This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
What would you do to find the one that got away?
Andie hadn’t gambled on meeting the love of her life on a holiday in Las Vegas- but when she meets Leon, love suddenly seems like a bet she can win. That is, until the wheel of fortune steps in and separates them during a fire drill. With next to no info on Leon, Andie finds it impossible to track him down- despite staging a series of publicity stunts to get the media in on the act.
Back in Ireland, journalist Andie begins to write a regular newspaper column about her search. Readers love it and a local TV station flies her back to Vegas to take up the hunt for the man she can’t forget.
What starts off as a simple low-budget documentary, spirals into a frenzied national media search. With the world’s most ambitious PR agent on board, Andie becomes a heroine for those who are looking for love.
But does Leon want to be found?
Before receiving this book through the post I checked it out on Amazon and I thought it sounded like a brilliant read. After finishing it in two days I was proved right. The plot, characters and whole theme of the book keeps the reader hooked until the very last page.
The story is centred around Andie who, after a holiday to Vegas, is hung up on a guy she met in the MGM hotel. After she and Leon are asked to pose with a new car in one of the casinos as part of an advertising campaign, they end up sitting and chatting for hours. That is until the fire alarm goes off and they lose each other in the crowd. In typical romantic comedy fashion, Andie is running through the crowds trying to find Leon but to no avail, he seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
When she returns to Ireland her boss finds out about her ‘lost love’ and asks her to write a column about it. Andie initially doesn’t want to but when her evil boss Isolde, threatens to sack her she has second thoughts. After the first few columns have gone to press, a local TV station becomes interested in the item and wants to send Andie back to Las Vegas to find Leon. This is when the hilarity ensues.
Teamed up with moody and elusive cameraman Colm, Andie sets off to Vegas to find her man and not without its fair share of dramas. After almost getting arrested for hijacking an American TV show she manages to catch the eye of Lindy, who is possibly the most ambitious and shallow PR agent. It’s pretty clear from the off that Lindy has other plans for how she wants this whole search to go , as well as harbouring a crush on Colm, who remains steadfastly uninterested in her.
There are a few twists in this book that made me stop and go ‘wow I did not see that coming’, which in my eyes is always a good thing. I won’t say anything else about the various plots as I want you to read it for yourselves, but I will say that this debut by Shirley Benton is well worth purchasing, as she creates a brilliant story with loveable characters.
I’m giving this a 9/10!
Kira x