Excerpt from The Magnificent Esme Wells by Adrienne Sharp, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

And one day all that would come to be, but right now, even before I yodeled out "Ragtime Cowboy Joe!", took my hee-haw bow, and shook my scarf like a pair of reins, I knew I'd made a mistake. I hadn't given my audience what it wanted. It wouldn't be a mistake I'd make often. Mr. Siegel clapped and winked at me with one of those amazing blue eyes, but it was only to be polite, because when he wasn't being a sociopathic killer, he always displayed the exquisite manners he learned from his fancy lady mistress and his Hollywood friends. He was not enthusiastic, and even at age twelve, I could sense that. I hadn't given him what he wanted. But by the time Las Vegas was finished with me, I would be exactly what he and everybody else wanted. Exactly.

From the book: The Magnificent Esme Wells by Adrienne Sharp. Copyright © 2018 by Adrienne Sharp. Reprinted courtesy of Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.