What a fun read! As a long time visitor to Las Vegas and fan of Princess Diana, I couldn't wait to read this book. Crissy Dowling performs as the Princess in the theater of the fictional Buckingham Palace Casino and has created a good life. When her estranged sister, Betsy, and newly adopted 13 year old niece, Marissa, arrive in Las Vegas to live while Betsy begins work for a cryptocurrency company, things get a little complicated. The crypto company is mixed up with conspiracy, spies, and corrupt police and congresswoman. Betsy and Crissy are pitted against each other to take the fall for murder, but Marisa is one step ahead of the bad guys.
I so enjoyed this story in the land of lights, tributes, and excess. Crissy was an interesting character as she became Diana every night on the stage but the line between the two began to fade. She had her own addictions to overcome, but found a way to coexist with her sister and newly favorite niece. Marisa was a foster kid and Betsy adopted her. I found her character smart and edgy. The crypto guys were part of a crime family and were shiny on the outside, but mean and deceptive on the inside. The ending had me smiling.
If you are looking for an entertaining and engaging mystery story, I highly recommend The Princess of Las Vegas!
Thank you Net Galley and Doubleday Books for a complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are my own.
#ThePrincessofLasVegas #NetGalley

Chris Bohjalian’s “The Princess of Las Vegas” is a character driven suspense thriller that mixes cryptocurrency, celebrity impersonators, gangsters and Russian spies in Vegas. The primary main character is Crissy — a likable girl from Vermont who is comfortable doing a Princess Diana cabaret show at a second rate casino (the Buckingham Palace), but who isn’t perfect. She’s a loner, has had her own drug and rehab issues, but is content in a cabana by day and a showroom by night.

Things change when her estranged, lookalike sister, Betsy, abandons a social worker job back east and arrives on the Strip following a guy named Frankie (now there’s a mob name if ever there was one) along with a recently adopted, whip smart 13 year old girl, Marisa. At the same time, the two owners of Crissy’s casino just “coincidentally” committed suicide days apart, and Frankie’s new crypto company just might want to buy the place.

As much as Crissy would like to just be left alone to continue her tribute show, too much is changing around her and she gets caught up in the dysfunctionality and chaos her sister has brought. Betsy has her own story that she just can’t control either.

Bohjalian builds a fast-paced story, a house of cards that’s ready to tumble on both sisters. We get a first person POV from Crissy and a third person POV on Betsy. Marisa adds her insights (and eventually her talents) at the end of each chapter. The plot was complex and the supporting characters were true to form (spy, mobster, killer, flunky, lecherous old guy, corrupt politician). This was my first Bohjalian novel and I loved it! 5 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Britt the Brit has deep green eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO One of the first things that Betsy notices is Vegas’ utter lack of vegetation.

Thank you to Quaker Village Books/Doubleday and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Crissy, a Las Vegas strip Princess Diana impersonator, and her estranged sister, Betsy, are entangled in an intricate web of organized crime, cryptocurrency, and family secrets.

I was quickly drawn into The Princess of Las Vegas by the conflict between Crissy and Betsy. The family secret that led to their estrangement was intriguing. I also found the tidbits about the tribute entertainment industry interesting.

The complex storyline about the shady cryptocurrency scheme involving Betsy's boyfriend and others takes a little while to get moving. Once it does, the pace picks up. I expected more suspense to be associated with it though.

My favorite character was Marisa, Betsy's 13-year-old adopted daughter. The chapters with her diary pages were insightful and often humorous. Marisa is the most logical of the women.

The Princess of Las Vegas is a good choice for fans of character-driven thrillers.

3.5 stars

Las Vegas is rife with tribute shows, and visitors can enjoy ersatz versions of Mick Jagger, Frank Sinatra, Janis Joplin, Prince, Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Lady Gaga, the Carpenters, and more. In that group of entertainers, Crissy Dowling is unique because she does a tribute show to Princess Diana. Crissy looks remarkably like Diana, and though Crissy grew up in Vermont, she's perfected a posh British accent......which often creeps into her everyday speech.

Crissy has a residence at the Buckingham Palace Casino (BP), a less than stellar venue that's 'off the strip', where high rollers DON'T stay. Still, Crissy's show - in which her Princess Diana tells stories and sings tunes by Petula Clark, Dusty Springfield, and Bonnie Tyler - is VERY popular. In fact many fans see the show multiple times and send Crissy gifts.

Conversely, in her real life, Crissy is a mess. Crissy had a difficult childhood; her stepfather committed suicide; she's semi-estranged from her younger sister Betsy; she recently lost her mother; she's bulimic; and her adulterous senator boyfriend has decided to go back with his wife. Crissy copes with her situation by drinking and popping pills like Adderall and Valium. In fact, there's not a minute in the day when Crissy is stone cold sober. Nevertheless, Crissy is fairly happy with her situation since she has a satisfying job, a decent apartment in the BP, a personal cabana at the BP's pool, and people she can rely on. Crissy's friends include Nigel Ferguson, who plays Prince Charles in her show; and Eddie Cantone, the entertainment director at the BP.

Unfortunately, Crissy's situation is now threatening to go downhill. A consortium called Futurium, which deals in cryptocurrency, is determined to buy the BP. Futurium is really a group of gangsters who'll do anything to get their way, including murder. Futurium arranges for the death of BP's owners; buys corrupt cops, lawyers, and judges; and has plans to get a 'friendly' politician elected as a senator. In a roundabout way, this nefarious project involves Crissy.

Crissy's sister Betsy, who's just adopted a 13-year-old girl named Marisa, decides to move to Las Vegas with her boyfriend, a Futurium investor called Frankie Limback. Crissy is less than thrilled to have Betsy living nearby, and things get even worse when Betsy - who looks almost identical to Crissy except for her hair - gets drawn into a scheme to impersonate Crissy and benefit Futurium.

The novel is compelling, kept my attention, and made me eager to see how things turn out. My major criticism is that Betsy, who's an educated social worker, is rather naive with respect to Futurium. On the other hand, Betsy's adopted daughter Marisa is a computer prodigy and math whiz who has her head screwed on right.

I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to fans of suspense novels.

Thanks to Netgalley, Chris Bohjalian, and Doubleday for a copy of the book.

i’ve loved every book by Chris Bohjalian that I’ve read, so I was very excited for this new book, The Princess of Las Vegas. I didn’t care that the subject matter wasn’t particularly of interest to me. I’m not a huge “royals” follower and I have no interest in Las Vegas or in gambling. And I don’t understand cryptocurrency either. But it was a CB book!

Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I found the story kind of boring until about two-thirds into the book. I didn’t care about or like the two main characters, Chrissy and Betsy. I did, however, love the character of Betsy’s adopted daughter, Marisa! That 13-year-old had some serious tech skills!

Once the story got really rolling, it went pretty quickly, but I found it a bit predictable. Too bad. Here’s hoping the next Chris Bohjalian book I read will be more to my liking!

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Last year, I read and reviewed Chris Bohjalian’s The Lioness, and gave it four stars. In 2021, reviewing Hour of The Witch, I wrote “I admit it: I have been a big fan of Chris Bohjalian, ever since I read Midwives several years ago. I consider Mr. Bohjalian one of the most reliable authors I read regularly, and I always look forward to his books…Hour of the Witch (2021), Red Lotus (2020), The Flight Attendant (2018 and BTW it is WAY better than the TV series), The Sleepwalker (2016), and The Guest Room (2015) have all been 5 star reviews for me. And OMG The Sandcastle Girls was one of my all-time favorite books. So I was really looking forward to reading his latest, The Princess of Las Vegas, which I received from Doubleday Books and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

TBH, I started this one several times, and kept setting it aside in favor of some other shiny new book that came my way…but this past weekend, I settled in and read the whole thing – once I got into it, it was GREAT! At first, it was just a story about a young woman named Crissy who left Vermont, and now lives in a casino hotel in Las Vegas where she has a residency performing her show — a tribute to Princess Diana. It felt like it wasn’t grabbing me…YET. Crissy is a complicated woman. She has a sense of humor about her life, noting “There was something dark and sad about living in n a second-rate casino, a mutable world that wobbled between the faux ostentatious and the very, very bleak.” And she knows her audience: “Most of the people who come to my show are between the ages of fifty and embalmed.” Bohjalian captures the environment perfectly, referring to “…the raucous tumult of the slot machines, and the incessant burble of conversation, laughter, and applause that is the white noise that marks a casino.” Referring to other performers at various venues in town, “They were all struggling, trying desperately to stay afloat in a business where most people drowned.” (Wow, can Bohjalian WRITE!)

Crissy’s sister Betsy arrives in Vegas, arriving with her almost-divorced boyfriend and newly adopted thirteen-year-old daughter, Betsy and her boyfriend have jobs with a new crypto company that has come to town, looking to move the casino they are about to buy into operating based on crypto, and soon the whole story starts branching out into areas including crypto, mob hits, organized crime, and the fraught relationship between Crissy and Betsy. Throughout, there are so many lines that just grabbed me “…malls are the giant pandas and snow leopards of commerce. They’re going extinct.” WOW.

The story moves along at a fast clip once it gets going, and I was glued to my Kindle for the whole ride. Five stars.

I have such a soft spot for the Royal Family and Las Vegas so reading this book was a no brainer. I love the way that Chris Bohjalian writes, his characters come to life in the page and get into your heart. I loved everything about this story, the twists and turns, the suspense, the setting, the characters..it was wonderful.

Chrissy is a Princess Diana impersonator at The Buckingham Palace casino, just off the strip in Las Vegas. She has been there for years and loves what she does. Her sister, Betsy, moves to Vegas with her new man and her adopted daughter. The sisters have a tense relationship since their mother died, but they try to reconnect. Betsy is going to work for a new Crypto company starting up in Sin City, and that is when the trouble begins. People start dying and both sisters feel the danger.

I loved the idea of a casino called The Buckingham Palace, they really should have one in Begas full of all things British! How fun!!

Another wonderful book from this author, I didn’t want it to end.

Thanks so much to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. Published on March 19th.

A Princess Diana impersonator, cryptocurrency (a topic I’ll never understand), mob hits…who would ever believe these could all be elements in a book? The author does a good job of weaving these themes together into a believable story!

Bohjalian is a master of suspense and twists and turns, and The Princess of Las Vegas had them all in spades. The characters that the reader was "supposed" to love were flawed in the most sympathetic ways, and the bad guys were convincingly terrible. I would have liked to see the storyline of Marissa fleshed out a bit more and there were a few threads that seemed to get wrapped up a bit too neatly in the climax chapter, but overall, it was a page-turner, it kept me engaged, and it gave me just the right amount of "insider" Princess Diana factoids.

Wow! I was not ready for this book! I thought it would have been a lot more about Diana but this book was FILLED with twists, turns, and so many great characters! I truly felt transported to Vegas! Chris Bohjalian has a way with words!

I couldn't put this book down! I was blown away at the story telling in this book and was SHOCKED at the ending!

As a long time Chris Bohjalian fan, I am always looking forward to his next book. I think all of the current events, combined with a plot around cryptocurrency, (something I will never understand) made this not quite the book for me. I really enjoyed the sisters and their complex relationship and wanted more from that. I did fly through the second half of the book when things picked up. 3.5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for access to this arc.

The Princess of Las Vegas is a novel by Chris Bohjalian, the New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant and The Lioness. It is a thriller that explores the lives of a Princess Diana impersonator and her estranged sister, who are involved in a complex plot of organized crime, cryptocurrency, and family secrets on the Las Vegas strip. The Princess of Las Vegas is a novel that combines suspense, drama, and humor, and takes the reader on a thrilling journey through the world of Vegas, crime, and crypto. It is enjoyable, and it will attract fans of Bohjalian and thrillers in general. It is a novel for readers who are curious about the topics of Diana, Vegas, and cryptocurrency.

The Princess of Las Vegas is a fast, entertaining read written with Bohjalian’s typical lyrical and flowing style. Set in Las Vegas with elements of cryptocurrency, the mob and tribute impersonators, the plot is unique. The setting is almost another character in the story and the twin sister relationship added depth to the characters. Themes of personal identity, greed, obsession and corruption are reflected throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for the opportunity to review this title in return for my honest review.

I always enjoy a novel by this author, this one included. Whenever the mob is involved in the story, you know there will be lots of backstabbing and death so, in that sense, the plot was predictable. The cryptocurrency angle and the tribute performer were interesting additions. This was an easy, hold-your-interest kind of story with a predictable but satisfying ending.

Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday/Penguin Random House for the ARC to read and review.

Disclosure: I received this book as ebook and audiobook review copies via DoubleDay (netgalley) and from PRH Audio book influencer program. I loved reading parts of the book, Bohjalian's writing is great, and appreciated the multi narration in the audiobook but particularly how Crissy was narrated.

The Princess of Las Vegas is a deftly written book that for me captured a slow but steady sense of unraveling and uncertainty... The Vegas setting, the really interesting idea of being a Diana impersonator but also having an identical twin and a complicated twin relationship (there for me is a LOT to unpack with that who theme), the growing number of dead bodies, the political twists and turns, the darker side of Vegas and politics and money. It's all in here and it's a slow burn sense of unease blurred through a lens of self medication and alcohol and related struggles.

I really liked a lot of the way, for me, complex and layered themes on identity, obsession, and greed came together in a unique way. Crissy and her Diana impersonation, her personal struggles, her unhealthy relationship with her sister, the unsettling uncanniness of her niece, the sense that she is on the sense of possibly losing sense of who SHE is while waking up to what's happening around her.. Crissy is one of the most captivating, though not overly likable, characters I have read in a while and I applaud her character development and the depth of her story.

This is so well-crafted, don't let a slow pace trick you at the start, this story will grab you and pull you in... the plot shakes up the reader just as some interconnected stories with dead bodies, politicians, and a twin sister come together to completely shake up Crissy's life.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

It's been awhile since I have read a Chris Bohjalian novel. The last was Midwives quite a few years ago. I was listening to a podcast and this book came up. It sounded so interesting.

This was a super fast read. The story was well thought and and put together. Some of it was a bit far fetched so I just rolled with it. A lot of the "bitcoin" stuff went over my head.

If you want something fun to read on the beach, pick this one up.

This was actually my first foray into Chris Bohjalian's works - but as a fan of the royal family, the description of the book intrigued me. I am so happy that I have now discovered a new must-read author!

The Princess of Las Vegas centers on the story of two sisters, who look alike - and both startlingly look like Princess Diana. One has used that similar appearance to her benefit, headlining a show at the Buckingham Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The other remained in Vermont, becoming a social worker - at least until she begins dating a man who works in the financial industry. With her new adoptive daughter in tow, she follows him to Las Vegas, where he is working with a crypto company.

What soon follows is a riveting unfurling of past lives, political corruption, and murder mystery. Bohjalian kept me engaged from the very first page, all the way to the final page.

This novel is well written with excellent plot and character development. Bobjalian is an excellent storyteller.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Bohjalian has written books I've throughly devoured, but this one was a complete miss. This story was inventive but maybe a bit too much bordering on just weird. Not the read I thought I'd be experiencing based on past reads by this author.

Thank you, Doubleday.

Reality comes crashing down on a make-believe princess.

In the late summer of 2022, Crissy Dowling’s life is in a relatively good place. She has a very successful Las Vegas cabaret act at the Buckingham Palace Casino in which she portrays Diana, Princess of Wales, that is continually sold out months in advance. The BP, as it is known, may not be A-list, but among Vegas impersonators Crissy is very much top drawer. When one of the owners of her casino dies, an apparent suicide, it is a bit worrisome careerwise - but otherwise life continues as normal. Soon, however, dead bodies start piling up (including Gene, a recent hook-up which Crissy had hoped might have become more than temporary). Crissy’s estranged sister Betsy announces that she and her newly-adopted teenaged daughter are relocating from Vermont to Las Vegas with her new love interest Frankie, a financier now involved in a start-up cryptocurrency firm. The Princess of Las Vegas, as Crissy is known, had been managing her life and her two shows per night pretty well (with the help of the occasional little pill, but no one is perfect), but all of this chaos is rocking her world. Especially when the police think that she might be involved in the deaths. What’s a princess to do?
With a setting in Las Vegas, characters that range from a Lady Di impersonator to a teenage hacking prodigy to a firm of crypto fincoms who may be tied just a little too closely to an organized crime syndicate known as Mastaba (think The Mob 2.0), author Chris Bohjalian has created a collection of quirky folks about whom it is fun to read. There’s clearly some drama in Crissy and Betsy’s background which is slowly revealed, and which ultimately explains at least in part why Crissy has chosen to pursue a life pretending to be someone else, and why she and Betsy are no longer close. One of the most vivid characters for me was Marisa, the teenage girl adopted by (former) teen social worker Betsy who has been plucked from Vermont and immersed in the glamorous but wildly irregular world of Las Vegas. I would have liked to have seen a bit more dimension in some of the other characters, particularly the bosses at cryptofirm Futurium. (Truth be told, I didn’t really understand the cryptocurrency world before reading this novel, and still don’t despite Mr. Bohjalian’s efforts to explain it). There just wasn’t a lot of nuance to the villains, and there was some reliance on stereotype in their makeup (they were bad, guns are bad, they all had guns). Still and all, The Princess of Las Vegas was an entertaining read….as one of the characters says, have there ever been two more perfect bedfellows than casinos and crypto? We can all relate to people who want to escape from their lives to something better, and rely perhaps too much on luck to make it happen. Fans of Mr. Bohjalian’s previous novels, especially The Flight Attendant, will enjoy his latest outing, as should readers of Ruth Ware, Rachel Hawkins and Lisa Jewell. Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House/Doubleday Books for allowing me early access to The Princess of Las Vegas.

When you pick up a Chris Bohjalian book, you never know what genre it will be. Mr. Bohjalian writes historical fiction, horror, suspense, psychological thrillers, domestic thrillers. He is not pigeon-holed into a specific genre. This novel has mystery, thrills, bitcoin and cryptocurrency (which I will never understand, no matter how patient the teacher), Vegas and Russian mobsters, family secrets and strong female characters. The beginning of the book dragged a little for me (and the words.. did he use a thesaurus?) but halfway through the book took off.