The JAILBIRD'S JACKPOT

A parolee’s lottery win may bankroll her revenge against the man responsible for her prison stint in this novel.

Five years in the Michigan State Penitentiary have fueled Amy Breeden with vengeful desires. When she tried muscling into Travis Castro’s territory with her pot-delivery service, he double-crossed her, landing her in prison. Once outside those walls, Amy purchases a lottery ticket that breeds good fortune, clocking in at a cool half-billion dollars. She sticks around Michigan and moves in with Veronica, one of her few friends. Amy then sinks her millions into a business she and Ronnie dream up—a plastic surgery recovery spa. As Amy contemplates her revenge, she finds that being rich doesn’t make life any easier. She suffers hapless contractors at the spa, and her freeloading brother becomes an unwelcome, migraine-inducing houseguest. Luckily, her pragmatic but empathetic parole officer, Juan Carlos Hernandez, whom Amy takes to calling “Dad,” dishes out helpful advice. As Amy has the money and maybe even the camaraderie to flourish, she must decide if retribution against Travis is a path worth taking. Colando’s leisurely paced novel follows Amy’s endless business decisions (for example, will Ronnie cut it as the spa manager?). The story aptly spotlights the pitfalls of business that wealth alone can’t fix and how quickly the money disappears before any profits roll in. At the same time, Amy may realize that being successful is revenge enough. Nevertheless, readers get only a hint of the protagonist’s much more intriguing backstory. Amy, for example, lived on the streets, earned an English degree, was a bank vice president, and had a short-lived marriage. Though there’s little humor, calls and texts with Hernandez ease the narrative tension, as he dubs Amy his “favorite parolee.” This quasi-sequel ties nicely to Colando’s book The Winner’s Circle(2019), which trailed another lotto winner.

An engaging hero drives this measured tale about the true cost of vengeance.