Sprinkled by Gina LaManna

Lacey Luzzi Mafia Mysteries, Book 1

Synopsis: LACEY LUZZI RESUME
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CURRENT: MOBSTER (in training)
2 YEARS: LAUNDROMAT WENCH
TOO MANY YEARS: MANAGER AT STRIP CLUB
1 NIGHT: MISERABLY FAILED STRIPPER
8TH GRADE – SPELLING BEE CHAMPION
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Lacey Luzzi’s rollercoaster of a life has been filled with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. She just never expected the lows to be so… sparkly.
After falling on her face during an attempt to follow in her recently-deceased mother’s stripper-boots, Lacey realizes she’s not cut out for life on stage. She sets out on a year-long investigation to find her true family, never expecting she’ll find it with a capital “F.”

With a rumbling stomach, a need for money (check engine lights don’t fix themselves!), and a conscience that operates at 78% on a good day, Lacey is sucked into a whirlwind of Family secrets, hard-as-cement cookies, and mysterious, sexy men who unfortunately shoot guns, sometimes aimed at her face. The long-lost-granddaughter of Carlos Luzzi, the Godfather of the Italian Mafia, Lacey accepts her first assignment for the mob: finding fifteen million dollars of ‘the good stuff.’

Even after she enlists the help of her mouthy best-friend and her cousin, a technical genius and social disaster, she finds that going toe-to-toe with the rival Russian mob is more dangerous than expected.

No one chooses their Family, but Lacey Luzzi will be lucky if she can survive hers.

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Lacey Luzzi: Sprinkled, is a full-length, laugh-out-loud, humorous cozy mystery with a strong female protagonist in the spirit of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, albeit one working for the wrong side of the law…

Review: Looking for something to read available on Kindle Unlimited, I found this book which attracted me with its comparison with the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. As you can see, the comparison is made in the summary of the book by the author and or editor; I hope, moreover, that Janet Evanovich is aware of the use of her name…

The story is different from the Stephanie Plum one as the heroine, Lacey, works for the mafia and is not on the same side of the law. However, my reading was spoiled because of a blatant plagiarism of the characters. Lacey’s best friend  is very round, very mouthy… is the copy of Stephanie’s best friend Lula. The beautiful mysterious guy who greeted her with a single word (Doll) is a copy of Ranger (he says babe).

About the story, there are things that I have a problem with. Her mother had hidden from her family her whole life to the point of working as a stripper but apparently remained in the same city… (weird) Lacey found and joined the family without worrying about the reasons for her mother to run away (weird too). Lacey is separated from her ex-boyfriend because she did not want to introduce him to her family but she brings a man she barely knows for dinner (actually 2 different men on the same day, one for lunch and one for dinner!)

When I guessed where the bag of “good stuff” that she had to find was (and frankly it was obvious), I felt like banging my head against the wall because Lacey has clearly not understood . Anyway, she does not even know what she is looking for as she did not read the file; she is looking for a bag of “good stuff” whatever it may be.

I am very disappointed and I can not recommend this book.

2

Cass

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