Customer Reviews

Best Bet: A Novel (The Hallie Palmer Series)

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4 star:		(4)
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Hallie Palmer is all set. After the graduation party, she'll move in with her boyfriend and work as a graphic designer. When she's summoned to the dean's office, though, and told she cannot use her psychology class for both science and social science credit, all of her plans come undone. She could still move in with her boyfriend and take classes at the community college, but there's a chance to get college credit flying around the world and dropping wallets. Her boyfriend is not in favor of the world-flying. He'd be even less in favor if Hallie had told him that sexy Jeff is also taking the trip. Still, Hallie really wants to see the world...and isn't quite sure about moving in with her boyfriend anyway.

Author Laura Pedersen takes us on a charming coming-of-age story. Hallie is precocious in many ways, but worries about what she'll miss if she settles in with her boyfriend without really exploring all of her other options. The whirlwind tour of the world makes for interesting reading, as does the abrupt transformation of Hallie's roommate for the journey, Amanda.

Pedersen's breezy style drew me in, and Hallie's supportive extended family (complete with monkey) add a light and amusing touch. BEST BET is a great beach read.

Fabulous Finale

I read BEST BET without realizing there were three books ahead of it in the series (BEGINNER'S LUCK, HEART'S DESIRE, and THE BIG SHUFFLE) but that didn't lessen my enjoyment of the story and especially the characters. And once finished I immediately read the first three in order. Pedersen has amassed a great crew with sparkling wit, plenty of twists and turns, and equal parts wisdom and compassion. The main character, Hallie Palmer, matures as she undergoes a series of adventures and calamities, while the supporting cast watches, adjusts, occasionally antagonizes, and often attempts to help, although they're idea of "help" doesn't always agree with hers. Amidst all the humor Pedersen manages to work in a lot of thoughts on life and death and I was inspired in so many different ways - to live more fully and to have more fun without worrying so much, even when times are tough. Also, it was a nice change to not read about designer clothing and shopping and manhunting. Even though I read the last book first, I still didn't want it to end. The characters are very hard to leave and I feel like maybe they're out there somewhere. I hope so.

This series is a great read for women young and old alike. It's very easy to feel a connection to Hallie and her story, and you will enjoy every page.

Gold Star Award Winner!

When I received this book for review, I wasn't aware that it was the last book in a series. I had always wanted to read Laura Pedersen's books, so I went online and ordered the three previous books before I read this one. I am truly glad that I did. I think I loved this book much more than if I hadn't read the earlier ones, but you can read BEST BET without reading the others and still enjoy it.

This series starts with BEGINNER'S LUCK, and in that book we are introduced to Hallie, a 16-year-old who is the second oldest in a very large family which keeps growing. She wants to escape her life and ends up being a gardener for a rich family in town. She comes to love this very eccentric group of people.

Throughout the books, we get to know her biological family and the people who adopt her. In this installment, Hallie is graduating from college and is looking forward to living in Cincinnati with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Craig. She is called into the Dean's office and is told that through some clerical error (a counselor with Alzheimer's) she will not be able to graduate because she is four credits short.

Because of that problem, Hallie ends up going around the world in four months with a sociology class and a really cute guy. On that trip, Halle learns what life for her is all about. She finds that what she really wants out of life is in her own backyard surrounded by the people she loves most in the world.

I came to really love Hallie. She has a lot of questions about what life is about and what really matters. She is smart and funny and someone I would want in my corner when bad things happen. She has lots of layers. In BEST BET, there is a funny character named Mandy, who is a Mennonite. When they leave on the trip, Mandy is wearing the traditional Mennonite clothing, but as they proceed she becomes a different person, dyeing her hair and wearing very provocative clothing. She is a kick.

I had a great time in Hallie's world and am sorry I can't go back. Thank you, Ms. Pedersen, for giving me such a wonderful summer in these books.

Reviewed by: Marta Morrison

No matter how good you are at gambling, you're going to get a few losses. "Best Bet" tells the story of Hallie and how her first trip out of Cosgrove County where she has lived her entire life. But breaking out of home isn't as glorious as she thought it would be, and not everything in her life can be solved at taking chances, in spite of her extraordinary luck. A story telling the reasons why you can't run away forever, "Best Bet" is an entertaining read that is well worth considering for young adult fiction readers.

A delightful fourth and final book about the rich, quirky life of 21-year-old college student Hallie Palmer. When the story opens, Hallie is days away from donning graduation cap and gown to begin her post-college life when she discovers a clerical error has left her one social-sciences class short. Minutes later, she bumps into Josh, an old crush of hers who tells her she can get the course credit if she signs up with a sociology team (of which Josh is part) to travel the world, dropping wallets containing $20 each, as part of a professor's doctoral study on humanity's global honesty. But if Hallie embarks on this globe-trotting mission, it will throw a jumbo-sized wrench into her plans to move in with her longtime boyfriend Craig and start work at her new job. However, for this small-town girl, the opportunity is too irresistible to refuse and just before she departs, a stung Craig bestows a free-spirit status on them both. While her journey is fraught with food poisoning, an earthquake and various assorted comical conundrums, Hallie must also try to remain in her professor's good graces as well as withstand life with her roommate Mandy, a Mennonite who suddenly morphs into a henna-tattooed siren on the second day of the journey. Wiser for her tribulations, Hallie returns home to her family with eight siblings, her hysterically funny gay friend Bernard, and his perpetually politically correct mother, Olivia, and Craig. What follows is a marvelous ending with a funny domino-like sequence of surprises for Hallie and others. Though the book can be found on young-adult shelves, the story is more than sufficiently sophisticated to grab adults as well. Literary and cultural references add a wonderful depth to the anecdotes and metaphors. The book's laugh-out-loud funny, and readers will find themselves rereading lines just for the sheer joy of it. They may also find that going back to the preceding three books will prove irresistible. A sure bet. KIRKUS

Going through my year-end bookshelves sorting, ( a ritual), I rediscovered Laura Pedersen's four Hallie Palmer novels, and dipping into them, found myself being drawn back into that world she has so vividly created. Hallie's timeless story is suffused with quixotic good humor, and is threaded through with an upbeat and ethical world-view. And, oh, yes ... did I mention ? ... this collection is genuinely funny ! It really is! Just the thing for that teenage niece!

I did not realize this book was part of a series and read this one first. I will have to go back and start with the first book! Best Bet was a very entertaining read. I caught myself laughing at certain points and then cringing at others. You will definitely not be disappointed!

Best Bet is a must read - it's so good! I just recently read the 3rd book in this series and was excited to see that the 4th was out! Hallie Palmer, the main character, is awesome - she's funny, heartfelt...and a great gambler! She's had some tragedy in her life too and has some burdens to bear, but this is a coming of age novel about graduating college and what that means and Hallie comes into her own - even if it takes her a trip around the world to get a little wiser. It's a great read - both serious and funny - and I'm sad that this is the final book! More Hallie!!!! Luckily, I've been reading these books out of order and I still have the first two left to enjoy!

This book was the conclusion of a four-part series. The series covers the life of Hallie Palmer.

In this series finale, Hallie is anticipating college graduation and a new life with her longtime boyfriend Craig, when she learns that she is short a few credits due to no fault of her own. She embarks on a journey around the world as part of a sociology project for school to earn her degree, and learns a little something about herself and the world while she is at it.

Hallie ...more This book was the conclusion of a four-part series. The series covers the life of Hallie Palmer.

In this series finale, Hallie is anticipating college graduation and a new life with her longtime boyfriend Craig, when she learns that she is short a few credits due to no fault of her own. She embarks on a journey around the world as part of a sociology project for school to earn her degree, and learns a little something about herself and the world while she is at it.

Hallie is still a likable character: "tomboyish" and logical, yet quick-witted.

Pastor Costello, whom she secretly gambled with in the basement of the church as a teen, has now taken on a new role in her life. Her brothers and sisters are growing up and moving away to begin lives of their own. Her mother has begun a new life after losing Hallie's father a few years before (in one of the books I didn't read).

Hallie is facing the same question that so many others are facing in this day and age: Is the cost of higher education worth it? In a time when college graduates are finding themselves waiting tables or working in department stores to survive, will the financial investment pay off for her? She may find, as others may find, that sometimes it may pay off in ways that you didn't expect. Or perhaps the education will help you in a career that you didn't have planned.

And often you have to go away to find, just like Dorothy, that "there's no place like home".

There is pretty good character development here. I can "see" the characters in my head, and feel I really know them and "get" them. Some of the storylines and character interactions are a little over the top. The characters can tend towards extreme stereotypes, but the story is enjoyable nevertheless.

I think that I enjoyed this one a little more than the first one. There seemed to be a little more "meat" to it (and less Rocky). However let me note that you do not have to have read any of the preceding books in the series in order read this one.

Not really suitable for younger teens, but a good book for the Young Adult genre.