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A review by jenpaul13
Lola by Melissa Scrivner Love
3.0
Drug cartels fighting can be an intricate affair for those involved, particularly when each party wants to send a message of their strength and superiority. Lola by Melissa Scrivner Love follows Lola through what might be her last few days as she works to keep herself out of the deadly crosshairs of the cartel.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
The Crenshaw Six is a gang in South Central Los Angeles looking to make their mark in the region, drawing themselves into the battle between the resident drug cartels. With Lola's man Garcia appearing to be the leader of the Crenshaw Six, the real leader, Lola, is able to piece together important information by playing the role as a submissive, occasionally battered, woman. With her life of the line for a botched drug deal, Lola needs to figure out where the heroin and two million in cash disappeared to, and fast. With her cunning and strength, Lola manages to uncover the truth behind one of the cartels in her attempt to survive.
As a portrayal of the intricacies of gang hierarchies it was refreshing to see an acknowledgment of the ability of a woman to be a powerful leader. Lola is a strong, intelligent character with enough vulnerability to make her feel real and Lucy is similarly strong and precocious in the situations she finds herself in with Lola (although perhaps a little too precocious and helpful to be entirely believed); however, the other characters presented are more surface-level depictions of a stereotype serving a purpose in Lola's life. For a crime story, this is a decent read that is rather entertaining, as long as you don't look too closely at some of the details, which should have been researched a little more thoroughly to retain some realism and characters who could have been fleshed out a bit more.
*I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
The Crenshaw Six is a gang in South Central Los Angeles looking to make their mark in the region, drawing themselves into the battle between the resident drug cartels. With Lola's man Garcia appearing to be the leader of the Crenshaw Six, the real leader, Lola, is able to piece together important information by playing the role as a submissive, occasionally battered, woman. With her life of the line for a botched drug deal, Lola needs to figure out where the heroin and two million in cash disappeared to, and fast. With her cunning and strength, Lola manages to uncover the truth behind one of the cartels in her attempt to survive.
As a portrayal of the intricacies of gang hierarchies it was refreshing to see an acknowledgment of the ability of a woman to be a powerful leader. Lola is a strong, intelligent character with enough vulnerability to make her feel real and Lucy is similarly strong and precocious in the situations she finds herself in with Lola (although perhaps a little too precocious and helpful to be entirely believed); however, the other characters presented are more surface-level depictions of a stereotype serving a purpose in Lola's life. For a crime story, this is a decent read that is rather entertaining, as long as you don't look too closely at some of the details, which should have been researched a little more thoroughly to retain some realism and characters who could have been fleshed out a bit more.
*I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.