The Extraordinary Life of Lara Craft (Not Croft)- Lola Salt

[LauraBambrey]

Who fancies a New Year holiday? What about a bit of travelling, including sun, sand, sex and stars? Well then, I’ve got the perfect book for you! (You didn’t think I was giving away a holiday there for a nanosecond did you?)

The Extraordinary Life of Lara Craft (Not Croft) is the perfect way to escape the January gloom. The plot is fun, silly and unpredictable as Lara travels, delivering packages whilst trying to find herself and run away from her mistakes and heartbreaks.

The authors (Lola Salt is the pen name for two bestselling authors: Sarah Alderson and Becky Wicks) play with stereotypes delightfully, employing almost every romance and chick-lit trope in the book, whilst giving each one a delicious twist and amping up the characters as far as they will go. It’s as over-the-top and camp as Lara’s diamante-studded riding crop (don’t ask- you’ll just have to read it for yourself!) but that’s why I loved it.

Lara isn’t a particularly lovely heroine- she’s rude, ridiculous and far too raunchy for that- but she’s also fearless and a lot of fun to spend time with. I found myself relaxing into her never-dull company and sad when the story came to an end. As you know, I have a no-spoiler policy here, but I can promise that the ending is also pretty perfect.

If you’re up for (thoroughly!) suspending your disbelief and going on a whistle-stop tour of the world via some very naughty encounters with some very hot men in the company of a feisty heroine, then this one’s definitely for you.

I'm going to give this one three stars out of four - to hit the four, some of the characters would to have needed a bit more rounding out- but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book at all.