Review: Not my favorite Ros Baxter novel, but it was still pretty good
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 2, 2014
What can I say about the protagonist, Lola? At times she was beyond infuriating, going out of her way to be difficult or stubborn. I wanted to reach into the book and strangle her. Other times I found myself in awe of her never-ending drive to help change the world. It made me want to run out and volunteer. As Lola’s family said, “Everyone can make a difference, and together we can change the world.” Speaking of her family, I loved how quirky they were right from the start. Even when I wasn’t really into the novel, I thought her mom and dad were great. Their daughter was getting arrested and yet they couldn’t be more proud of her for standing up for what she believed in. Her sister, Emme, was also a big supporter, although she did so in a loud and not always helpful way. Her best friends, Heidi and Steve, were also a big part of her journey, and it was interesting to see how their lives changed over the 15 years as well.The men in Lola’s life were essential to her story as well. First there was Wayne, her first love, who somehow wanted to be with her despite her intense stubborn streak (or maybe because of it). At first I couldn’t get over his name; petty I know, but I seriously don’t know any attractive people named Wayne. His saving grace is that he was Australian, and I’m a sucker for the accents. He seemed like a nice guy and he obviously felt something special for Lola. In my opinion though, we just didn’t get to know him well enough. We did get to ride along on their first dates and meeting his parents for the first time, through flashbacks, but after they broke up we didn’t get to see much of him. He only popped up when Lola got into trouble, which was about every 5 years. The only other guy she became semi-serious with was Clark. He was nice enough, but he was so strange; I spent most of the middle part of the novel trying to figure out if there just wasn’t any chemistry between them, or he was gay. Something great did come from their relationship, but I’ll leave that to you to find out when you read it.The story did jump around a lot. Sometimes that can be very disorienting and confusing, but author Ros Baxter made an excellent choice of using bold headlines with each new section, detailing the date. Without them, I’m sure things would have been hard to follow.Overall I enjoyed this book, yet I did have a few complaints. The first is that, while the characters were very witty and entertaining, I didn’t get involved with them. As weird as this may sound, when I finish a book I want to feel as though I just lost some best friends. If I truly connect with characters, I always feel a little depressed upon finishing; not completely pleasant, but it lets me know that I felt something for them. I didn’t have those feelings with this book. When I read the last page, I thought, “Huh, that was okay,”, and went about my day, not really thinking about the characters again until I sat down to write this review. The other complaint I have is about some of the dialogue words used. There was one page that contained “he/she sniffed” (in place of “he/she said”) three times. Another one that was used a lot was “purred”, and one time in particular seemed really out of context. The repetitiveness was annoying, but luckily it only occurred a few times throughout the course of the novel.Lingerie For Felons felt more like chick lit to me than contemporary romance; that’s not a bad thing, I just wasn’t expecting it. I liked how the book spanned 15 years in Lola’s life, because it was interesting to see how she changed by the end. The few complaints I had kept me from rating it higher. I much preferred author Ros Baxter’s mermaid novel, Fish Out Of Water, but this was still a decent read.The original review is posted on Parajunkee's View. I gave it 3.5 stars there; on Amazon I always tend to round up since there is no half stars.