Customer Reviews

Living the Vida Lola: A Lola Cruz Mystery (Lola Cruz Mysteries)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you dig mysteries, you'll love this cheery, fun read by Misa Ramirez. The writing is bright and fast-paced, Lola Cruz is smart, witty and sexy. The story will lock you in until the last page!

In Sacramento Dolores "Lola" Falcon Cruz earns a living as a private investigator. Her current case involves a missing person, responsible forty-two years old Emily Diggs, who failed to pick up her six-year-old son Sean at his school. Everyone Lola spoke with who knew Emily insists she was a good mother who would never commit a negligent act involving her child especially with what happened to her older son.

However, the inquiry turns ugly when Emily's body is found near the Riverbank Marina. Lola continues her investigation, but changes her focus to uncovering the identity of the killer. Sacramento Bee reporter Jack Callaghan informs Lola that a distraught Emily told him that her older son, Garrett died from wht the woman called a "heart infection" that she believed came from an unsanitary tattoo. Lola remains dedicated to catching the culprit using Jack's tip as a lead by looking perhaps first hand into tattoos and belly-button and other unmentionable body parts piercing.

Never taking itself graveyard serious, this is an entertaining investigative half boiled noir with a touch of romance to spice up the proceedings. Ethical Lola is terrific as a literally and figuratively kick butt heroine who believes she owes her late client so continues her inquiry. You don't know Jack if you fail to understand that what Lola wants Lola gets, which is a killer, even if that mean a belly button or a nipple ring. Misa Ramirez provides a wonderful first case in what looks like the start of a delightful series.

Harriet Klausner

More like Loving La Vida Lola! Fun, fast paced, I love this book and this character. I can't wait to read Hasta La Vista! Excellent, Ms. Ramirez! Bring it on!

Lola Cruz is assigned a missing person's file and this sassy P.I. takes finding Emily Diggs to heart. While investigating Emily's private journal, Lola finds Jack Callaghan's business card. Jack is a reporter for the Sac Bee, is Lola's high school crush, and can dance the salsa like nobody's business (Lola finds out first-hand!).

Emily had contacted Jack about a story, but turned up DEAD before he could return her message. What Lola wants Lola gets, and she's determined to find out what happened to Emily -- even if she has to make a "purchase" at a tattoo parlor to do it!

With a cast of characters you won't soon forget, this page-turner has got it all: Suspense, Humor, and Heart. I highly recommend this book for a great read and can't wait until Misa Ramirez comes out with another in the series!!

Talk about one truly fabulous and "keeper-shelf" read...LIVING THE VIDA LOLA is it!!!

Author Misa Ramirez has created one go-for-the-gusto heroine...but more than that...she's created a family and cast of characters that I can't wait to catch up with again and again in future books in this series.

Luuuvvv Lola Cruz and Luuuvvv Misa Ramirez's voice!

What winners!!!

this is a fun, fast paced, interesting mystery with a great detective. loved it!

This book was such a fun read! I loved Lola's slightly quirky character from the very beginning. She could be your best friend, your sister, or me for that matter about 7 years ago. Or maybe the girl I always wanted to be and could've been if I hadn't let my own steamy "salsa scene" go a little too far and somehow end up married with 3 boys. Lola's sexy Private Investigator persona, and the story itself, was approachable and real without being overdone. Way to go Misa Ramirez! I can't wait to read what or who Lola will do next!

A mild salsa to enjoy with chips, Lola's margaritas and your feet up for a cozy afternoon.

Recently licensed PI Dolores "Lola" Cruz frequents a different part of Sacramento than Karen Kijeski's Kat Colorado, and her family would prefer she work in the family restaurant than take dangerous chances as a detective. But Lola has to follow her dreams even if that means getting nearly run over or worse.

Part mystery, part romance, most of the fire in "Living the Vida Lola" is Lola's yearning desire for her former high school crush--and even that keeps getting interrupted. Still, in the end Lola solves the crime and gets the guy.

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).

This is not a good book

This is suppose to be a story of sexy, witty, smart Lola Cruz, PI. Correct?

Well, first of all, Lola struck me as a poor detective. She has the sassy spunk n' all, but she lacked the intuitive and deductive reasoning skills that come with being a great detective. Maybe I was spoiled with being a "Monk" fan (Monk being the most incredible genius I ever saw with him being able to see things that no other detective saw) but Lola was not even an amateur sleuth. Of course, I am taking into consideration that she is a rookie that just came out of internship, but still. She didn't have it. For crying out loud, she didn't even put the extra piece together about the tattoo parlor until one of her associates did it for her. What kind of detective is she? Oh, and she is supposedly a black belt in kung fu and all that. She talks a big game, but she doesn't back it up.

Second, the whole mystery was a little hard to follow. Mainly because you can't remember who the characters are. Mary? Allison? Bonatee? Muriel? Zod? Who are these people again? (Even now I had to go back to the book to get the names again). This exemplifies that the characters were not fleshed out enough to be memorable. And, on top of all that, I thought the "mystery" in the story was weak and lame. It didn't keep me up all night trying to figure out who done it.

All in all, I found Lola to be unlikable. She was flaky and dumb. Really, she spent the bulk of the book getting all "sexed up" for her Jack Callaghan. C'mon, cool your panties, girl!

In conclusion: This book, the first one in a mystery series, made me realize that I will not be following the PI cases of Ms. Lola Cruz.