Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery by Keren David

Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery Reviews

• 
  Jo

  If this book was written by any other author, I would have probably avoided it. I think “16 year old girl wins £8 million on the lottery” is one of the most eye-rolling-inducing synopses since “Teenager girl meets vampire. Things happen.”
  
  But after reading When I Was Joe, Keren David quickly become one of my favourite British contemporary writers. So I thought I’d give it a go.
  
  From reading other people’s reviews of this book, I have gathered that people weren’t too fussed about Lia. She is spoilt, oblivious, used to getting what she wants and, well, she’s kind of a bitch. But, just to be difficult, I really liked her. I’m not sure whether it’s because of Ms David’s glorious ability to make even the most unlikeable characters into entertaining characters but I laughed a lot. Yes she was spoilt and yes she was ridiculous and, oh yes, she was a bitch. But…. Well, a lot of 16 year old girls are. Especially when they’ve just been given a cheque for £8 million.
  I thought she was great.
  
  And then we have the love interest. He is called Rafael Forrest.
  Let’s just dwell on that for a moment…
  
  Rafael Forrest.
  I mean… come on. I’m sorry but I, in my twenty three years of life, have never met a boy called Rafael. Am I just hanging out in the wrong places? About 84% of the boys I know are called Dave.
  Character names are one of my major pet hates in YA fiction. I’ve had this conversation with Anna so many times I have lost count (ok, maybe it’s a bit one sided. It’s basically just me sending e-mails full of capital letters to her saying “I WISH FOR THERE TO BE MORE YA LOVE INTERESTS CALLED DAVE”). I want normal names. Just because you have an interesting name, doesn’t automatically make your character interesting.
  I would like more YA boys to be called Matt or Joe or Dan or Chris. The chances of meeting a ‘Hunter’ or a ‘Wolff’ or a ‘Rafael Forrest’ while you’re freezing your kecks off at the bus stop are slim to none. Unfortunate, I know, but that’s the UK for you.
  
  That being said, I quite liked Raf. I liked how he was a bit jittery and how even though he was a bit mysterious, he wasn’t paranormal mysterious. And even though normally I get really angry when authors mention Twilight in their books, Lia’s belief that Raf is a graveyard-dwelling-vampire made me laugh a lot. It was a nice touch and a cheeky ribbing to the YA genre, which I always appreciate. His backstory was a bit….. well, I’ll mention that later.
  
  The story was fine. It’s pretty much what you expect when you think of 16 year old girl winning the lottery. There’s the initial “MUST BUY EVERYTHING” followed by the inevitable guilt and then the “girl learns things” bit. But Ms David writes in such a way that you kind of forget the clichés (well, almost) because of her wonderfully dry humour and, more importantly, the way she sees contemporary Britain. With humour and intelligence.
  
  I have to admit, I got a bit muddled at the end. While I appreciate that Ms David didn’t go down the usual ‘What problems should a girl who has just won the lottery face?’ route, there were certain parts that I didn’t really understand what the point of adding them to the story was. For example, the whole Jack/Shaz/Lia… thing. In theory, I liked it but I wished that Ms David had elaborated on it more. But as there were so many other things happening at the same time, it kind of got ignored and only dwelled on briefly. I wasn’t really sure what it brought to the plot. Also, in the same vein, and I’m being very wary of spoilers, Raf’s situation. It would have been brilliant, if it was explored properly as opposed to kind of just “Oh yeah, that happened”. I just can’t help but feel that it took the emotional impact, and one that it deserved, away from it.
  
  Overall, this book was OK. I wonder whether my ambivalence towards Lia’s story was swayed because of how much I loved Joe’s? Possibly. It wasn’t terrible but it was just OK. If you are interested in reading Keren David’s books, then I implore you to start with When I Was Joe.
  
• 
  Zyra

  2.5 stars
  I didn't like this much. the m.c was way too selfish & stubborn, always making some dumb decisions, without thinking anything through. everything was "me,me,me" for her & nothing mattered her more than her. not even her family & friends. this the most immature character ever written.
• 
  Watermelon Daisy

  
  
  I loved the way this book was told.
  
  I found myself thinking what I'd do in Lia's position, what the mysterious Raf was hiding and more about Jack and how he must be feeling. Although, I have to admit, his mother was leaving me beyond frustrated with her childish approach to Lia winning the lottery (which you'll find out more about when you read the book.)
  
  But then it started to go downfall. Don't get me wrong, it was still pretty good, but it started to bore me a little near the end. This was a four star story until I realised I no longer liked it that much towards the end.
  
  Regardless, this book kept me hooked to the story. I guess the ending tied all of the unnecessary endings and didn't tie the real ones (like, what happened between the romance of two of the side characters).
  
  The first sentence is terrific. Lia's voice is amazing, especially her comparisons between Raf and Edward Cullen -which made me laugh like a hyena.
  
  A good, funny book. Light-hearted. Read it now! :D
• 
  Annette

  Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery is a funny, absurd book that is perfect for a summer read.
  
  Sixteen-year-old Lia, who lives in London, wins 8 million pounds in the lottery. Yes, you can win when you are 16 in the UK. If you are interested that's $16,491,355,288 in the United States. She, understandably goes off the deep end, and has difficulty with her new fame and fortune.
  
  
  I really hated Lia throughout most of the book. Even before she won. She's only 16, but she's really nasty to her family, and her mother in particular. I know many 16-year-olds have a volatile relationship with their parents, but even though I didn't really like my parents much at that age, I didn't act like Lia.
  
  
  When she wins the lottery, to me she only gets worse. Yes, there are a lot of funny parts, and you just cringe for some of the stupid stuff Lia pulls, and I did "get over" my thoughts about Lia. There are other characters that a worth mentioning. Lia's sister, Natasha who is cute (and younger, so not such a smart-ass.) Jack is the perfect best friend. Raf, who becomes the love interest adds a bit of mystery and some additional excitement.
  
  
  Lia does begin to figure it out. She grows and matures, but it's a struggle. And her relationship with Raf is always interesting too. Let's just say he's from a very colorful family.
  
  
  With a lot of humor, cute characters, and a dreamy plot (who wouldn't want to win the lottery?) Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery will appeal to many teens, even if somewhat predictable. There are some Brittish slang words that I was unfamiliar with, but they weren't essential to the story. I do wish that when a book is published in the US there would be an explanation of these terms. I like to enhance my knowledge of different cultures. And, since I was reading an ARC, maybe that will be included in the final copy of Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery. Give this book to Georgia Nicolson fans.
• 
  Stephanie A.

  Sometimes teenagers who win the lottery are mature, thoughtful young adults and books about them feature an interesting take on money management and make you wonder what you would do. Unfortunately, this one is about a histrionic and impulsive girl who cannot possibly be older than 13 no matter what she says. She runs around spending money like she has no concept of the cost of living/how long a human lifespan is, throws a bunch of tantrums, and then randomly sleeps with a couple of people just to ensure I can't handwave her immaturity as cute and naive.
• 
  Beatrice Rivers

  Does winning the lottery bring happiness or more problems?
  
  Lia's family always seem to disagree with her and then she wins £8 million. But this brings the initial problem of her family thinking that they have won the lottery. When this initial thought blows over, the comes the issue of popularity at school, hate comments and people asking for things. How can Lia say no? She ends up spending over £1000 on people she doesn't know, and her family keep pestering her with more things she needs to pay for.
  
  My favourite character was Raf. He had such a hard past, although what happened in his past isn't know until the end of the book is nearing. I wanted everything to turn out okay for him, and it did.
  
  I liked this book, and I Recommend it to anyone who hopes to win the lottery or anyone in need of a good book to read.
• 
  Linzi Day

  I adored this book - I requested it intended to pass it on to a younger relative to review but inadvertently packed it in my suitcase with my holiday books. I glanced through the first few pages while waiting to go out to dinner one night and was completely hooked! It's funny - not laugh out loud hilarious - just witty and insightful.
  There is a wonderful line about 15 pages into the advance copy where Lia is sitting next to Raf (her possibly, paranormal, future boyfriend) which hooked me into the book - I've often thought about this when reading American YA paranormals . . . "Girls plotted to become his science partner - not that we actually have partners in Science in the UK, it must be a special American thing"
  The winning the lottery theme seemed to be well-researched, the author includes acknowledgements to Camelot staff and it gave the whole book a grounded feel.
  It was nice to read a British teen book which covered some uniquely British problems and in a very un-cliched way. I plan to get the author's other books for my kindle.
  Highly recommended
• 
  Mary

  Bit of a change of genre for Keren David - not exactly street crime! Lighthearted look at what happens when 16 yr old Lia wins 8 million on the lottery, but it had me wondering what my reaction as a parent would have been. Fuller review on my blog soon.
• 
  Stephy

  Seeing as how the main character is a teenager, I think the author was spot on with portraying how an average middle class teenager would react to winning the lottery.
• 
  Jess

  This book was amazing! it was great! i loved it! so sad bout tht boy! forgotten his name, read ages ago!!!
• 
  Jenny

  Really enjoyed this!
• 
  Jenna

  Lia was really unlikable. I almost couldn't finish the book.
• 
  Sumerna

  wouldn't have brought it but borrowed it and it was okay.
• 
  Evelyn Evertsen-Romp

  leuk idee. Ben zelf veel te vrekkig om met Lia mee te leven :) Was ook totaal geen grappig verhaal. Lia is ronduit onaardig.
• 
  Liralen

  I picked this up at a charity shop because 1) I'd been unable to find a
  different book by the same author that I want to read (I may have located a library copy...fingers crossed) and 2) haven't we all dreamed of winning the lottery? And then, also, 3) I can't resist a 30p book. But I digress.
  
  It's pretty straightforward: Lia wins the lottery and promptly goes forth and does everything wrong. She tells everyone, brags about it, is as bitchy as she can be while still managing to be more or less redeemable, refuses to be responsible about her new money... To be fair, she has pretty lousy role models: her parents, although they have serious worries about the financial stability of her father's bakery, are just as eager to go on impractical shopping sprees as Lia is. Meanwhile, Lia is interested in the only person in the world who doesn't want her money (which means, naturally, that she's trying to solve her problems with him by flinging money into the mix), and there are brief inroads into scenarios where wealth might be dangerous...until the book pulls right out and jumps back into spoiled-brat problems.
  
  So it didn't really do much for me, because I couldn't relate to Lia. Too bratty from the very beginning, and she doesn't seem to get all that much less bratty even as she learns that she maybe shouldn't lord her newfound wealth over her (also bratty) peers. But I wish she'd had even a little bit of direction/common sense: her entire plan with her money is 'buy a swanky flat, lock my family out, buy a leather jacket from Camden Market, and drop out of school'; she's resistant to any suggestion that there might be life beyond that. She's starting to get there at the end, but I still don't think I'd want to spend much (any) time with her.
  
  As an aside, because I spent much of this book thinking about what I would do if I won £8,000,000 in the lottery...assuming this is after taxes, I'd set aside £2,000,000 for family, allot myself £50,000 (which is a Large Amount of Money for me) for the next year and then not make any major purchases/decisions for at least that year. Everything else would go into savings/investments until I could figure out how best to spread out the money for 1) personal use and 2) Doing Good Things or whatever.
  
  But I would treat myself to overpriced coffee more often.
• 
  Rebecca

  I saw this book when I was looking for a third book for a 3 for 2 offer in Waterstones. It's amazing how hard it always is to find that third book in an offer, whether you get it free or pay for it. It's actually incredibly irritating.
  Anyway, it looked fun but I wasn't sure about paying £6.99 when I didn't know what it would turn out like and I've never heard of Karen David before, although apparently she has other notable books for YA...whoops.
  This is also a relatively new book, only being released this month, so glad I got the chance to read it.
  
  Synopsis: Lia is really just a normal teenager. Her mother is a nag, her sister a pain, her father's bakery business is failing AND she is getting no-where in her quest for the potentially paranormal but gorgeous Raf. Oh, and she just won £8 million in the lottery. Suddenly everything is changing for good, and for bad.
  
  
  Review: Let's face it, all teenage girls now who are about 15/16 have dreamt of that perfect life living somewhere without parents, and had the obsession with Twilight and vampires in general that sparkle like a Christmas tree*. But we know it won't happen for a while...or ever in some cases. So I think most girls can relate to Lia, well, partly.
  Lia wins the £8 million after her best friend, Jack, buys her a lottery ticket as a late birthday present. The book starts with you finding out with Lia that she has won, while she is having a big argument with her mother.
  This is a YA chick lit book really, which was great for me as I haven't read one in quite a while. I did enjoy this book but not as much as I would have liked I think. The book is crafted so you are given a piece of advice from her 'guide' and then her experiences of how she learnt this, which made it interesting and so that you could kind of guess what would happen, but all you were prepared for the hilarious antics of 16 year-old Lia.
  
  This book in parts could be hilarious but I rarely 'LOL-ed' (Laughed out Loud). However, it got funnier as it went along and it was more like a sitcom kind of book, you only find it funny because of the situation she was in. Lia is what I call the exaggerated girl teenager. She is fashionable, only thinks of herself (oh and boys) and gets eventually everything she wants. Nothing like most teenagers get really. I was cringing fiercely for her at the beginning, especially with how naively she would agreed to silly things, how stupid she would buy things just so she can rush onto the next thing to spend on. Then, when things started to go wrong, she became much more mature and I started to like her more as a character.
  I like Jack and Shazia, her friends but for me, they just stopped talking to her so abruptly before anything big happened and then, suddenly pop back in again nearer the end. It was the typical situation where you lose your friends, though, but I could kind of tell what was going to happen at the end of them.
  
  One thing I liked about this book is that Keren David doesn't give everything away about everyone straight away. There were things that we only find out about until right at the end. She keeps you constantly guessing and guessing until she delivers the punch, most things I would not have guessed otherwise.
  This book is from a UK author and I think other nationalities reading it would find out a lot about being a teenager in England. Normally chick lit books are set in America, eg. Sarah Dessen books so it was nice to compare and have some familiarity for me. Lia is in Year 11, the year I have just left, which is like 10th Grade in America. She is about to do her GCSE's and then there is no more compulsory education, she can either go to college (which is like the last two years of high school) or start working. Being the girl that she is, she wants to do neither.
  
  Raf was a great character and he made the story seem more normal and realistic even when Lia was being so stupid with her money. He is very mysterious and David makes you think certain things about him before revealing the truth right at the end. This is great, right. But. Instead of revealing things in bits, it's just told all at the end by his brother like 'Oh yeah, this is what happens but you should know this, right?' sort of way, which is nice to show he isn't a weird paranormal vampire but then, it was a slight disappointment of how innocent the excuse was.
  
  There are constant surprises throughout with every single character, but the surprise for me was Karen David's writing. Most of the book consists of normal, informal, readable language with you would expect any teenager to write, which I like - makes it a bit more realistic. But suddenly, in one of the last chapters, this passage of beautiful, lyrical descriptions of nature appeared and I had to read it over and over again, it sounded amazing. It was unexpected. I don't know if it was done on purpose or what, but it was such a good piece of writing. So, turn to page 305 and near the bottom of the page describes the house Lia visits. It's lovely.
  
  Overall, I'm not sure if I enjoyed this book. I did like it and I didn't feel upset or annoyed by the end but I can't say I absolutely loved it, mostly because of the poor beginning. I've read that this is a change of genre from normal for Keren David, and I think this is a good debut for this genre. She should keep it up, but just tweak some things. Lovely writing with a lovely protagonist. I think, if I ever won the lottery, I think I would know what to do now...
  Verdict: This is a definite read for chick lit fans, just don't expect it to be perfect.
  
  *NOTE: Although, the whole world and my friends were going nuts for Edward Cullen. I, however, was not. I've never read the books and only seen the Twilight and Breaking Dawn movie, and only because I was dragged there. So I half experienced this.
• 
  Anya Zhang

  Before winning the lottery, Lia believed that she has a hard life with her family, she finds her mom to be a snotty witch, her dad someone who constantly nags her to take over the bakery, and her sister sings like a toad and has a dream of winning Britain's Got Talent.I kind of found her inappreciative in the beginning - one of my friends was also starting to read the book, and she said: "The main character is so stupid!" Now that's going a little too far, but you get the idea. But other than that, it was beautifully written and highly enjoyable, and very funny in some places but also intense.
• 
  Carol

  Everyone as dreams of winning the lottery but what is it really like??? Lia's mother is a nag her sister is a pain and she's getting nowhere. Then she wins 8 million in the lottery and suddenly everything is different But will Lia's fortune create more problems than it solves? Money cant buy you love but it can buy many other nice things. What a great and funny story!!!!
• 
  Anita

  Een leuk boek om te lezen, niks bijzonders maar gewoon lekker om weg te lezen.
• 
  Wanda Ross

  Light teenage read.
• 
  Barbara Cryer

  Really only a 2.5. Are british people really that rude to their families? Lia is a spoiled beast.
• 
  Bookworm

  Fun to read but the main character was so airheaded spoiled and annoying. Still enjoyed reading it.
• 
  Mascha Eleonora

  Het is lang geleden dat ik dit boek las, maar er staat nu een review op mijn blog! Lees hem hier:
  
  https://mascha-eleonora.nl/review/wat...
• 
  Michelle

  Good read for a young adult book
• 
  Cicely

  From what I've heard about this author, this kind of book isn't really her kind of thing. When I Was Joe and Almost True are about street crime (I think) and not really about 16 year old girls winning £8 million and having a 'Paranormal Boyfriend', but I think she completely did it perfectly. I loved this book! It was funny, but not overly so, clever, had it's fair share of serious and silly, and I read it in less than a day.
  
  
  Lia was great. While at first, she really did get on my nerves a bit (complaining when you get like £40 a month for pocket money! It's madness! I would die for that kind of pocket money!) but I could understand her fights with her parents and stuff, because I kinda act the same sometimes... ;) And, y'know, then she won the lottery, which is surely a sure fire way to boost the irritatingness. And, I will admit, at first it did. Now, this doesn't mean I didn't like her, but I did maybe want to slap her a little. But. After the book went on for a while, Lia really did start to get better, and we got to see more of her under the bravado. And really, behind the millions of pounds she was just a normal girl who didn't know what to do with any of her new found fortune. (Kind of... She did know what she wanted to do at first but then... Ahh, it'll probably be quicker if you just read the book than sit around listening to me ramble on about it.. ;p)
  
  
  I loved Raf too! Paranormal Raf Who Wasn't Really Paranormal All The Crazy Twilight-Mad Girls Just Though He Was Because He Was Pale And Reads. But seriously, Raf was lovely, and he wasn't a comedy character as much as I'm making it sound like he was. If anything, he was the Serious Problems aspect of the book. He was really the only one with a whole load of bad things happening, and it was nice to see a vulnerable boy for a change. Seeing the boy falling in love with the girl with the girl not sure. I loved that even near the end of the book she wasn't sure about their relationship, because it's just realistic. And I enjoyed the fact that there was a bit of awkward sex in the book too ;) *whistles innocently* But books that glamorise sex, especially first time sex, kind of annoy me. I mean, I genuinely don't really know a lot about sex (I mean I know a lot about sex but I don't, rightfully (I'm only 14!) have any actual experience so...) But I'm pretty sure sex doesn't always really go exactly to plan and it was the best moment of their life and blah de blah, y'know?
  
  
  I also really enjoyed seeing Lia's journey from winning the money, her brief stint with being a bit of a minor celeb (the pie throwing incident being one of the highlights of the book. Man, that woman totally deserved it.) And I liked seeing her relationship with her mum get better. I mean, her mum was a bit of a bitch some of the time. She did the whole guilting you into doing stuff thing that mums are so good at... But it was great to see Lia change and develop. And I really liked the involvement of Islam as well. I can understand Lia and Shazia's relationship because one of my best friends is Muslim and we can sometimes have similar problems, but we're pretty cool about it ;) But it's nice to see Islam put into a book, in a positive way. I haven't really seen that a lot. And it wasn't done in a preachy way or anything! It was just, there.
  
  
  Lia's Guide is a wonderful book which I really enjoyed reading. It had just the right balance between light and serious, and gave a new insight into money and being rich and what not, and what it's like to have that sort of money thrust upon you at such a young age. Plus, I laughed quite a bit... And Raf and Jack were both quite nice... ;p