{"id":6492,"date":"2017-04-05T08:50:01","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T12:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6492"},"modified":"2017-04-05T08:50:01","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T12:50:01","slug":"lola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6492","title":{"rendered":"*****Lola"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bodega,

photo: Alissa Walker, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

By Melissa Scrivner Love \u2013 Lola, the energetic protagonist of this Los Angeles-based crime thriller, is an eminently likeable young woman, flirting with death at the hands of rival drug operatives and flouting the legal establishment.<\/p>\n

Lola lives with Garcia, the supposed leader of the Crenshaw Six, a four-person gang in their Huntington Park barrio. In the book\u2019s opening scene, a backyard barbecue Garcia is hosting is visited by El Coleccionista, an emissary from Mexico\u2019s Los Liones drug cartel. When you see how intent Lola is on monitoring the conversation between the two men, you understand she is much more than Garcia\u2019s girlfriend. Lola battles throughout the book with the desire to be known and respected for her fearlessness and strategic acumen and the need to remain invisible for safety\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n

One of the gang members is Lola\u2019s younger brother Hector, which poses particular challenges for her leadership, because, unfortunately, Hector keeps messing up. He fumbles a two million dollar cash-drug exchange that could lead to the gang members\u2019 arrest or their deaths at the hands of Los Liones, their Los Angeles partners, or their mysterious and well-heeled competition. She must figure out a way that her gang can satisfy the competing\u2014and apparently irreconcilable\u2014demands of these multiple players, without becoming beholden to any of them.<\/p>\n

The drug business is not a business just like any other. It has terrible downstream consequences, and you aren\u2019t spared a glimpse of those either. Lola and Hector\u2019s mother is a frequently relapsing addict, which has caused considerable grief in her children\u2019s lives, a hole in Lola\u2019s heart where maternal love should live.<\/p>\n

Love does a persuasive job evoking the barrio flavor\u2014its sights, sounds, and smells. This Latino neighborhood is down, way down, but not out. She expertly draws the desperation and determination of her complex characters. You become so immersed in their world that the degree of their alienation from mainstream society becomes clear only when Lola has to interact with people from outside<\/p>\n

This debut crime thriller is exceptionally well-written, with nice literary touches. It offers strong and varied personalities, an intriguing and multi-layered setting, and believably dangerous situations. Finding such a talented new author is a delight!<\/p>\n

A longer version of this review appeared on crimefictionlover.com<\/a>.
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Melissa Scrivner Love \u2013 Lola, the energetic protagonist of this Los Angeles-based crime thriller, is an eminently likeable young woman, flirting with death at the hands of rival drug operatives and flouting the legal establishment. Lola lives with Garcia, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,126],"tags":[930,307,931,99],"class_list":["post-6492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-reading-2","tag-lola","tag-los-angeles","tag-melissa-scrivner-love","tag-urban-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2NkiT-lola","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6494,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6492\/revisions\/6494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}