Review: Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery by Keren David

Title: Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery
Author: Keren David
Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's  Books
Publication  Date: 4 Aug 2011

Synopsis: From Amazon

Money can’t buy you love. But it can buy many other very nice things. Lia’s mum is a nag, her sister’s a pain and she’s getting nowhere in pursuit of the potentially paranormal Raf. Then she wins £8 million in the lottery, and suddenly everything is different. But will Lia’s fortune create more problems than it solves? Everyone dreams of winning the lottery - but what’s it really like?

Review:

I have to admit I really thought I was going to hate this book after reading the first few chapters. I can hear you all screaming WHY? Well it is because Lia is just so gosh darn awful. She spews acid from her mouth instead of words, she is toxic and toally selfish and self-absorbed. I even had to ask Keren if she did improve or I was going to stamp on the book. She told me to stick with her, and yes she had intentionally made her like this. I am so glad she convinced me to stick with it.

Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery provides great insight into what it would be like to suddenly come into a LOT of money. I am sure we all imagine what we would do with a large lottery win, the houses we would buy, the holidays we would take but have you ever really thought about what you would do to ensure that your financial future was secure. This point was brilliantly crafted into the storyline.

Unfortunately, I hate to say it but Lia is very realistic portrayed, I have been noticing a lot more the type of things girls her age say and OMG they are like that, it must be the hormonal imbalance that makes them evil, lol. It was nice to see Lia's character developemnt through the story via numerous incidents not least  the pie throwing. The way in which the media scrutiny was partrayed was quite scary, although I did think that Lia's mother was a bit shallow I liked the way she used her PR training to manipulate the situation to her advantage.I really liked how Lia was quick to crave normalicy after the worldwind of activity.

The peripheral characters really added balance to the story and WOW was Lia lucky to have friends like that. Lia's father is a lovely calming presence putting no pressure on her at all although you can tell he is stuggling financially with his Bakery in the current econmic crisis. Which I have to say was brutally depicted in the narrative with the closure of shops in the High Street and business on the edge of bankrupcy.

I adored the sarcastic use of the paranormal craze woven into the narrative, it was so so so funny.  Raf's character added another element to the story making you realise just how deceiving first impressions can be. To say I adored him would be putting it mildly.

At first I thought the bold italic writing at the start of each chapter heading was just there to provide ironic humour but the way in which it all came together in the end and tied into the title was amazing.

I am so glad I took Keren's advice and stuck with Lia the character progression from the start of the book to the end was a wonder to behold. I KNOW you will enjoy this as much as I did when you get into it. So don't be afraid of the toxic 16 year old go read it.