Hi everyone today I get to share my review of The Extraordinary Life of Lara Craft by Lola Salt as part of the Xpresso Book Tours blog tour. This book was one of my highly anticipated reads as soon as I'd discovered that this book was co-authored by none other than Sarah Alderson and Becky Wicks. Before I share my review of this fun book with you here's a bit about it.
From bestselling authors Becky Wicks (Before He Was Famous, Before He Was Gone) and Sarah Alderson (Hunting Lila, Fated, Come Back to Me) comes a new romance with a difference... After losing her job and her boyfriend on the same day, Lara's beginning to wonder if her life can possibly get any worse. Then along comes Jamie, a childhood friend, offering her a job delivering mysterious packages to random destinations around the world. Suddenly, things are looking up. Lara packs her bags and sets off on an epic adventure, meeting billionaire Arabic Princes in Dubai, rugged cowboys in Australia, a sparkling wannabe vampire in LA, a love guru with sex on the brain in Bali and Angelina Jolie's bodyguards in a hostage situation that can only be resolved with some very special eggs. But though trouble always seems to find Lara, it seems love is rather more elusive. Pack your bags. The adventure's about to begin!
Sarah Alderson has been a fantastic author in the last two
years to me, she’d been able to deliver fantastic novels full with swoon and
fast paced scenes and even try out the NA genre and give us another successful
novel. So when I heard about her New Adult collaboration with Becky Wicks I was
extremely excited to give this book a go.
Our MC Lara really has been having a tough time she’s lost
her boyfriend and job in one day and is barely scraping by on money. It’s a
depressing time as she doesn’t want to turn to her best friend or parents for a
handout, she’d had a lot of fun these past few years, being part of the circus
is not something she expected to fall into, but now with her mum pestering her
about setting her up on a date with some bloke Jamie who she knew when she was
younger, Lara decides to go for it, what else has she got to lose? Lara had
already assumed her date with Jamie to be a flop, so I’m glad that things were
turned entirely on their head. I won’t give too much away about Jamie, but if
you’ve read Sarah’s previous novels, then you kind of know what to expect with
her male love interests. Jamie was also the sweetest guy ever, it was obvious
that he held a torch for Lara, my only complaint was that I wished that Jamie
had been a little open from the beginning and that things didn’t have to end
the way that they did. But I suppose that if they hadn’t done then we wouldn’t
have been able to go on this weird and wonderful adventure with Lara in the
first place. Jamie gets Lara this gig where she’ll be taking packages from one
country to the next, she’ll never know what she’s taking each time, or who’ll
she encounter on the way, but travelling to all these wonderful countries, who
would say no to this wonderful opportunity?
Some readers may have got annoyed with Lara and the
situations she found herself in, you could say that Lara just attracted
trouble. Some of the escapades she found herself in were unbelievable at times,
at times I did want to throttle her, as something bad would always crop up when
the best thing for her (highlight to view spoiler) Jamie was around and
then there were all those things which were mis-communicated wrong in the first
place (highlight to view spoiler) Jamie and her best friend being together, even I didn’t
want this to be the case .Overall however Lara brought a lot
of laugh out loud moments, she was a quirky character who could talk herself
into trouble one minute, but always manage to find a way out. And I thoroughly
enjoyed the whirlwind of fun we were able to experience with her on this epic
adventure. The Extraordinary Life of Lara Craft was a very out there and fun
read from Sarah Alderson and Becky Wicks, but one I’m grateful for giving a
try!
AUTHOR BIO: Lola Salt is the pen name for two bestselling authors: Sarah Alderson & Becky Wicks. Becky has written several non-fiction travel diaries for Harper Collins; Burqualicious, Balilicious & Latinalicious, and the new adult Starstruck Series featuring Before He Was Famous, Before He Was Gone and Before He Was a Secret. Sarah is better known for her Young Adult novels, particularly the critically acclaimed Hunting Lila series (published by Simon & Schuster), as well as the Fated series. She also wrote the new adult romance Come Back To Me under another pen name of Mila Gray. The two authors met in Bali. Come visit us sometime and we’ll buy you a coconut.
13 comments:
You are so right. Lara might need a bit more understanding than usual if I do decide to read this. I'm glad you had a lot of fun with this book!
Great review, Jasprit! This sounds like a hilarious read and any book that can make me laugh out loud while reading is always a winner for me lol! Glad you liked it! :)a
This seems to be the type of cute, fluffy novel I'd crave on a rainy day. Not sure I'll be picking this one up since aspects of it probably won't mesh well with me, but it does seem promising and I always love that Alderson's work is wildly entertaining. Wonderful review, Jasprit--thanks for your honesty, dearest! :)
This sounds like a really cute kind of read, but I'm not sure I will like the whole misunderstandings part of it. I tend to struggle with those in books. But I'm glad you liked it overall though! :)
Lovely review!
I really had no idea that Sarah Alderson was behind this one, but honestly, it doesn't sound like something I'd enjoy. It's not the type of comedy that appeals to me at all, so I'll probably just pass. I have other books by her I have yet to read, ones I'm pretty sure I'll like infinitely more.
Lovely review!
Like you as a recent reader of hers I can't wait to read this one. I've heard so much great things about the humour and the fun adventures of Lara Craft! (By the way on the ending of your review, you put Croft) though probably like you I would do the same. Great review, Jasprit! :)
Thanks for that Emma I didn't realise! In the book Lara is actually always correcting people that her surname isn't Croft! I guess that kind of stuck with me!
This sounds really fun and I think I'll like Lara! Thanks for sharing. :)
Wow, is Sarah Alderson prolific or what? I'm so far behind on her books, I really want to read her other NA title, the Mila Gray (I think that's the right name) one, and now this one is going on the list as well. Plus, I have a few of her YA books to get caught up on! Fantastic review Jasprit!
I still haven't read anything by Sarah, yet. Don't kill me but I'll get to it. But still this book won't be my starting point for sure. Yes it sounds funny, but I don't like books that have deus ex machina moments. So yeah. Still glad you enjoyed it overall. great review, Jasprit :)
I like characters who find themselves always in trouble but it can also get a little frustrating.
Hmmm. This sounds fun and hilarious, but I'm not sure the romance would be for me, especially, as it doesn't seem to be an HEA. Is this the first in a series that you know?
Thanks for this, so glad you liked it! I hope you all get to read it soon! Becky Wicks (one half of Lola Salt)
Post a Comment