All the Beautiful Girls

January 1, 2018
After a childhood punctuated by loss and trauma, Lily Decker reinvents herself as a Vegas showgirl, coming of age in Sin City during the late 1960s.When Lily Decker is 8 years old, her parents and older sister are killed in a car crash. Young Lily is forced to move in with her mother's childless, unemotional sister, Tate, and Tate's leering husband, Miles. Suffering the uprooting of her childhood home, her aunt's harsh attempts at discipline, and her uncle's uninvited touching, Lily finds solace in dancing. Lily also locates Stirling Sloan, the man who caused the car accident that killed her family. She finds herself inexplicably drawn to him, and the two form a most unlikely friendship. As the years unfold, Lily's uncle commences physically abusing her, raping her repeatedly for years. When Aunt Tate is made aware of the abuse, she chooses to side with her husband, showing Lily that the only person she can trust is, surprisingly, Stirling, her family's murderer. As soon as Lily turns 18, she high-tails it out of Kansas, buying a bus ticket to Las Vegas, where she plans to join a dancing troupe. She changes her name to Ruby Wilde and leaves a forwarding address only with Stirling. When Lily reaches Las Vegas, the opportunities are not what she expected, and before long, she begins dancing as a showgirl. Once Lily, now Ruby, embraces her new life, Church (The Atomic Weight of Love, 2016), takes the reader on an exciting tour of Vegas nightlife, showcasing the glitz, the excess, the excitement, and the challenges of the Vegas strip. As Ruby explores her new world, she finds herself in exceedingly complicated circumstances, desperate as ever for hope, love, and understanding.A beautifully rendered tale of personal redemption filled with friendship, loss, extravagant furs, and feathery headdresses.

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May 28, 2018
Church’s second novel (following The Atomic Weight of Love) is a stirring bildungsroman that follows a girl from trauma in 1957 Kansas to self-discovery in 1960s Las Vegas. Lily Decker is eight when her parents and sister are killed in a car crash. Her childless aunt and uncle, stern Tate and cruel Miles, take her in. For the next 10 years, Miles sexually abuses her. During that time, Lily forms a bond with the man who drove the car that killed her family, Air Force pilot Stirling Sloan, and, with his support, discovers a passion for dance. After graduating high school, Lily changes her name to Ruby Wilde and sets her sights on the glitter and neon of Las Vegas. Her beauty and talent land her a spot as a showgirl in the Folies Bergère at the Tropicana, and Ruby finds a supportive group of friends. Money and success quickly follow, but Ruby desperately seeks love and meaning. Her deeply dysfunctional relationship with a young Spanish photographer soon proves transformative. Writing elegant prose, Church avoids excessive sentimentality and too-neat resolutions, paving the way to the satisfying, bittersweet finale. Church paints an unflinching, frequently heartbreaking portrait of a resilient young woman’s coming-of-age set against an exciting, glamorous backdrop.

February 1, 2018
Church follows her debut, The Atomic Weight of Love (2016), with the tale of a beautiful Kansas girl with dreams of becoming a dancer. In 1957, eight-year-old Lily Decker loses her parents and sister in a car accident. She's taken in by her cold aunt and lecherous uncle, who sexually abuses her. Ironically, the one bright spot in Lily's life is the man who struck her family's car: a handsome pilot she christens the Aviator. He funds the dance classes that inspire Lily to set out for Las Vegas at 18 with hopes of dancing on a chorus line. Lily changes her name to Ruby Wilde, then is dismayed to find that when she starts auditioning, the men in charge want her to be a topless showgirl. She is ultimately persuaded, however, and soon gets swept up into the glamorous, if risky, Vegas nightlife, being wooed by high rollers and dabbling in speed to keep up with the relentless pace. Though Church lays on the tragic twists a bit heavily, readers will root for winsome Lily.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

February 15, 2018

In her sophomore novel (after The Atomic Weight of Love), Church whisks readers to the 1960s. Lily Decker's family is killed in a car accident when she is a child, and her cold aunt and creepy uncle take her in. The driver of the other car, whom Lily calls "The Aviator," becomes her benefactor, paying for dance lessons. After years of abuse from her uncle, Lily flees Kansas and heads to Vegas to become a dancer, changing her name to Ruby Wilde. Club owners tell Ruby that with her buxom figure and drop-dead looks, she could be a star. Ruby does become a famous, successful showgirl, but the grind becomes unbearable, and she wants more. She falls in love with Spanish photographer Javier, and they head to San Francisco, where the world is changing before their eyes. But when Javier lets Ruby down, she is forced to fall back into the safe arms of The Aviator and reexamine her choices and options from a new perspective. VERDICT Church brings 1960s Vegas to life in this delightful, moving read. Lily/Ruby, two sides of a complex woman, pulls us through her dance of life. And what happens in Vegas stays in Lily's heart. [See Prepub Alert, 10/9/17.]--Beth Gibbs, Davidson, NC

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2017

Church, who won praise for The Atomic Weight of Love, takes a different path with this second novel starring Lily Decker. After leaving small-town Kansas for Las Vegas, Lily remakes herself as the luscious dancer Ruby Wilde. All's fun and rhinestones until a passionate affair with a photographer makes her rethink her life.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.