When Lola comes home to her parents’ house to find a horde of relatives mourning her death, no one is more surprised than she is. The news had reported that one Lola Cruz, PI was found murdered in an alley, causing great alarm in the Cruz family. Before Lola can say “boo,” a cop comes to the house. It turns out the dead woman had a driver’s license with Lola’s information. Between avoiding an unsavory ex-boyfriend, sorting out mixed signals from the very interested but not yet committed Jack Callaghan, and filling in as a waitress at her parents’ Mexican restaurant, Lola tries to find out who the woman was and why she stole her identity. Was the woman hiding from someone who meant her harm, or is there someone out there who wants Lola dead?
This follow-up to Ramirez’s debut novel, Living the Vida Lola, is a red-hot, fun-filled mystery. Lola, a black belt in kung fu who loves to salsa dance, makes for a sexy, unique, and vivacious detective.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Romance overshadows the crime solving in Ramirez's saucy second mystery to feature Sacramento, Calif., PI Lola Cruz (after 2009's Living the Vida Loca). Lola returns home one evening to find all the members of her close-knit Mexican-American family overjoyed to see her alive. A little earlier, they heard on the news that her body was discovered in an alley behind the Florin Mall. The victim, who suffered a fatal head blow, turns out to be an identity thief, Rosie Gonzales. Lola and her Sacramento Bee journalist boyfriend, Jack Callaghan, learn that Rosie posed as Lola for six months and had even enrolled in Lola's alma mater, Sacramento State. Rosie also left behind a missing child Lola's determined to locate. Also disturbing is a possible link to Lola's slimy ex-boyfriend, Sergio Garcia. Ramirez insightfully explores one of today's more pervasive crimes, identity theft, but hopefully she'll beef up the action in the next installment. Author tour.(Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
In Ramirez’s second novel featuring the feisty Latina detective, Dolores “Lola” Cruz is investigating her own death. That is, she is trying to find out why a woman who stole her identity ended up dead. With sexy reporter Jack Callaghan—her on-again, off-again love interest—by her side, Lola finds out that the other Dolores is actually Rosie Gonzalez, a single mother, whose young son has been missing since his mother’s death. Now Lola’s search turns to finding the young boy, which leads her closer to home than she expected. Fans who fell for Lola in Living the Vida Lola (2009) will welcome her smart and snappy return. The suspense here revolves as much around the will-they or won’t-they romance with Jack as it does with the missing boy and mysterious death, leading up to a shocking ending that ties everything together. --Aleksandra Walker
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I loved the wonderful, full of life character that is Lola. Starting out by walking in on her own wake. Yes - her own wake! And the craziness does not stop there... page by page you fall in love with this fun loving family and everything they bring along with them.
I really picked up on a Janet Evanovich "Stephanie Plum" type vibe in this book so if you are a fan of the great Evanovich series, I believe you will be rolling with laughter at this one as well.
Wonderfully worded and deeply entangled in family, you will not want to put this book down once you dive into Lola's world.
I really picked up on a Janet Evanovich "Stephanie Plum" type vibe in this book so if you are a fan of the great Evanovich series, I believe you will be rolling with laughter at this one as well.
Wonderfully worded and deeply entangled in family, you will not want to put this book down once you dive into Lola's world.
By Nevada
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Lola is one of those characters who stick with you long after you've finished the book. The story was engaging, playful, and kept me glued to the page until I finished. Definitely recommend!
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I am in the process of reading both of the Lola Cruz PI books (I got the second one from the library before noticing it was a second book). While neither of them are bad books, neither are either of them particularly good books. Probably not good review form, but I'm going to cut and paste this review for her other book because my opinion of them isn't based on the plot, but on their derivative and watered down back story. Lola Cruz is a PI with an eye for newspaperman Jack and her boss Manny. She has a nosy but loving mother and a very concerned and involved family who are concerned about the dangerous nature of her career, a career, as other reviewers have pointed out, she isn't terribly good at, tending to stumble into solutions rather than 'detecting' her way through her cases. There is a lot of talk about her underwear drawer, her low cut swishy skirts and thin t-shirts and a lot of steamy 'will she won't she' scenes and wait for it, her boss is somewhat mysterious.
Does this start to sound familiar? Stephanie Plum is the Italian-Hungarian template and Dolores Falcon Cruz, Sophie Metropolis, Bubbles Strohmeyer and probably a half dozen more literary characters are the watered-down Mexican, Greek and I believe Polish (I could be wrong on that) wanna-bes. Somehow Stephanie (and her creator) do it all so much better, tighter, funnier and more readably.
The Dolores story lines and mysteries really becomes who cares...it's all about the bumbling PI and caliente newspaper writer Jack and their attempts to find a place to do what both of them have supposedly been lusting after since high school. Oh and she really wants to figure out what makes Ranger (I mean Manny tick).
Does this start to sound familiar? Stephanie Plum is the Italian-Hungarian template and Dolores Falcon Cruz, Sophie Metropolis, Bubbles Strohmeyer and probably a half dozen more literary characters are the watered-down Mexican, Greek and I believe Polish (I could be wrong on that) wanna-bes. Somehow Stephanie (and her creator) do it all so much better, tighter, funnier and more readably.
The Dolores story lines and mysteries really becomes who cares...it's all about the bumbling PI and caliente newspaper writer Jack and their attempts to find a place to do what both of them have supposedly been lusting after since high school. Oh and she really wants to figure out what makes Ranger (I mean Manny tick).
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In Sacramento, California private investigator Lola Cruz visits her parents' house to find extended family members and friends mourning her death. Apparently, the news reported that the police found her body near the Florin Mall; she had been hammered in the head. A cop arrives at the house to tell the family that their daughter died; as he has a license taken from the deceased with Lola's information on it.
The victim is Rosie Gonzales, an identity thief. Lola and her boyfriend, Sacramento Bee reporter Jack Callaghan find out that Rosie had pretended to be Lola for at least six months. Unable to resist, Lola makes further inquiries trying to learn why Rosie took her identity but apparently did not steal anything financial from her. In between restaurant gigs at her parents place, Lola soon finds a link to her odious former boyfriend Sergio Garcia and that the dead woman has a child missing somewhere in the city who the sleuth wants to find.
The second Cruz whodunit (see Living the Vida Lola) is an engaging Mexican-American mystery with an insightful focus on identity theft. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Lola shows up at her grief "party" and never slows down though the murder investigation takes a back seat to the romance between Lola and noncommittal Jack. Still this is a wonderful tale as Lola's escapades are fun to follow even when the action is low key.
Harriet Klausner
The victim is Rosie Gonzales, an identity thief. Lola and her boyfriend, Sacramento Bee reporter Jack Callaghan find out that Rosie had pretended to be Lola for at least six months. Unable to resist, Lola makes further inquiries trying to learn why Rosie took her identity but apparently did not steal anything financial from her. In between restaurant gigs at her parents place, Lola soon finds a link to her odious former boyfriend Sergio Garcia and that the dead woman has a child missing somewhere in the city who the sleuth wants to find.
The second Cruz whodunit (see Living the Vida Lola) is an engaging Mexican-American mystery with an insightful focus on identity theft. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Lola shows up at her grief "party" and never slows down though the murder investigation takes a back seat to the romance between Lola and noncommittal Jack. Still this is a wonderful tale as Lola's escapades are fun to follow even when the action is low key.
Harriet Klausner
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