Show Pony

A STUNNING DEBUT NOVEL FROM JENNA BUSH HAGER’S THOUSAND VOICES

Four days. Two people. One Las Vegas slot machine. And the kind of luck that changes everything.

At forty-seven, Celine Turner is still dancing. But barely.

A longtime performer in a fading Las Vegas revue, Celine has built a life out of grit, glitter, painkillers, and impossible optimism. She is a single mother to Luna, her beloved five-year-old daughter, and every night she returns to the Palomino casino, where the carpet is stained, the drinks are free, and an old slot machine called “Show Pony” offers the only kind of hope she can afford: the chance, however slim, that one more spin might change everything.

Doug arrives at the Palomino for a corporate conference he planned down to the last branded pen. A devoted husband, father, and HR director with his eye on a life-changing promotion, Doug has spent years trying to become the kind of man other people can admire. But when his carefully managed plans begin to unravel under the neon lights, he finds himself drawn to Celine: bruised, funny, furious, and alive in a way he has never known how to be.

Over the course of a few feverish days, Celine and Doug form an unlikely bond in the liminal glow of the casino floor, where everyone is pretending, everyone is wanting, and anyone might be one moment away from ruin, or glory. As Celine faces the end of the only career she has ever loved, and Doug confronts the emptiness beneath his good intentions, the two strangers become mirrors for each other’s loneliness, desire, and desperate hope to be understood.

Some jackpots you can’t cash out, and some people you can’t forget. A witty and tender testament to the life-altering power of unexpected friendship, Show Pony is about love, luck, and the power of betting on each other even when the odds are against us.