Flamingnet Student Book Reviewer  AB_JMajor
Hallie, a high school graduate, needs to get on with her college life and find the road to adulthood. With Craig, her boyfriend, waiting on her to marry him, she has to decide what job offer she wants to take, which may effect her decision on whether or not to marry. Unfortunatally, there has been a screw up with her college courses and she is unable to graduate from college on time. Because of the screw up, her professional life has been put on hold and she has to decide what she wants to do. Many of her friends offer her jobs and one of her frineds, Josh, offeres her a great opportunity, to take a trip around the world. When Hallie decides to go on the trip, Craig says he doesn't want to marry her. At first she is pleased with her decision. She visited places like Hawaii, Australia and even Vegas! Well, you know what they say, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Along with cutting her hair, many other things happened on her four month trip. When Hallie gets back home, she feels lonely knowing that all her friends have lives ahead of them when she doesn't have a clue on where to turn! Hallie realizes that she needs a boyfriend. Hallie knows that she misses Craig. Before the trip, she thought that Craig was just her boyfriend, but when he is gone, she realizes that he is her whole life. She tries just about anything to win him back. Will Craig get on with his life or will he say yes? Read "Best Bet" to find out.

"Best Bet" was a pretty good book. I think this book would be very good for teens that have just gotten out of college and have many roads to travel on. I like that no matter where or what Hallie wants to do, shes always got friends on her side. This book was enjoyable but unlike other books, it wasn't one that I thought I'd never put down. Even though I didn't enjoy this book a whole lot doesn't mean that other viewers won't!!!

Inappropriate doings and use of drugs.

Reviewer Age:12

Reviewer City, State and Country: Boliard, Nokomis USA

Since Hallie's father died and left behind ten children, money at the Palmer household is tighter than ever. And just when Hallie thought she was graduating from college, it turns out she's four credits short. A professor needs one more student for a project that will take her around the world, only longtime boyfriend Craig has another proposition for Hallie.

Thus begins Hallie's great odyssey, for the first time she ventures outside the safety of Cosgrove County and the sixty-mile radius in which she's functioned for her entire life. But somehow, escaping home doesn't translate into leaving behind all of her problems, and, unfortunately, not all can be solved by putting her superior gambling skills to work.

Eventually, it's time to return home to all the good people who are great at driving each other crazy. Hallie must finally face the biggest decision of her life.

Humorous and heartfelt, Best Bet underscores the importance of friends, family, and a sense of belonging. The characters in this modest, but neighborly, small town prove that an ordinary existence made up of small but genuine moments can satisfy a soul that's hungry for life in all of its glories and disappointments.

Laura Pedersen was born in Buffalo, New York (one of "God's frozen people") in 1965, at the height of The Folk Music Scare. After finishing high school in 1983 she moved to Manhattan and began working on The American Stock Exchange, a time when showing up combined with basic computation skills could be parlayed into a career. She chronicled these years in her first book, Play Money.

Having vowed to become anything but a journalist and with no conception of what a semicolon does, Laura spent the better part of the 1990s writing for The New York Times.

In 1994 President Clinton honored her as one of Ten Outstanding Young Americans. She has appeared on TV shows including Oprah, Good Morning America, Primetime Live, and David Letterman.

In 2001, her first novel, Going Away Party, won the Three Oaks Prize for Fiction and was published by Storyline Press. Beginner's Luck was published by Ballantine Books in 2003 and subsequently chosen for the Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" program, Borders "Original Voices," and as a featured alternate for The Literary Guild.

Pedersen's other novels include Last Call, Heart's Desire, and The Big Shuffle.

Laura lives in New York City, teaches reading and trades Yu-Gi-Oh! cards at the Booker T. Washington Learning Center in East Harlem, and is a member of the national literary association P.E.N. (poets, essayists and novelists).