Riches

by Megan Cole

[Leah]

I really enjoyed Megan Cole’s debut novel Fortune, so it was inevitable that I’d buy her second novel, Riches. It’s a very different novel to its predecessor, but it keeps the rich feel of the first book as all the girls are rich and beautiful (as we’re rather constantly reminded). Fortune is more light and airy and more of a beach read than Riches. Despite the fact I liked the idea of Riches, I did feel it was very, very over the top. If you want to read – and enjoy – the book, you’re going to have to suspend your beliefs as three girls from different parts of the world unite in a bid to save their parents and rescue a diamond(!) in the process. Oh, not to mention, they flit from Morocco, to Australia, to India at the drop of a hat. Don’t get me wrong, Fortune was OTT, too, but it had more of a beach-read OTT feel and Riches doesn’t have that. Riches is just seriously OTT.

Riches is a very quick read, and I finished it in a matter of hours and it is very readable despite it’s believability (or lack thereof). And despite calling it OTT, I did enjoy getting lost in the world of Celina, Jhumpa and Luci for a few hours and it’s the kind of read that doesn’t really offend and is just a very quick read. The book is let down massively by the editing – I mean, seriously, I read lots of books with lots of errors but Megan Cole is, hands down, the worst writer ever. She has the worst editing team, too, just to add on the pressure. This is an author and editing team who do not know of the word “brought” and instead Jhumpa “bought herself up”. Oh yes, that is what the sentence says. She bought herself. And it continues, at least three or four times in the novel the word “bought” is used instead of “brought”. I mean, it’s basic English for God’s sake and it makes me so angry it was allowed to slip through, along with numerous other spellings errors and wrongly-worded sentences. If I managed to spot it straight away, then what the heck were her editing team looking at? There’s nothing worse than a badly-spelt book. It’s just lazy.

Overall, I enjoyed Riches. It wasn’t as good as Fortune, although the editing errors were on par with each other(!). If Megan Cole brings out a third novel, I will pick it up as despite the OTT plots and OTT characters and constant use of the word “OMG” I do enjoy her books. They’re light and fluffy and they quite easily pass a couple of hours and I enjoy reading them. Riches won’t set the world alight, but for a quick beach read it does the business nicely. Sometimes it’s nice to read something somewhat light and Riches fit the bill for me and I’d definitely read a third Megan Cole novel, though if only if I’m allowed to proof-read it first… (Just joking.) (Really.)