OK, but don't run to buy it (Running Away from Richard - Chris Manby)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	Running Away from Richard - Chris Manby
Date:	26/06/09 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Light, girly read, has some funny moments

Disadvantages: Boring in places, slow start, whiny main character

I really enjoy Chris Manby's books and the latest one I've read is 'Running Away from Richard' which is a sequel to 'Lizzie Jordan's Secret Life.' I did read 'Lizzie Jordan's Secret Life' not so long ago, but I don't think there is any need to read that one before this, if you don't want to, as this is a story in its own right, and apart from a few of the same characters, the stories don't really overlap.

A week before her best friends Mary and Bill get married, Lizzie Jordan gets dumped by her long term boyfriend, Richard. Richard was an artist and the announcement that he was leaving her for a glamour model who had posed for him has rocked Lizzie's world. While Lizzie just feels like curling up and dying, she is getting little sympathy from Mary, who is currently in full bride-zilla mode.

Once Lizzie has managed to get through Mary's wedding day (with the help of copious amounts of alcohol) she makes the decision that she is going to move to LA to seek work as an actress. This is a decision that shocks even Lizzie herself, but she did spend two years training as an actress, but hasn't actually had any work, so feels this could be a stepping stone. Also, secretly she feels that it will be a way of winning Richard back, as in this case time does not seem to be a healer.

So off she heads to LA, to live with her old flatmate Fat Joe, and his new flatmate Brandi, also an aspiring actress. When Lizzie arrives though, not only is LA very different to how she expected it to be, but so is Joe, who is now a woman! Will Lizzie ever achieve her dream of becoming an actress, and will Richard ever want her back?

~What I thought~

Like 'Lizzie Jordan's Secret Life' I found this novel quite hard to get into, and started reading it a few times and gave up before finally making my way through it. I must say though, once I did get into it I managed to read through it quite quickly.

I already knew the character of Lizzie from the previous book, and again I found that she still had a habit of feeling very sorry for herself most of the time. In this particular book, as she whined over Richard leaving her, I struggled to have sympathy for Lizzie, as I suppose I never really liked the character of Richard to begin with, and couldn't really understand why she was in love with him in the first place. Also, I felt that the whining went on for far too long, and there was too much of the self-pitying stuff, which became boring after a while.

The twist with Fat Joe was not one that I saw coming and was quite interesting and added a bit of light entertainment as we saw him struggle to embrace his new identity.

There were twists and turns in the novel, most of which happen quite far into the novel so I won't go into them too much, although I must admit, I saw a lot of them coming a mile off.

Although I think I've been quite negative throughout this review, on the whole, I must admit this wasn't all that bad, and is still quite a readable book, with some fairly entertaining parts to it - although most of these come in the latter half of the novel, so I feel I can't say too much without giving the plot away.

As a Chris Manby fan, I'm glad I've read this, but I don't think it was one of her best novels and my copy will be off to the charity shop now. If you're a big fan you will probably find this a reasonably good, light and girly read, but for everyone else, I wouldn't recommend running out to buy it.

Summary: An OK read for Chris Manby fans