Title : Lia’s Guide To Winning The Lottery
Author : Keren David
Publication date : 10 April 2012
Publisher : Frances Lincoln Ltd.
Source : Received from publisher for review. Thank you!
Overall : 3.5/5
Think winning the jackpot will solve all your problems?
Life’s hard for Lia. Her mum is a nag, her sister a pain and the gorgeous but mysterious Raf seems immune to her charms.
When Lia wins £8 million on the lottery, though, suddenly everything is different. But will Lia’s millions create more problems than they solve?
Firstly, a resentful gang of girls at school set up a ‘We Hate Lia Latimer’ Facebook group… that soon has fans in the thousands. Her friend Shazia can’t have anything to do with Lia’s new-found fortune, believing gambling to be immoral. The mum
of her other best friend, Jack, is threatening to sue Lia for what she believes to be his share of the winnings. Raf’s behaviour is
getting stranger and stranger, and Lia can’t help but wonder whether there’s something to the school rumours that he’s not… well, human.
And when her sister Natasha goes missing, Lia begins to wonder if a millionaire lifestyle is all it’s cracked up to be…
When I was contacted by Keren’s publicist, Jessica, to review this book, I had mixed feelings for it, well, mainly because it isn’t chick lit. After weighing the options, I agreed because I really liked the sound of the story. Who wouldn’t want to win the lottery of £8 million? So I agreed and the book arrived when I was on national service, so I had my family to bring it over. My first ever review copy from any publisher, ever! I was so excited. It was a SIGNED copy, so it is priceless! Normally, I wouldn’t opt for YA (young adult) because these days, the only YA books in the market are mostly about vampires and magical sorts. So, hand downs for me on that genre. Surprisingly, I liked Lia’s story. I loved winning £8 million and spending on things I can only dream of.
Lia, what can I say about her? She’s your average teenage girl, who goes to school, fancies the pants off guys and fights with her mother. And gets easily annoyed by her younger sister. I don’t know, but at first it was rather difficult to relate to her. I mean, I get the teen angst and her frustration from her family and school, but I think it’s the culture difference. I would NEVER call my parents by their names. No, I don’t. That’s one thing I didn’t like about Lia, because no matter how badly you get scoldings from your parents, it’s wrong to disrespect them. When the story progresses, I can see Lia’s change of heart. She started being nice to her friends and being less respectful towards her family. I was glad there was a change or else I would have stopped mid-way and splashed on a very bad review (sorry!). I can relate to Lia when she won the lottery because greedy as I am, I too would love to spend and spend on things I like, but I find her really silly for buying friends. I know I’m not to reveal spoilers, so I’ll let you have a read at it.
The flow of the story was pretty smooth, minus the parts where Lia does silly things, like fight with her best friend’s mother and spends thousands of pounds shopping. It was straight-to-the-point and didn’t really bore me with the twists and turns. The characters in the book were really relatable, mainly her best friend, Shazia, who is a Muslim and since I’m Malaysian, an Islamic country, I understand that gambling is in fact immoral and against the Islamic law. Kudos to Keren David for bringing up this issue. Lia’s parents were really down-to-earth and humble, but I found her Mum a bit unfair and rude to spend on Lia’s winnings. After an unexpected twist for the worse, I can say she was a star, being a PR publicist, she really made me like her after saving Lia from a major nightmare. The other thing I would like to write about is Lia’s relationship with Raf, though it might sound really cliche, but normally the girl crushes on the guy for eternity and never has the guts to tell him how she feels. Well, in Lia’s case, they formed a good friendship and later on, their friendship blossomed into a beautiful relationship.
Overall, this book was an enjoyable read for me, even though it’s not your average YA books, but it’s worth reading because there are a useful tips for those who got lucky and don’t know what to do with their winnings. Though this was my first review copy, I was really happy to be considered to review it and I hope my review is useful and hasn’t offended the author or anyone else who found this book highly enjoyable. I would like to thank the publisher for sending me a review copy!
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