Kicking Off LBT Summer Extravaganza Tour with a Bang!
If you’re looking for your next summer read or great romcom, this is a great one to grab off the shelf! This is my first book in the LBT Summer Extravaganza, and if this is a herald of what’s to come I cannot wait to dig in and am so excited to be involved in spreading the summer joy.
About the Book
Benidorm, actually is a romantic comedy, recently shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Awards. It is the first book in the Benidorm Series.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, we will shortly be arriving in Alicante. Please ensure your big lips and heavy eyebrows are securely fastened, your eyelashes are stowed in the upright position and your leg tattoos are clearly visible for landing.”
Connie Cooper’s classical music career is at a dead-end. She’s singing cheap covers to a sea of bald heads and the nearest she has been to a romantic relationship in years is watching the Bridgerton buttocks scene on a continuous loop.
The last thing she needs is to be on a flight to Benidorm with strict instructions to impress the boss of Jezebel Music. But as she tries to keep up with support band, The Dollz, and the constant flashmob dancing, the going out in less than you’d wear on the beach and their obsession with the promiscuous bearded-Nuns in the villa next door, the boss seems less and less impressed.
The clock is ticking. She’s meant to be finding her voice, not finding his brooding good-looks irresistibly attractive… How can she show him that she has what it takes to succeed?
That’s right. Instead of just being herself, she’ll follow The Dollz’ advice to dress like a low-rent stripper and impress him by pole-dancing on top of a table full of drinks.
What could go wrong?
My Thoughts
When I saw the page count on this after reading it I couldn’t believe it. I flew through it! It was such an easy, hilarious read, that I couldn’t put it down! I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to either – unless you suffer from secondhand embarrassment and have to stop reading to properly cringe before continuing. If you’re like my husband and can’t get through an episode of New Girl because it physically hurts you, this hilarious book might be a little too much for you.
If you’re able to enjoy a good dose of hilarious schadenfreude – especially when it’s at the expense of a fictional character – the absolute work of comedic genius will keep you laughing non-stop. Despite his inability to handle second-hand embarrassment, I literally had to show my husband one passage from the sheer ridiculous shenanigans.
Our main character is just a normal girl trying to save her musical career thrust into the proximity of the most ridiculous party girls I’ve ever read about. And Connie, our FMC, is having the worst luck of her life. But sometimes, life has to go to extremes to wake you up and it seems like this wild, crazy adventure through the nightlife of Benidorm is exactly what the grief doctor ordered.
It took me a little time to warm up to pretty much everyone, and the misunderstandings were many and absurd – but the laughs and absolute nonsense made this book a trainwreck I didn’t want to look away from. The bearded nuns, the Dollz, and Connie’s BFFs are fantastic. All of them are over-the-top and larger-than-life, but they really make the story. I literally felt like I was being swept up into a drunken holiday myself for half the story, and being the caregiver to a small child and a dementia-riddled dad with my own health problems, since I can’t have my own drunken holiday it was very nice to enjoy such a fantastically wild one vicariously through the girls – even if I’d never in my wildest days have imagined such a holiday!
I’m so grateful to the author, publisher, and Love Books Tours for including me in this tour and the whole Summer Extravaganza. This was my first Jo Lyons book, but it will absolutely NOT be my last!
Who’s It For?
If you enjoy a good rom-com and a good dose of secondhand embarrassment/awkward humor, you will adore this. Fans of New Girl will probably enjoy this. Also, it focuses on festival culture, new love, second chances, and other romance tropes. I think fans of Sophie Kinsella, Liz Davies, and other popular rom-com writers will enjoy this book!
Content Warning: Death, Grief, Infidelity, Near Child Loss, Very Adult Situations/Language, Job Loss, Poverty, Parenting, Alcohol/Drug Abuse
Question of the Day
Have you ever been to Benidorm, or one of the other similar cities like Amsterdam, New Orleans, Las Vegas? Somewhere known for its nightlife?
Answer of the Day
I live in New Orleans. There’s a lot more to New Orleans than Bourbon Street, so I’m sure there’s much more to Benidorm, too!
About the Author
When Jo isn’t writing romcoms or thinking about Ryan Reynolds, she’s often wandering around Europe looking for the perfect wine and cheese pairing.
Her wanderlust began at an early age, growing up in Germany before settling in the North of England, but only until she was old enough to wander over to The Hague to become a politician. She thought she’d put her fairly adequate skills of ‘getting on with people’ to global use, but her plans were thwarted when she got as far as Manchester and fell madly in love with a DJ.
She then spent years working in Turkey as a holiday rep, in the Alpes working at a ski resort and in the south of France trying not to put a vineyard out of business before, eventually arriving in Spain as a teacher, to administer some poor linguistic skills on the unsuspecting population of Valencia. She then got terribly distracted with being mother to a couple of Dark Lords, as well as wife to a husband currently enjoying the world’s longest mid-life crisis. Twenty of her best, frozen-foreheaded years flew by before she suddenly remembered her previous ambition for world peace and politics… oh yes, and to write a book.
Amazon US: https://a.co/d/2NKgOM1
Amazon UK: https://amzn.eu/d/05zJUM3W
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/80845286-benidorm-actually
Author Website: www.jolyonsauthor.com
Published by Amorina Carlton. Award-winning American author, Amorina Carlton, is currently working on her first novel. You can find more about her published work and works in progress on the home page. She also serves as the PR/Marketing Lead for Ravens and Roses Publishing, and reviews books, mostly by other indie authors, here and on Bookstagram.