Andie Appleton goes on holiday to Las Vegas for an escape. The last thing she expected to find was the man of her dreams- the too good to be true Leon. Leon’s zest for life is what attracts Andie immediately to this stranger, but a fire drill rips the two apart. Without getting any information from him, Andie feels desperate to find Leon from Arizona. When she must head back to Ireland and get back to work as a journalist, she figures she will never see Leon again. But when she is retelling her love story gone wrong to her co-workers, her conniving boss overhears and decides to push the story. Soon, Andie is retelling her Looking for Leon tale in columns, which is a hit for readers. A TV station decides to pick up the story and send Andie back to Vegas to continue her hunt for Leon. The search garners nation-wide attention- but no Leon. During the process, Andie gets thrown together with Colm the camera-man, who she immediately despises. But as the search continues and no Leon pops up, Andie begins to wonder if she possibly found the man of her dreams anyways…
Looking For Leon is the debut novel from Shirley Benton, and I found it to be enjoyable. The beginning and the end were both fast-paced and lively, but the middle really slowed the story down. I thought a handful of scenes could have been cut from the novel, I didn’t find that they moved the story or any characters along, and I think that is part of the reason why the middle was lagging. I thought the concept was unique and Benton can definitely write humor, which gave me plenty of laughs throughout the way. The ending was very shocking and quite sad; I shed a few tears during the last chapters. I thought this was a good debut but just a little lacking in a few areas, but I would still recommend Looking For Leon.
[Rating: 3.5]
