LOOKING FOR LEON

TITLE: LOOKING FOR LEON
AUTHOR: SHIRLEY BENTON
Pages: 374
Date: 06/05/2011
Grade: 4
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If I'm honest, I wasn't entirely sure whether I was going to like this book very much when I bought it. The blurb on the cover sounded interesting, but deep inside I was afraid I would find myself reading a all to predictable girl meets boy, girl looses boy, girl finds boy after all sort of story. Thankfully, this book turned out to be anything but predictable.
Yes, at the start of the story, Andie is in Las Vegas where she meets and bonds with Leon during a long evening and night only to be separated from him during a fire drill in the hotel. The girl has indeed lost her boy, and despite a frantic search and a few desperate publicity stunts, Andie fails to find Leon before she has to fly back to Dublin.
Back at her job, journalist Andie writes columns about meeting Leon, and her search for him and soon her stories capture the public's imagination. A broadcasting company takes up her story and sends her back to Vegas with a camera man to continue her search for the elusive Leon. When her story is also picked up in America, Andie finds herself with a ruthless publicist stearing her in all sorts of unlikely directions in the search for the man of her dreams. A search that will have consequences that Andie couldn't have predicted or anticipated in a million years.

This is one action packed book. There is never a lull in the story. This is also a funny book with lots of laugh out loud moments as well as a sad and at times deep book. In fact, I don't think there is a human emotion that isn't covered in this book. And while that is definitely one of the strengths of this book, it was at times also a bit too much for me. I think I could have done with one or two moments to come up for breath and reflextion. At times the shifts between fun and serious were a little bit to abrupt for me.
Having said that, as first books go, this was a good read which I enjoyed very much. I had a huge smile on my face when I read the last words on the last page, and that is a very good way to finish reading a book. I will be keeping an eye on Shirley Benton in the future. I've got a feeling things can only get better, if this story is anything to go by.