Since coming across Little Black Dress books a few months ago, I have often been surprised and impressed by the quality of the storylines. This could sound insulting to LBD and the writers of the books and I don’t mean to be. As I have written about before, I had preconceptions before I read the books and this has led to these expectations occasionally being met or in the case of this particular book, the expectations have been well and truly surpassed.
In What’s Love Got To Do With It? By Lucy Broadbent, as with other LBD books, there is romance. And, again as other LBD books, there is a theme. The theme in this instance is gold digging. Bella Spires travels to LA, not to be an actress, or a somebody, but to marry a rich husband. Don’t look at her too badly though, as this is a gold digger with a heart. And a past.
In fact this is one of the reasons why I enjoyed the book so much - because of Bella and the impact of the past on her character. She wasn’t a 2D, paper-thin person. She had had a rough childhood with both her parents dying and a string of foster parents. It becomes clear why she wants to marry a rich man, and you can’t blame her. I believed in Bella and found her one of the strengths of this book.
The pace of the book moves fast as we cover several years from when she first goes out to LA. Because of this we are not over powered with detail, but I liked that, it avoided any predictability and also threw up a few surprises.
I suppose my only complaint about the book was the blurb on the back cover. Why they had to give the game away and say who she marries, when this doesn’t actually happen until two thirds of the way through the book, I really don’t know. This is nothing against the author however. In all I found this a great debut.
Rating: 4/5
Like this? Try One Night Stand by Julie Cohen
