Book Review: Money Can't Buy Love

Author: Connie Brisco
Title: Money Can't Buy Love
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publish Date: June 27, 2011
Buy: Amazon
Review Copy Provided By: TLC Book Tours and the publisher
Book Blurb: Lenora Stone used to say if she didn't have bad luck, she wouldn't have any luck at all. At age thirty-eight, instead of socializing with Baltimore's A-list, she photographs them for Baltimore Scene, a glossy magazine filled with beautiful people who, unlike Lenora, never have to worry about car trouble and overdue bills. As much as she'd love to slam the door on her overbearing boss, quitting isn't an option. She's barely making her mortgage payments and, though her condo might not be a palace, it's hers. Lately even things with her boyfriend Gerald haven't been right. They've been together for three years but he can't seem to ask the one question she's been waiting for. But what Lenora doesn't know is that her luck is about to change...

Just when she thinks things can't get worse, Lenora wins the jackpot in the Maryland lottery. In a heartbeat, all her dreams become possible. She quits her job and indulges her every desire-starting with a shiny, silver BMW and a million-dollar mansion. Gerald is finally ready to put a ring on her finger and the city's most exclusive women's group is dying for her to join, officially moving Lenora from behind the lens, into the limelight. But in Lenora's lavish new world, all that glitters definitely isn't gold. Her old friend's are concerned about her sudden changes, and Ray, a sexy, young landscaper Lenora covered for the magazine is looking for more than a purely professional relationship.

As her life starts to come together, the things Lenora holds dear begin to fall apart. Has her world really changed for the better, or does fortune come with a heavy price?

Review: Grab this book for an afternoon read by the pool. This book has summer written all over it. It is light, not to thought provoking and a touch bit fluffy.  Fluff is one of my favorite things but this book may overdo it just a tad, because it was heavy on predictability.

Lenora has a crappy life and it keeps getting crappier. The problem with her character is that there is no way you can have any sympathy for her. She digs her own holes and apparently she likes them pretty deep.

She also likes really horrible men. It doesn't take long for you to hate Gerald in this book. In fact most of the time I found myself screaming at her to dump his sorry butt. And Ray wasn't any better. Lenora is truly a character that gets what she deserves.

It was hard to believe that in the course of this book she didn't do one intelligent thing, and yet she was 37 years old and supposedly good at her job. How she got that far along without having any common sense baffled me, so I kept turning the pages hoping to see some signs of grey matter. But alas there were none forthcoming. Lenora was dumb. And because of that everything went wrong for her including winning 5 million in the Maryland lottery.

This book only took me a few hours to read, and though it wasn't the best thing I've read, it was fun. It let me think for those few hours that someone who could have had it all, f-cked up so badly that she had nothing...and then my life looked a lot better! Sure there are lots of deep thought proking books out there I could have read, but this one improved my outlook on my own life!

Rating: 3 flowers

About Connie Briscoe

Connie Briscoe is the author of seven novels, one novella, and one nonfiction book. Her third novel, A Long Way From Home, the story of her ancestors, was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Her work has appeared on the bestseller lists of the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly.

Her nonfiction title, a photo-essay book featuring luminaries such as actress Ruby Dee and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, was coauthored with celebrated photographer Michael Cunningham. The collection of novellas was coauthored with Lolita Files and Anita Bunkley.