Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen

The author of The Luxe series has begun a new series set about 30 years later. Bright Young Things opens in late spring of 1929, when best friends Letty and Cordelia have finished the school year and are ready for new adventures in the world. While their guardians may have plans for them, the girls have different ideas. Living with her strict aunt and uncle, Cordelia is convinced her father is the famous bootlegger Darius Grey who currently resides in New York. Letty wants to be a singer and knows New York is the place to be. So the two sneak out of their Union, Ohio town and take an eastbound train to New York City.
Everything, of course, does not go according to plan. Barely a full day in New York and Letty and Cordelia get in an argument and the two separate, Cordelia to find her father and Letty left to be alone and fend for herself.
Letty is not left alone long, thanks to a worker at the speakeasy she just visited and so Letty gets a job as a cigarette girl. Cordelia does find her father and is quickly (and easily) accepted into the family fold, which includes older brother Charlie, who is dating socialite Astrid Donal.
Astrid, whose mother is on her third marriage, is a privileged young woman who stays out all night and sleeps til noon and uses her charms (and pouts) to get Charlie to do what she wants. She really does love Charlie (so she claims) and it's a very tense relationship with a many break ups and reconciliations but they do care about each other. Astrid takes to Cordelia right away and Cordelia is pleased to have a new friend, since she doesn't know what has happened to Letty.
Letty is getting along all right and has met a very kind young man, Grady Lodge, who takes her out and shows her the city. Letty also acquires Good Egg, a greyhound whose racing days are over. When Cordelia and a young man she meets (and is expressly asked not to spend time with) return to the club where Letty works as a cigarette girl, Letty can't stand the idea of not being a success as Cordelia is in her new clothes and with her posh gentleman friend. So Letty gets up on stage and belts out a song but before she and Cordelia can be reunited, Cordelia is whisked away.
What I found predictable about this book are the bad turns of events that were so obvious to me (and perhaps it has to do with reading Godbersen's Luxe series and knowing there's always going to be something to bring the story down) that I just wanted her to get to that point. I will say it ended on a better note than some of The Luxe novels, so I'm hoping this series might have a better ending than the other one. I can't help it, I like happy(-ish) endings. I didn't think Bright Young Things was as engrossing as The Luxe books, but I don't doubt that the story will pick up in the next title (as I'm sure there will be a next title as there are too many loose threads to end the book just as it is, not to mention the impending collapse of the stock market in October of 1929). Though I wasn't as hooked as with previous Godbersen books, she can certainly tell a story that teenage girls will love to read.