Review: THE LIBERATION OF ALICE LOVE - Abby McDonald *****

Will the real Alice Love please stand up?
Alice Love keeps her life running in perfect order, so when her bank card is declined, she thinks it's just a simple mistake. But she soon discovers that someone has emptied every penny from her bank account, spending her hard-earned savings on glamorous holidays, sexy lingerie, and a to-die-for wardrobe and leaving Alice with thousands of pounds' worth of debt.
With her perfectly-organised world crumbling around her, Alice enlists the help of dashing fraud investigator, Nathan, and sets about clearing her name. But as she unravels the intriguing paper trail, she makes a shocking discovery: her thief is closer to home than she ever imagined.
Following the clues from London to Rome and LA, Alice edges deeper into a seductive new world, where honesty might not be the best policy, rules are made to be broken, and the power of a gorgeous cocktail dress shouldn't be underestimated. Perhaps her alter-ego's reckless, extravagant lifestyle is the one Alice should have been leading all along...
But as her little white lies begin to stack up, how far will Alice go to find the truth? And whose life, exactly, is she fighting for?

Abby McDonald's writing career started only last year, but she's already had four books published (including this one)! I've really, really enjoyed her previous three books (Life Swap; The Popularity Rules; Boys, Bears & a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots) so you can only imagine how excited I was about this one - I started reading it almost the second it arrived, hehe. And just like her previous books, this one too was an absolutely fantastic reading experience!

The plot is quite nicely summed up above so I won't discuss it more as I don't want to spoil it for anyone. I must admit I was slightly divided about the plot - while I thought it was definitely very original, fast paced and enjoyable, I also found certain bits a tad too far fetched ... I can't really complain though as the story itself really was great and I kept wondering WHY this person did this, what their reals story was and how it would all end - luckily, I wasn't disappointed and I quite liked the ending!

The writing, as always, is fantastic - Ms McDonald was just meant to be a writer. The story flows nicely and doesn't dwell on unnecessary details, there's a lot of attitude and the dialogue is just brilliant with plenty of sass and laugh out loud moments.

I can but give two thumbs up to the characters too. I thought Alice was a great character - independant, determined, funny and all around loveable. Occassionally, I struggled to understand her motives for following that trail and doing all those things, but I do admit I liked how she changed to a more daring and funloving person because of what happened to her. The book would probably be quite boring if it was just about her old life, but due to all the changes it was anything but!
I thought pretty much all the characters were well portrayed, but the one that also stands is Nathan - oooh, I certainly cannot be blamed for developing a tiny crush on him, he was just too ... awesome! I wasn't too keen on how he reacted when he found out the truth, but overall he was just amazing and funny and dashing and ooh. ;)

All in all, I really enjoyed this book and I think it would make a fantastic film - there's a lot going on and it was all described so well that I could just see the scenes in my head. I cannot wait to read more by Abby McDonald - sadly, we'll all have to wait for nearly a year before her next book (The Anti-Prom) is out, but luckily she's already signed another two book deal, woohoo!
If you haven't read anything by her yet, then you definitely should - she writes both YA and adult books and excels in both! Strongly recommended!

overall rating:
plot: 5/5 | writing: 5/5 | characters: 5/5 | cover: 4/5