Arthur Ellis Award finalist Rio Youers combines vengeance and deceit, love and bullets, secrets, and twists in this high-octane action thriller with a vibrant emotional core.Brody Ellis is short on luck and even shorter on cash to buy the medication his sister Molly needs.Desperate, he robs a convenience store, but on the way out, he bumps into a young woman and loses his wallet. Just when he … wallet. Just when he expects the cops to arrive, the phone rings. It’s Blair Mayo–the woman he bumped into–and she’s got the missing billfold.
Brody will get it back, but only if he does her a favor: steal her late mother’s diamonds from her wicked stepmom. But when he gets to the house, he finds a gruesome crime scene–and a security camera. Brody knows he’s been framed.
Back home, the terrified young man gets another call. The police won’t get the incriminating video footage, Blair says. Instead, her daddy, the notorious mobster Jimmy Latzo, will exact his own kind of revenge.
Hitting the road to save their lives, Brody and Molly realize that they’ve become pawns in a mysterious game–one that involves a notorious enforcer named Lola Bear who brutally crossed paths with Jimmy Latzo twenty-six years before. . . a ghost from the past who is intimately connected to their lives.
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Lola on Fire serves up all the gonzo action, quotable lines, and unforgettable characters a reader could want, in a novel that rivals Killing Eve in intensity and atmosphere.
Lola on Fire sizzles and scorches like fresh steak slapped on a red-hot grill… How often does a ferocious action thriller gather your emotions in a net and haul them to the surface writhing and shiny? What was the last novel to kick-start your brain and your pulse at the same time? Cross Elmore Leonard with Lisa Gardner and you get Rio Youers.
John Wick meets Jane Hawk in Lola on Fire, a wild, relentless read. The action is terrific, the writing crisp, the characters unforgettable.
Holy crap on a cracker! I couldn’t put this one down! And when I had to, to go to work, I was terribly upset! Nonstop action from cover to cover! That and the fact that he had one of the characters living in B-Town! I lived in Bloomington, IN for 5 years, 4 years in University and 1 year in the glorious town. Just visited this past November! “The bus depot was at the intersection of South Walnut & East Third Street.” Know right where this is! Great characters, guns, mobsters, with revenge driving one mobsters life! Who will be left standing?
What a ride! Lola on Fire is a witty, impeccably crafted, and deliriously fun thriller with a furiously beating heart. Rousing action and killer pacing, powered by characters you’ll love who possess the ass-kicking skills of the John Wick universe yet are still grounded with real humanity. Don’t miss it.
Brody is taking care of his sister as well as he can but, she needs medicine and he has no money. Brody robs a convenience store and loses his wallet as he is escaping. When a woman calls with his wallet, she gives him a choice. Help her steal diamonds or she can turn the wallet in. Brody’s luck goes from bad to worse when he discovers he has been set up.
The characters are really good, the story moves along and I enjoyed the way it went. I didn’t quite figure it out before it ended.
Thanks to NetGalley, William Morrow and Rio Youers for a copy of this book for review.
I loved how this book started out like an action movie on par with The Terminator; only it wasn’t a hero, but a heroine at the center, named Lola Bear. Lola went in on a solo mission, to seek her own brand of justice on her boss. At one time, Lola, was Latzo’s best weapon and now that weapon was going rogue.
No one expected Latzo to survive, but survive he did, and his hatred burned hot for Lola.
Brody Ellis was about to do the unthinkable, but he was desperate the rent was past due, and Molly, his sister was putting up a brave front, despite the pain; she needed her meds. Brody waited until the early hours to rob a convenience store. Almost home free, he collided with a girl, but he was still wearing the ski mask.
Brody and Molly, at one time had a wonderful family life. Up until their mother left them and their father. Their father carried on the best he could, until one day, the police showed up at their home to inform the children that their father was dead. Death ruled a suicide.
Brody had no way of knowing how robbing the convenience store was going to chance his and Molly’s life forever. After, getting a call from the girl he collided with that fateful night, he met her to retrieve his wallet, he suddenly finds himself being blackmailed to do her bidding. He agrees, and finds himself in deeper water, which takes him and Molly fleeing and uncovering secrets along the way.
This was a fast paced, thrilling read that kept me turning the pages and felt like I was reading a script for a movie!
I received an ARC from NetGalley via William Morrow and Custom House and I have voluntarily reviewed this book.
Lola On Fire, wow this was a action packed storyline. This was a new author for me, but I really enjoyed his writing style. This book kept me turning the page until I finished the book. I will be checking out more of this authors books for sure.
I received a ARC from NetGalley and the publisher and am under no obligation to leave a favorable review, all opinions expressed here are my own.
In 1993, mobster Lola Bear attempts to settle a score with Jimmy Latzo following the murder of her lover. Unfortunately, she underestimates Jimmy and leaves him alive, albeit gravely injured. Now, 25 years later, Jimmy is finally close to getting his revenge.
This is bad news for Brody and his sister, Molly, who, in the years since their father’s suicide, have been barely making end’s meet. After a desperate convenience store robbery, Brody finds himself sucked into an even worse crime and set-up as a patsy as he’s dragged deeper into the criminal underworld and a decades-old feud that just might cost him and his sister their lives.
Lola on Fire is one hell of an action-packed crime thriller, and Rio Youers hits the ground running right from page one. Our introduction to Lola is an intense and violent all-out assault that involves plenty of wicked gunplay and even some heated flamethrower action! It’s a grandly exciting opener that really establishes Lola’s bonafides as a not-to-be-messed-with, bad-ass woman. It also makes you salivate for more crazy Lola action!
And this is where my one big complaint comes in, but do consider this to be a modest issue within the context of an overall really good book. We’re given a bit of a bait-and-switch after this opening chapter as Youers shifts focus to the present-day and Lola disappears for rather a very long time. Lola, for the most part, becomes the book’s central MacGuffin throughout much of the first half of the book, motivating and pushing the characters. The real focus of Lola on Fire is on Brody and his entanglements with the Latzo crime family as he and Molly are forced to run for their lives with the bad guys constantly nipping at their heels.
While I’ll be the first to admit that I absolutely, positively wanted more Lola, Brody’s story is pretty damn interesting (even if, like Jimmy Latzo, I found myself getting a bit frustrated wondering where the hell is Lola?!). He does dumb things, driven by hopelessness and the earnest desire to protect his disabled sister and keep a roof over their head. He’s easy to root for and, despite his questionable choices, it’s pretty clear he’s not a bad guy, especially not in comparison to the actually bad guys who are after him. He’s just a schmuck in over his head and as much a target of opportunity as the convenience store he robs with a fake gun.
You want to see Brody worm his way out from under Jimmy Latzo’s thumb, even as it becomes more than clear that won’t be an easy job. Latzo’s a raving, murderous psychotic, but it’s his brainy, beautiful underling, Blair, who’s the real problem. She’s got the smarts and runs Latzo’s operations with finely tuned perfection, always one step ahead of everyfreakingbody. Blair, in fact, quite nearly steals the whole show here with her brains, schemes, and manipulations to put everyone where she wants them to be with clockwork precision in order to get what she wants. She’s an awesome character, and the perfect counterweight to Lola, once the now-50ish killer makes her grand reappearance in the book’s latter half.
That Youers is able to craft such a bright, exciting, and deeply satisfying crime caper isn’t much of a surprise, given how adeptly he handled the criminal enterprises underpinning the operations of Mother Moon’s cult in his previous horror thriller, Halcyon. Still, it’s nice to see him flex his authorial muscles and go all-in on a standalone action-crime caper. Youers’s writing is brisk, cinematic, and the story charges full speed ahead, right from the get-go. And while, yes, I wanted more Lola than we actually got, when she is on the page, her scenes absolutely rock, whether its a more emotional beat or a frenetic beatdown of some heavyweight mobster, she’s just such a well-constructed joy to read about. Linda Hamilton might want to get her agent on the line.
This book is on fire. It’s nonstop action from the first page to the last, and it will draw you in and hold you tight until you read the final word. While it gets a bit raw at times, it’s everything a thriller should be: well-written, filled with a good story and a great plot, and enough twists and turns to make your head whirl, in a good way.
Brody Ellis, abandoned by his mother and left without a father, does something he knew was wrong. But he needed money to help his sister. He does his best to make sure no one will get hurt when he robs a convenience store, but he couldn’t prepare for how things were about to go horribly wrong and upturn his life.
When he receives a call from Blair Mayo telling him she’s found his lost wallet, he can’t even guess that his world is about to spin out of control and drag him into his mother’s deep, dark past.
This was a remarkable book. It’s a coming of age story mixed with a tale of family love and organized crime viciousness. Brody, with his sister Molly’s help, attempts to outrun Blair and Jimmy Latzo as they hunt him down from one side of the country to the other.
The ending of the book will leave you feeling warm and wonderful. It ties up all the loose ends and sets up a happily ever after for you to ponder.
I listened to the audiobook version, which I received from Netgalley. The narration was spot on, offering everything the book needed to come to life. The narrator has an easy to listen to voice and provided the perfect performance. I’m not a big fan of books about organized crime, but this book was different. This book is more about family sacrifice. I can’t recommend his book highly enough.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley. I thank them for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.
Lola on Fire was simply an explosion of a book! I heard it compared to John Wick, and in a hot second I was there for it. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint.
We are introduced to Brody, who has possibly the worst luck of any character you’ve ever met. Or does he? Life has always kicked poor underachieving Brody in the balls, but lately it seems like it’s more than a few underachieving missteps keeping him and his sister Molly down and out.
Now we meet Blair, who works for a mobster named Jimmy Latso, ready to take full advantage of Brody’s desperation. Ooh, how we love to hate this young woman and the thug, Jimmy, who’s raised her to do his sick bidding.
What results is a terribly dysfunctional “partnership” grown out of betrayal and manipulation, as everything seems to point back to a badass of a woman named Lola.
How does it all tie together? Strap in for one helluva ride and find out!
If you like hard and non-stop action, despicable characters and dark twisty turns on every page, then Lola on Fire should be high on your to-read list. Be sure to grab it and read it soon, because I have no doubt a movie studio is going to grab this wild ride and fuel it up for the big screen asap!
A special thanks to Harper Audio and NetGalley who honored me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.