Review ~ Mexican Kimono by Billie Jones.

Title: Mexican Kimono.
Author: Billie Jones.
Publisher: Carina UK.
Genre: Women's Fiction.
Publication Date: September 4, 2014.
Source: Netgalley.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

Purchase: Amazon UK

Samantha knows what she wants from life – and she’s got it!

1.A loving family. OK, her Mum’s plan to marry her off to the world’s most metrosexual man might not be ideal… but it’s only because she cares!

2.A great job. Or at least: a job that leaves plenty of time to update Twitter and shop for designer bargains online…

3.A credit card, with a very generous limit. So generous that she’s just spent over $10,000 on an antique kimono…

But suddenly Samantha’s charmed life starts to fall apart! From a hair-related fire to losing her job, Sam’s facing bad karma – and it all started when she bought that kimono…

Sure, it’s ridiculous. How could a piece of silk ever bring bad luck? But it can! Because, whether Samantha likes it or not, someone wants to teach her a lesson: it’s what’s inside that counts.

But will Samantha slow down long enough to listen?

I had no idea what to expect from Mexican Kimono, other than plenty more humour from an author whose writing style I absolutely love. Mexican Kimono was brilliantly entertaining and the perfect read to put a smile on your face. Plus, you need to read it simply because the main character, Samantha, has just spent over $10,000 on a kimono which then comes back to haunt her in more ways than one. Really, you’re not going to get too many concepts more ridiculous than that and it’s a mad, but very enjoyable, read.

Samantha is not your typical main character – she’s shallow, self-absorbed and delusional, to say the least. She’s fussy and judgmental and though these traits all seem to make the perfect ‘baddie’, I loved her character. She was hilarious. And her run of bad luck and bad fortune, I just didn’t want to see end because each situation she ended up in was more comical than the last and Mexican Kimono was one of those rare books which had me laughing out loud throughout. I actually found Samantha’s character quite endearing because she really wasn’t aware of her misdemeanours and at times out of order attitude - she genuinely did believe that every guy that so much as looked in her direction was in love with her and so it was a shock that somebody would be out to put a curse on her.

There wasn’t anything I didn’t love about this book. The whole cast of characters were very amusing. From Samantha’s mum who everybody seemed to idolise except her daughter - which had that kind of easy to relate to feel to it because most parents are seen as embarrassing to their children, no matter what age. There was JJ and Toff who were as outlandish as they come, and a lot of fun. Plus lots of other great characters in which the book really needs to be picked up and read for yourself so you can meet them and fall for the author’s fantastic, humorous outlook on people and the least straight-forward personalities you could imagine.

What I really liked about the writing in Mexican Kimono was that though we’re brought eccentric characters and a course of events which have you shaking your head and laughing in equal measures, there’s always that hint of a positive message rooting around in the plot and so whilst this book is about Samantha and her immense bad luck and bad decisions, it’s a very uplifting book. Charming writing with the ability to make you smile the whole way through made Mexican Kimono a thoroughly worthwhile read for me and I’m pretty sure I’ll never find a book as similarly quirky as this one again…




Review also posted on Goodreads | Amazon UK