Tag Archives: Leigh Parker

Book Review of The Four Gs, by Leigh Parker

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The 4 GsAuthor, Leigh Parker sent me a PDF copy of her newest novella, The 4 Gs. It’s number 13 on my Taking Care of my Own challenge.

Description from Goodreads:
After an incident involving the Chav Triplets, a canal and the police, Dominic Barrett is forced to have 10 sessions of therapy with Jo, an San Franciscan who doesn’t quite seem to grasp the concept of listening.

Review:
This is the sort of book that’s fun to read because of its basic random craziness and sideways social critiques. You simply never know what is coming, but you can sadly relate to the ridiculous ironies once they appear…and can’t help laughing at them either.

True to Parker’s style, the writing is sarcastic and the Northern (Yorkshire) voice readily apparent. It’s always a pleasure to read and this is no exception.

I also really appreciated recognising Alex’s place of employment and one particular dinner scene from the 10 Ways series (which I love). That sort of crossover always amuses me.

Final word: well worth the 90 minutes or so it too me to read.

Review of Leigh Parker’s 10 Ways To Piss Off A Reaper

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Leigh Parker sent me an e-copy of 10 Ways to Piss of a Reaper, the sequel to 10 Ways to Kill a Cupid (which I reviewed here).

Description from Goodreads:
Two years after Leigh’s absurd story, another event occurs involving the volcanic Natalie McIntyre, her life file and the Reaper that’s just pulled it from the Heaven filing system.

To save Natalie from her impending doom, Leigh goes back to Heaven to save her only to be given an ultimatum – pair ten people up in seven days or risk staying in Heaven indefinitely

 Review:

Ok, before I even get into the meat and potatoes of this review let me just say that the author, yes, you Leigh Parker, are cruel, cruel, CRUEL! The third book (10 Ways to Freak Out an Angel) better be done soon or I might go a little Natalie McIntyre crazy myself. This book ends on a serious, nail-biting cliffhanger. There was much teeth gnashing and hair pulling on my part when the kindle wouldn’t go any further and I realised I was at the end of the book. Meany!

Like the previous book, 10 Ways to Kill a Cupid, this book is side splittingly funny. I started the book while sitting in a parking lot waiting on someone and got more than one strange look. For all intents and purposes I probably appeared to be sitting in a car alone, laughing to myself. It has a very ‘English humour’ sort of feel to it that I just love, and not just because of the references to hob-nobs and kievs.

Leigh is just about the most lovable looser you could imagine. I don’t really think Leigh is a looser, but Leigh likes to tell the reader that, so I’ll allow Leigh the title. The self-deprecation is kind of cute. Leigh also must be just a smudge masochistic, ’cause the love for Natalie-the-beast seems real. Natalie is just about as unpleasant as can be, but somehow I really, really want her for my best friend. Granted, she might strangle me or die of disgust at the thought, but still. Once you have her number, like Leigh does, I bet she’d be a lot of fun. 

Parker has pulled off another stunner with 10 Ways to P*** Off a Reaper and I can’t wait to read the third book in the series. Highly recommended!

 

Review of Leigh Parker’s 10 Ways to Kill a Cupid

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I’ve come across Leigh Parker on Goodreads a couple times, so when I saw her book on the Amazon free list back in June I nabbed it. Boy I’m glad I did.

Description from Amazon:
Three years after becoming a Cupid, the normally cheeky and cheerful Leigh has to question her work ethics when her next assignment happens to be the woman who killed her. 

Meet Natalie McIntyre, actually, no, you wouldn’t want to meet Natalie McIntyre, the foul mouthed, anti social Senior Manager at her father’s cardboard box factory who really isn’t in the mood to spend the next 7 days with a weird blonde haired girl who just will not go away. 

Over the course of a week Leigh has her work cut out when she learns that not only is Natalie hell bent on being stubborn, cranky and incredibly hard to pair but the appearance of the blue spark puts everything she’s ever learnt as a Cupid in jeopardy.

Oh man did I laugh while reading this book. The one-liners simply never stop. Yes, it starts off a little slow with Leigh giving the reader the run down on the rules and such of being dead and a cupid. But once she meets Natalie the fun really starts. Yes the language is deplorable. They curse like sailers, but there really couldn’t be a better way to express the supreme frustration of some of the characters. Yes, some of the antics are simply over the top, but if you just suspend your judgement and roll with the punches it is a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it.

I really liked Leigh and Natalie (even though Leigh was possibly the most unlikeable person alive…and really Leigh wasn’t that far behind). They took chunk after chunk out of each-other, but you could relate to their situation. They are the odd couple and stuck with each other. They made the best of it by taking it out on one another. Despite their extreme dislike for each-other their emotional shift was easy to follow and didn’t feel too abrupt. Then the whole thing wrapped up on and incredible AWWW moment. As an aside I liked Sam and God too. I’m just saying.

I don’t usually like books told in the first person, but Leigh’s voice was so conversational (bubbly even…she was a blond) that I’ll make an exception for it. The POV worked well. I’m told that there is a sequel due out by the end of the year (10 Ways To P*** Off A Reaper). I’m eagerly awaiting it’s release and can’t wait to read it.