title: The Liberation of Alice Love
author: Abby McDonald
genre: fiction/humor/chic-lit/romance
published: March 2011
pages: 417
source: ARC from Sourcebooks
first line: It began with a vibrator.
rated: 4 out of 5 stars
The first line in The Liberation of Alice Love made me laugh out loud.
The story centers around a single, thirty something year old lawyer named Alice Love working in an agency in London.
When Alice tries using her debit card, she is declined. After calling the bank, she realizes she is a victim of fraud. Things only get worse when Alice goes to the bank to try and get a loan for a flat and she finds out she is thousands of pounds in debt due to fraudulent purchases and withdrawals.
Alice is trying to figure out who could have possibly stolen her identity and taken off with her life savings.
After finding out who the culprit is, feeling foolish and betrayed, Alice falls into a depression. The debt collectors are calling, she is unsure whether the bank will refund her money, and she feels like an idiot.
Soon enough Alice hires a man named Nathan to help her track down the thief who stole her identity. She first met the handsome Nathan at her sisters party and was instantly taken by him. He is a financial investigator and is eager to help her.
Alice decides to stop feeling at fault for what happened to her, and to somehow track down the thief and get her life back on track.
She begins tracking the thief's purchases and places they frequented and learns how her money was spent. Along the way, Alice finds herself trying out a gym membership that was taken out in her name and stopping to purchase clothes on a whim at a store where the thief shopped. Alice becomes liberated by doing things that are out of the norm for her in the process of trying to understand the thief's motives.
I really enjoyed The Liberation of Alice Love. It's a fun, sweet and interesting read.
I liked Alice, she made me laugh throughout the book. The supporting characters were well written and the story was taking twists and turns that had me wondering what would happen next.
The identity theft aspect of the story was right on point. When Alice questions the bank manager, she asks in great detail how someone could have wiped her accounts clean. She asked him questions like how could the culprit have known the answers to her personal questions, such as what is the name of her first pet and how the transfer could have gotten through so quickly when in reality a basic check deposit takes days to clear. Being in banking myself, I know the ins and outs of this type of thing and I can appreciate that the author did her research here, in order to make the fraud aspect of the story believable.
Abby McDonald is an author to look out for. What most impressed me is that she is just twenty five years old.
She didnt' waste time pining over men; she'd learned that lesson years ago. If they were interested, they would do something about it, and if they didn't-well, then they clearly didn't care enough to waste her time wondering over them. It was simple, far simpler tham any books or magazines or even her friends would admit.
Believing otherwise, she knew, would only leave her feeling an ache every night, absence like a physical form in the empty bed beside her.
p. 27
About the author:
Abby McDonald grew up in Sussex, England and studied Politics, Philosophy & Economics at Oxford University. She began writing at college, and graduated to work as a music journalist and entertainment critic; drawing on her loves of pop culture, film and feminism, and interviewing acts as diverse as LeAnn Rimes, The Kings of Leon, and Marilyn Manson. She is now a full-time novelist and screen-writer.
Special thanks to April over @ Sourcebooks.
