Bare-Naked Lola (Lola Cruz) (Lola Cruz Mystery, #3)

by Melissa Bourbon Ramirez

Meet Dolores 'Lola' Cruz. Going undercover is second nature for Private Investigator Lola Cruz, but she's out of her league when the case of a murdered Royals Courtside Dancer leads her to a local nudist resort. Parading around the sidelines of Sacramento's professional basketball scene in a barely-there cheerleading outfit is one thing--but parading around in nothing but a smile? If she has any chance of hiding this from her traditional family and on-again/off-again boyfriend Jack, she's going to have to keep a lot more than her duct tape bra and killer dance moves under wraps...

• ISBN10: 1620610043
• ISBN13: 9781620610046
• Publish Date: 8 May 2012 (first published 1 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 16 June 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Entangled Select
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Cocktails and Books]

Confession time, again, from me. I have not read the previous two Lola Cruz Mysteries, so I was a little lost when it came to who all the recurring characters were, However, once I let go of trying to figure out who everyone was, the story was actually quite cute.

Lola is tapped to masquerade as a Sacramento Royals basketball cheerleader so she can try to discover who is sending the girls threatening letters. While Lola can salsa with the best of them, she is not a cheerleader. But Lola is determined to prove to her boss and mentor, Manny, that he made the right choice in giving the assignment to her. Her assignment does lead to some rather funny encounters at a naturalist (think nudist) colony and the run-in with her brother and boyfriend when they find out what she's up to.

Lola's relationship with Jack took a turn in this book. While I don't really know what happened to Lola and Jack previous to this book, you could see that Jack's relationship with his crazy ex-girlfriend was a serious hot button for Lola. While the hot button doesn't really go away at the end of the story, I think Lola's dealing with it and her decision that Jack is worth it make it easier for her to "accept" the situation with the ex.

This was cute, fun read with a main character who was lovable and had you pulling for her right from the beginning.

[MurderByDeath]

Great fun! Very fast read, with a good plot and lots of well placed and well timed clues. I've been a fan of this series from the start and was very happy to see Bare-Naked Lola released - I had sort of given up on seeing another one. I loved the interplay between Lola and Callahan and I think the author did a nice job with the tension between the two. The family is crazy but nobody is so over-the-top that I wanted to smack them. Don't know what's going on between her and her boss, but it's intriguing, with hints throughout the series that could develop further, or just go nowhere.

I hope to see many more adventures with Lola in the future - she's great fun. :)