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Thursday 11 July 2019

The Winner's Circle by P J Colando

A huge lotto win isn't an original storyline, but a half-billion lotto win is a shedload of money. A little obscene, some would say. So, I was intrigued by how this would pan out. 


Regrettably, I was never going to like Bonnie, one of the main characters: "Bonnie regarded a fur as entry level for a millionaire."..."Who needed lipstick and fresh makeup when a mink coat caressed?" It's true, you know: it takes fifty dumb animals to make a coat and only one to wear it. In this case, the dumb, brainless air head is middle-aged Bonnie, who co-wins the Boffo Lotto, news she shares instantly with her two best friends (Fran and Jackie), who consider they're entitled to decide how the money should be spent, inflation to the church funds and overseas travel high on the list. 

I was promised hilarity, but the sides of my mouth didn't twitch once. Sadly, I found it all boring and slightly irritating. Too much repetition caused me to sigh rather a lot. After nearly twenty occurrences, I won't be sorry if I never hear the word 'copacetic' again. (No, I didn't know what it meant, either). 'Crapola', 'hell's bells', and 'holy crap', were also over-used by the same amount. There is a plethora of very expressive swear words to use (I can suggest many), there really isn't a need to exhaust a small selection. 

It was hard to engage with any of the characters…at the end of the day I discovered nothing about them. How come Fran was newly married late in life? How did dim Bonnie find once-married Carl? Why was Jackie's son such a wimp? There are back stories here that needed to be told. 

The author is without doubt very articulate, but the style is a bit 'dense', which meant some unnatural, heavy dialogue. Sometimes less is more and simpler language makes for more relaxed reading. 

With sincerest apologies to P Colando, this isn't my book of the year.

AMAZON UK
AMAZON US


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