Review: Luna and the Lie

Luna and the Lie by Mariana Zapata
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Luna Allen has been dealt a rough hand in life. Her birth mother died in childbirth, her father hated her, her step-mother was a drug addict and she did her best to bring up her three younger sisters, stealing from her father's wallet if necessary to buy them food. After a big showdown when she was 17 years old Luna left home and didn't return for years, her grandmother looked after her sisters until she could provide a home for them.

Now she has a job she loves, respraying cars at a custom car workshop, working for the man who gave her a break when she was down on her luck. Two of her sisters have graduated and moved away to college and her youngest sister is days away from graduating. She has her own, very small, home and thanks her luck every day. In fact Luna is a modern day Pollyanna, always looking for the bright side, always giving thanks for the good things in her life, always turning the other cheek.

Luna lusts after the new part-owner of the custom body shop, a huge tattooed guy called Lucas Ripley who constantly argues with her old boss. Luna tries to take it on herself to act as peacemaker, making the two of them coffee and generally defusing arguments. She's also dealing with her sister's losing ex-boyfriend working in the same bodyshop and causing her problems, but she remains relentlessly cheerful, counting her blessings and baking birthday cakes for her fellow workers.

This is a difficult review to write or maybe just to decide on a rating.

I have loved some of Mariana Zapata's books, but recently the last couple I have read (which are not necessarily the last two books she has published) left me cold and/or disappointed. But I had read great reviews and when I started reading I was immediately drawn in. As a reader I could see that Ripley might be gruff and sweary but he obviously liked Luna, she seemed to be the only one oblivious.

Several years ago Luna did Ripley a favour and ever since he's been asking her what she wants in return. When Luna's grandmother dies and she is contacted by a lawyer to attend the funeral Luna decides to call in her favour, she doesn't want to see her toxic family without some serious muscle beside her. But everyone's got secrets and they could cause untold pain for those closest to Luna.

So, I love a slow-burn, in love with your boss, Pollyanna meets the grinch romance. I liked the slow development, but at some point I just lost patience with everyone. (view spoiler)[Luna was pathologically determined, despite all evidence to the contrary, despite what Ripley says to her face, despite what her best friend says, despite what friends and family say, that Ripley's only interest in her is from guilt. On his part, Ripley appears to think that demanding his employee come shopping for custom pain/ attend car auctions is some kind of wooing, sure he makes her food and drives her to/from places and drives off her blind dates but he can't just say the words "Luna would you like to have a drink with me after work one night" or similar. At some point I just thought the comedy of errors factor got outweighed by the sheer dumb stupidity of both parties. (hide spoiler)]

Also, I had the feeling that Luna and Ripley were characters I had read before, not necessarily by Mariana Zapata, maybe Scarlett Cole, but they definitely felt familiar.

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