Customer Reviews

Lola Carlyle Reveals All

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

First, let me just say that I am a huge fan of Gibson's works. I've read and re-read everything she has done. So, naturally I was biting my nails waiting the release of this book. LOLA CARLYLE REVEALS ALL sets off at a fast pace, with gorgeous Lola contemplating how she was going to get even with her ex and Max, who was contemplating on how not to get killed. Max, an ex-Navy SEAL, commandeers a yacht after getting himself beat up, but unknown to him is that a sexy underwear model is aboard with her little dog. The two react to each other like oil and water at first, but then, slowly, they start to realize their attraction. The tension builds and they find themselves on an island running for their lives.

What makes this book so disappointing to me is that Gibson's usually outrageous, off-beat heroine isn't present. Lola, though with flaws and a spunkiness of her own, falls short of Gibson's earlier heroines such as Gabrielle (IT MUST BE LOVE), Delaney (TRULY MADLY YOURS) or Hope (TRUE CONFESSIONS). Lola still struggles with her bulemia, is self conscious about her weight and those internet photos. I felt Lola was too staid to be a "Gibson Girl" and would much rather have had Gabrielle out there with Max, even if only to channel the bad energy away from him. As it was, Max was a tough, loner ex-SEAL, bent on a mission and made himself pretty clear as to what he wanted and didn't want in life. I found it too convenient that he gave up his job and wanted children - a turn around from his earlier testimonial. I think if Gibson had them spend less pages on the yacht, more in depth emotional entanglement, that particular about face might have been plausible.

The other thing I found lacking in LOLA was the absence of great secondary characters. Besides BD - the loveable little dog, there were no zany, funny, weird or even interesting secondary characters to speak of. More of a plot driven romance than character driven, the predictibility of LOLA leaves this reader less than satisfied. For those of you who've not read Gibson before, you might not find anything lacking in this romance. For the rest of us, it is less than her best.

Lola Carlyle contains all the expected elements of a good novel by Rachel Gibson - it's cute, funny and sexy. Despite the recipe for success, I was never completely drawn into the story.

Lola is a lingerie model hiding out after being "over-exposed" in the National Enquirer. Max Zamora, a former Navy SEAL, secret agent on the run from a drug czar. He commandeers the boat Lola's snoozing on and much hilarity and sexy scenes ensue.

The problem is, this book is NOT edited well (or at all). I'd just get drawn into the story and a glaring typo or leap of logic would jump off the page and distract me. For example, an exclusive neighbourhood becomes an elusive one, Max says "she was killed before she got to the hospital" and there's the mysterious dis/reappearing binoculars. I don't usually get bogged down in details, but the fact that I did, means I wasn't completely engaged by this book. Although it was interesting having this author set a book in the Caribbean, she does a better job with Idaho as her backdrop.

Once Lola and Max become close, she demands he give up his life in black ops so he can be safe and secure with her. Well, that's nice, but she's just met the guy, he's complained about women demanding he quit his job in his past and here we go, Lola asks too. I thought her demands were a bit presumptious.

I'd put Lola in the same category as "It Must Be Love", a good story with good characters, but somehow missing something. Here's hoping her next is in the same league as "True Confessions" or "Truly Madly Deeply".

After finding out that her ex-fiance has posted her naked pictures on the internet, underwear model turned designer Lola Carlyle needs a vacation to escape the stress and embarassment. So she goes to the Bahamas with her dog, Baby Doll, and while she is sleeping on a friend's yacht it is comandeered by government agent, Max Zamora.

After reading all the negative reviews, I almost didn't read this one but i'm glad I did. I did not think the heroine was stupid, and I did not think it at all unrealistic to freak out over some naked photos of her on the web. Those are pictures that someone she trusted took and she did not think they would become public. Underwear modeling is a little different than pictures becoming public that you absolutely did not want people to see. I thought Lola was a hilarious character with a quirkiness that makes her different from most heroines you read about.

Lola Carlyle Reveals All is a funny, light-hearted romance that is right up there with all of this author's other books.

I am a big fan of Rachel Gibson. I have read and reread all of her previous books. I wont go into the plot as it has been covered fairly extensively in other reviews but if this is your first Rachel Gibson it definitely isnt her best.
Do yourself a favour and pick up her earlier offerings esp Truly Madly, True Confessions & It Must Be Love.

Lola Carlyle didnt seem to have the same "heart " to the story.
The story seemed to be cut short and the tension didnt build between the characters as it usually does. I honestly felt that I had been ripped off, or at the least very disppointed in the story. Dont get me wrong its not a bad book just not as good as she has previously written

Hopefully her next will be back to her usual 5 stars !

I read Gibson's book See Jane Score and loved it! But when I picked up this book, I expected the same enjoyment. I was kind of disappointed. I would not recommend this book. I thought it was predictable and really cheesy.

You know, I almost didn't read this book because, from many of the reviews, you get the impression that Lola is some sort of moronic, one-dimensional bimbo. Well, she's not! She's a woman who is put into some very scary situations and, ok maybe she does one or two stupid things, but who's to say how any of us might react if we believe our lives are in danger? And so what if she gave her dog a stupid name - lots of people are guilty of that. Give her a break! She's a recovering bulimic former model who's ex has been making a fortune off of naked pictures she had allowed him to take of her because she (stupidly as it turned out) trusted him. She's trying to get away from it all on a vacation to the Bahamas when the yacht she is on is "commandeered" by a scary looking, beaten and bruised, very large man. Why is this happening to her and how much more can she take?

Max Zamora is a former Navy SEAL, now a government operative who works covertly on very special assignments where the government needs plausible deniability. This assignment has gone as wrong as it can get! First drug lords capture him, then he is brutally beaten, and in order to escape must kill the drug lord's son and now, on the run, he's commandeered a yacht with a former lingerie model and her annoying little dog on board. He can barely see straight and is still bleeding when she threatens him with a flare gun and winds up setting the engine on fire! Now they are adrift in the Atlantic. Can this get any worse?

They wind up bickering and fighting their growing mutual attraction while waiting to be rescued. Lola starts to trust Max, who begins to show her some kindness and even her dog seems to grow on him. He feels responsible for her and the predicament they find themselves in and promises Lola he will get her home safe. But will bad storms and drug dealers allow Max to keep his promise? And if so, what happens when they get back on dry land - will they ever see one another again?

I just adored Max - he was absolutely yummy!! Lola was likable and I was sympathetic to her continuing issues with her weight and body image and her fear in relation to her experiences adrift at sea with Max. I did not sympathize, however, with her naked pictures issue. Anyone (especially someone in the public eye) in this day and age stupid enough to allow such pictures to be taken just has to deal with the consequences! But she does get her revenge in the end - thanks to Max!

OK, perhaps not Ms. Gibson's best, but still an enjoyable and recommended read.

The incomparable Rachel Gibson is back, but not in her most stellar form. Perhaps the pressure to deliver her wonderful tales faster has sucked some of the life from this story...? The back cover copy promises a steamy adventure full of mishaps that stem from one of a woman's worst nightmares-naked pictures on the Internet!-coming true; however, the story focuses on the hero's race to outwit and outlast his enemy. Lola's secret life-or rather, the unveiling of Lola-is an afterthought. Either Gibson missed the boat (if you've read the book, you'll appreciate the image) on plot focus, or the publisher missed it on the marketing angle. Whatever the case, the book would be more appropriately touted as a hero-focused romance. It doesn't hold a candle to Gibson's best, Simply Irresistible, but it is sexy and fun, and better than many others out there.

KINDLY REFER TO THE AMAZON.COM MASTER SUMMARY BEFORE READING THIS REVIEW.

I have read all of Rachel Gibson's novels. The first two were marvelous, the next two were...less marvelous. LOLA CARLYLE REVEALS ALL, Gibson's fifth book, is almost as good as those first two. Actually, heroine Lola Carlyle bears more than a slight resemblance to Georgeanne, the heroine of that first story.

Within the formula of romance writing, LOLA CARLYLE is extremely well-done. For more than half the book, there are just two characters, Lola and Max. (Okay, and Lola's cute little dog.) Nonetheless, once a reader accepts the premise, the story becomes neither strained nor implausible, and neither does the dialogue.

Gibson has done a great deal of research for this book, and it shows. In fact, the deeper details rival the kind of work that author Nelson DeMille offers, though he doesn't write romances--so, by definition, his stories are more complex.

Still, for the romance genre, Gibson's background research is unique and outstanding. One cannot read this book without learning a little bit about drug smugglers, government enforcement agencies, or modern-day pirates in the Caribbean. The biggest flaw in this book is that the information offered about Lola's career as a New York-based top fashion model is far more superficial than the crime subplot.

Everything considered, LOLA CARLYLE REVEALS ALL is a terrific read!

Rachel Gibson is an author I enjoy, but this is not one of her better books.

I enjoyed Gibson having a female lead who showed her vulnerabilities and needed the male. It was refreshing not to have Miss Independance like in every other romance novel that's afraid to be that stereotypical damsel in distress. That having been said, I enjoyed the story and the time they spent alone on the yacht, but then when they got back home I just didn't see what was actually keeping them apart..his top secret job?

It wasn't the best by Rachel Gibson, but it's a fun, light read.