first book in Fern Michaels trilogy, Vegas. I can’t say enough good things about this trilogy, or Fern Michaels. So, I’m just going to say, if you don’t read these books you’re really going to be missing out. Also, before you start this trilogy, read Fern Michaels series, Texas. After the Vegas series is the Kentucky series. It’s important, I think, to read all these books in the right order. The whole story will make a lot more sense if you do.
This novel introduces the Coleman and Thornton families that comprise all of this 9 book saga. Sallie Coleman inherited a fortune from an old miner after she moved to Las Vegas and worked in a saloon. She became the richest woman in the state of Nevada, and very powerful. Philip Thornton was her tutor since she was almost illiterate. Though she did not love him, she married him, and life became very complicated for her. Fanny Logan remained in Las Vegas after her bus was hijacked and the man sitting next to her gave her a bundle of money when he was shot. She married one of Sallie's sons, Ash, but he never loved her, and her life was never what she dreamed a family should be like, but Fanny did made her own fortune designing and producing children's clothing. Ash was a pilot in the war and a hero, but he was unhappy with his job at Sallie's bingo parlor when he returned home from the war. The only good things that came from that marriage were four beautiful children. This is a very good saga with many characters and twists to the plot. Be sure to read the books in order so you understand the people, relationships, and what transpires in the families.
** Note: To get the full story of characters & there are many. Read the Texas series 1st. Vegas series 2nd & Kentucky series 3rd ** -- Saw this in some reviews after I already read the Vegas Series.**
This was 1st series/ books I have read of Fern Michaels. They were excellent, kept me right there wanting more. Full of family excitement, drama, death, money from casino, long time friends, tragic things happen and the mother always pulls everyone together. . . Must read in order. I'm going to read the Texas books next. I'm not sure if there is a sequence but some people are in the one that were in Vegas.
Vegas Series Read book 1 - October 15, 2018 / book 2 - October 16,2018 / book 3 -October 17 , 2018.
I know this is an older book but maybe older is better. Have read many Fern Michaels books and series but this one came out on top of the heap. Any book that can make a person laugh and cry not once but many times while reading it has my vote. Please put it on your reading list if you haven’t read it. You will be glad you did.
I love this Vegas series of Fern Michael's l read all 3 books and thought they were wonderful. I couldn't put them down and I'm Lord knows l did lose alot of sleep while reading these . I love Fern Michael's books l think she's a great author. ♥️
I got 7/8th of the way through this book, and just gave up. I'm surprised I made it that far. It was mindless soap-opera drivel ... and not even compelling drivel. Just plain too much drama.
This first of three books starts with the matriarch of the Coleman family, Sallie Coleman. Sallie comes from humble beginnings, leaves home at a very young age, meets Cotton Easter, from my guess an older man who liked Sallie. Cotton dies, leaving his hidden fortune to Sallie. Sallie is on her own to figure out what to do with this fortune. After learning that both of her parents have passed on, and only finding her sister, Sallie starts to make Las Vegas into a town. Buying up land, hiring Asian help, and learning from teacher Philip Thornton, later marrying him, adds to Sallie’s wealth. Sallie and Philip have two sons, Ash and Simon. They both enlist in WW2, and come back alive and successful from their flying missions. Ash marries Fanny Logan not only without knowing her very well, but not loving her. This sets up for a very unhappy marriage, even though they have four children: twins Birch & Sage, Sunny, and Billie. When Fanny and Simon meet for the first time when Simon agrees to take the twins cross country to college, it’s love waiting to happen between Fanny and Simon. It takes Fanny a long time to divorce Ash, and only then will Fanny and Simon be together. But here’s where things get too dramatic. Sallie and Philip have died. Ash wants to build a casino but it’s costing more money than he has. There’s an accident where Ash falls many stories and has a long recovery. Around this time, Fanny wants to marry Simon but Simon thinks they should wait. Since Fanny wanted to get married right then and there, she breaks it off with Simon. Fanny’s kids start taking sides with their father and mother, and Sunny is the only one who stays to help her father with the casino. It all works out in the end when Fanny finally opens the safe with all the treasures Sallie inherited. The casino can be finished and become the most lavish in Las Vegas. A note about other characters in the story that were confusing to me: Sallie finds her brother, Seth. He has a daughter, Amanda, that he doesn’t care for. She has a step son that is hardly mentioned, but not sure if he’s from England? Did he die? Billie Coleman, not to be confused with Billie Thornton, is married to Seth’s son, Moss. He was in WW2 and knew Fanny’s sons. That was how Sallie found Seth. Anyway, Moss wasn’t a very good husband and dies. Billie has two or three(?) children. Maggie, who later as a teenager becomes pregnant with Sawyer, Susan, and Riley(?) who died? But later on in the book it has Billie being mentioned with Riley and Amelia. Billie is seeing a Thad Kingsley who was mentioned a few times, hinting they may become a couple. I’m going to start fresh hoping the second book will clarify characters. As someone stated on the internet, Fern Michaels isn’t a great writer, but a great story teller.
The Texas Rich series left a powerful impression on me as an epic family drama spanning many generations. Though i was excited by the tie in to the original series, Vegas Rich was a bit monotonous, especially when we got to Fannys story - which seemed to be a copy of Sallie’s. Sallie’s at least felt original and fresh, but by the time we repeated the story with Fanny, I started to wish it was over. And the fact that Fanny turned her back on Simon felt unnecessary and rather lame to create such a fissure between two people who saw each other as their destiny. I think the “Rich” aspect is what spoils the story. Sure there were emotional events that involved heart ache and pain, but the constant “throw money at the problem” and leaving in a financial dreamscape was tiresome. I’m too involved now with the Coleman’s and the Thornton’s to not continue with the series, I just hope it improves.
I had no idea this was a series and I had no idea this was a series based on the original Texas series which I have not read. So maybe the characters were developed more in the first series???? I wanted to like the characters but I was confused why they kept making the same mistakes over and over again and why the fact that Simon stole someone's identity to enter the war and became an ACE, that was the end of that part of the story.... no one asked about his tour of duty ? I liked how Sallie became rich and what she did with her money but I did not understand her fully or Fanny... I loved loved loved the friendship between the women and wish there would have been more about the Chinese help... they were always there and doing the work but nothing about the racism they must have experienced was ever mentioned but YES I am going on to the next one... I still like a good family drama
I am at a loss to understand why female authors feel the need to write their females main characters as idiots. I really liked Sallie at the beginning of her story, the same with Fanny. By the time the book was done I really couldn't stand either of them. And believe me this is a long book and it was hard to keep reading it when I had absolutely no respect for either of the female lead characters. I actually think Fanny was even more stupid than Sallie. Sorry but read at your own risk.
I'm not sure I'm going to continue this series. There were very few people in the cast that I found admirable, or even sympathetic. And I already know, from reading the preview of Vegas Sunrise (a bad habit!), that the two characters I was HOPING would get together, do not.
Ms Michaels delivers another great story. Her writing ties the Coleman family of Texas with the Thornton family of Las Vegas. She goes back to when Sally Coleman comes out to Las Vegas and its beginnings. She brings us through the 1970’s with an entertaining story.
An interesting fictional book about a woman who inherited lots of money and started building the town of Las Vegas, Nevada. Cannot give it a five star rating because parts of the book were so unbelievable, but had to keep in mind it was fiction, not fact.
This is a longer read which I love. The characters each have unique personalities that made me want to be in the story with them. I can’t wait to read what happens in the next part of this series.
Not a bad family saga however dragged a bit. Lots of drama, tragedy. This is the first Fern Michaels book I’ve read. I fully intended to continue with the saga but the teasers turned me off. I may try another of her books. Surprised at the high ratings...
This book is hard to put down. I love the characters and the places. The story follows 1 family. Though the ups and down. It starts with the fist generation and follows the next generation as the build a family empire.
What an incredible book! It is like two life stories in one novel. The people and timing of the book are amazing. The way it blends with the other books about the bigger family are wonderful. The three series are a must read.
I enjoyed the storyline. I would recommend this book. I am looking forward to the next book. I think Fern Michaels is an excellent writer and I have enjoyed all of her books.
Re reading. I love Fern Michaels and her 3 book series. Have re read Texas series recently and wanted to start the year off making progress on the Vegas series.