Title: Buenos Dias Lucy London
Author: Iza MacLeod
Published: 30th May 2014
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Synopsis
British girl Lucy has the time of her life in Buenos Aires. She meets people from all over the world, makes some brilliant friends and parties the night away while trying to learn Spanish by day. It’s not just excitement though. While revelling in the foreign adventure, Lucy soon become mesmerized by the place and a certain porteño. Polo, tango, wonderful food and hospitality … Lucy samples all things Argentine, before briefly stopping at other international destinations on her way home. Though Lucy feels very much at home back in England, she can’t completely let go of her time in Argentina and she needs to decide where – and with whom – her heart really belongs. A tale of passion, romance and the freedom of being somewhere that’s completely different from home.
Review
Thanks to Story Cartel and Iza MacLeod for providing me with a copy of Buenos Dias Lucy London for review.
I was drawn to the story as I love a good romance and, given my love of travelling, I was interested to read about the location, Buenos Aires.
The first thing to mention is that the author has quite a unique writing style. In Buenos Dias Lucy London, the information is almost thrown at the read with very little description, almost as though reading a diary written in the third person. For the first few chapters, I felt almost as though I was being told information (i.e. Lucy went here, Lucy went there, Lucy met a friend etc…) rather than feeling absorbed into her life. However, I quickly became used to this style of narrative and rather enjoyed the unique quality it gave to the book. It also allowed the author to fit a lot of information into a limited number of pages! As the story develops, the reader develops more of an understanding of Lucy and gets more of an insight into her thoughts and feelings, however I did feel somewhat distanced from the characters and I found myself less emotionally involved in the outcome of her two ‘relationships’ until the end of the book.
The main character herself, Lucy London, comes across as quite a flighty and impulsive individual, however she demonstrates independence, strength and a fantastic sense of adventure, which I quite envy.
I enjoyed reading about Lucy’s experiences in Buenos Aires and the people she meets. I also liked that some of the dialogue was written in Spanish, serving as a reminder to the reader as to where she is and the reason that she is there. The story tells of a very different pace of life to what we in England tend to know. I understand that the author has lived in Buenos Aires herself and I think this makes Lucy’s experiences seem believable.
The story follows Lucy’s journey over a period of a few years, although the reader is not provided with an exact time span. It explains to us how her life has changed and developed over that period, through friendships, love, heartbreak and adventures. The story initially runs along at quite a frenzied, however this slows towards the end of the book and the story slowly becomes more clear. It is as though the fast-paced initial part of the book is simply giving the reader a quick run-through of how she came to be at this particular cross-road in her life.
I am aware that with a lot of romance stories, whilst each having their own unique story and charm, the plot line can be fairly predictable. In this story, whilst I thought I knew where the book was heading, I couldn’t quite be sure, and I liked that sense of the unknown.
On a side note, despite this being a romance, and there being a lot of tales of Lucy and her friends ‘kissing’ or ‘pulling’ different men, there were no detailed sex scenes. As such, this would probably be a suitable book for late-teens/young adults.
Overall, whilst I would have preferred more dialogue between the characters and maybe more of a focus on certain key events, I found this to be an enjoyable story – a mix of a travelogue and a romance, interspersed with a bit of humour and a unique narrative style. I am glad that I had the opportunity to read Buenos Dias Lucy London and I will be interested to read another of MacLeod’s books once they are published in order to see how her writing style has developed since this first book.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Buy Links
Amazon UK: Kindle edition – http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KOWZMP2
Paperback edition – http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1505315514
Amazon US: Kindle edition – http://amzn.com/B00KOWZMP2
Paperback edition – http://amzn.com/1505315514
About the Author
Iza MacLeod was born in Coventry, UK and spent three years living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after which she wrote and published her first fictional romance, Buenos Dias Lucy London, partly based on her experiences of learning Spanish in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Iza is 37 years old and recently moved from the south of France, where she lived for eighteen months with her husband, who worked part time teaching foreign languages and came up with the idea for her third book, Katie Cannes.
Before moving to France Iza suffered personal tragedy, which she writes about in her second book, London Raindrops, the sequel to Buenos Dias Lucy London.
She is currently living in Argentina where she hopes to soon finish and publish Katie Cannes and London Raindrops.
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