Lola

A Novel

By: Melissa Love

Narrated by: Roxana Ortega

Length: 13 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

Winner of the John Creasey Debut Dagger Award.

Nominated for the Edgar Award for best first novel.

An astonishing debut crime thriller about an unforgettable woman who combines the genius and ferocity of Lisbeth Salander with the ruthless ambition of Walter White

The Crenshaw Six are a small but up-and-coming gang in South Central LA who have recently been drawn into an escalating war between rival drug cartels. To outsiders, the Crenshaw Six appear to be led by a man named Garcia...but what no one has figured out is that the gang's real leader (and secret weapon) is Garcia's girlfriend, a brilliant young woman named Lola. Lola has mastered playing the role of submissive girlfriend, and in the man's world she inhabits she is consistently underestimated. But in truth she is much, much smarter - and in many ways tougher and more ruthless - than any of the men around her, and as the gang is increasingly sucked into a world of high-stakes betrayal and brutal violence, her skills and leadership become their only hope of survival.

Lola marks the debut of a hugely exciting new thriller writer and of a singular, magnificent character unlike anyone else in fiction.

©2017 Melissa Scrivner Love (P)2017 Random House Audio

Yes

nice twist!

It was nice to flip the script... female hero, female villain, maternal undertones, family dynamics, and just some good ole gangsta shit!

Eye opener

I thought this was good! I'm super naive and it was very eye opening. The narrator was interesting.

Review from Boyle Heights

How the F did she get it all right? Right pace, good story, great characters.

I didn't connect with it.

Perhaps it's my age (69), but the story didn't touch me. And the book isn't meant to be anthropological study, so it doesn't interest me.

A Brown Woman's world

Great great read. With drama and cunning this story spoke volumes on so many levels

Loved this book!

I loved this book! I found myself sitting in the car longer just because I didn't want to stop listening...one time up to 20 min longer! It's not my normal genre so took a chance and was so happy I did!

Edge of my seat

I literally was poised on the edge of my seat at points in this book, as this young woman fought for her life in a world that just didn't care if she lived or died.

There's a series out on TV called "Queen of the South" that I wouldn't be surprised if the heroine wasn't modeled on Lola. The story in the TV show is very different than the story in the book, but the young woman is the same, so brave, so smart and so ruthless when she must be. Lola, a young woman with no advantages, no help, no education except the education of the street and necessity; this girl takes control of any situation and just makes it work to her advantage. She also has a heart. This book has so much conflict and danger and action in it that the most jaded of action book junkies will like it. At the same time it has a heart, and it touches on the contrast of the lives lead by the recent immigrants to our land vs. the first immigrants and the social stratification still felt in our largest cities.

Roxana Ortega does a terrific job in narrating this book. She strikes a perfect balance in setting the tone of the heartless gang leader and the schoolgirl who wants a family and the young woman facing sure and certain painful death at the hands of a drug cartel. Great job!

Please- a sequel soon!

I LOVED listening to this book- loved LOla and her gang and want MORE. Awesome

Events and actions were predictable.

Nothing was surprising. I had a hard time staying interested.

This book feels like a description – not a story. It tells what life is like for the leader of a small Hispanic gang in LA. Sometimes the leader must kill people. Sometimes the leader must punish followers. The gang leader in this story happens to be Lola, a 20-something woman. She does the same things a man would do as a gang leader.

This book was missing things that make a good story: interesting and surprising events to move the plot, interesting relationship development among characters. It was missing engaging characters I wanted to read about. It just plods along. I was bored.

I bought this because the marketing blurb said it is “an astonishing crime thriller about an unforgettable woman who combines the genius and ferocity of Lisbeth Salander...”

My opinion: No, Lola is not like Lisbeth Salander. The backstory says Lola’s drug addicted mother pimped Lola (providing sex to men) as a way to get drugs. That was briefly mentioned, vaguely referred to, with no details or dialogue. It did not have the punch of Lisbeth’s back story. In Lisbeth’s story there is dialogue from evil doctors and a kind nurse as well as details about unusual and shocking things happening. Now as a gang leader Lola does a couple of smart things but that does not make her into a Lisbeth.

The plot: The cartel tells Lola’s gang they must intercept a drop/pickup. When things go wrong, the cartel plans to kill Lola. Lola takes steps to make things right.

AUDIOBOOK NARRATOR:
Roxana Ortega did a good job. I was pleased that I did not hear her breaths - good editing. I’m not sure how I feel about her on and off again Spanish accent. Her normal narrating voice was nicely generic American but it was disconcerting when she would switch to a Spanish accent for foods and other words.

DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Story length: 336 pages. Swearing language: strong including religious swear words. Sexual content: one scene vaguely described. Also there were several references to female children being pimped to men for sex. Setting: current day Los Angeles, California. Book copyright: 2017. Genre: crime suspense thriller.

Wrong Narrator...

Absolute wrong narrator for this book. Little to no gravitas. This book was supposed to feel tough and dangerous... it did not. Also i didn't believe the situations. Couldn't make it through two hours.