Tina's Reading Books

This book had potential to be better than it was. I like this author's voice, I really do. It is a bit irreverent and very smart. This book only had glimpses of that irreverence & smartness which is why I think this book could have done better.

The basic story is that Pasha Markovitch is a Russian boxer who lives in London. He needs sponsorship to go on to bigger and better things in the sport but his lack of British citizenship is preventing that.

Lily Asare has just had her life savings stolen by her boozing, gambling wastrel of a father. Without it she can't start her own business and she currently absolutely hates her current lech of a boss.

Pasha's father has a solution. Lily marries Pasha so he can become a citizen by marriage. And he'll pay Lily the money.

So this becomes a rather murky MOC story.

I rather liked Lily and Pasha together but I felt so many other elements of the story competed (too successfully, imo) with the romance. For one thing both Pasha and Lily each have a set of frightful parents. And their dysfunctional relationship with their respective parents take up some rather hefty real estate in the book.

I generally like messy relationships amongst characters in books. Feels more life-like. People don't behave like book characters do, so when I see book characters behaving like real people I like it. In this case it had the effect of coming off as rather disjointed and a little non-cohesive.

It may sound like I did not like this book. I did. I actually did whip right through it. But I think my rating and review in reflecting a comparison to other works the author has done and this book feels just a little not up to her normal standards