Review: Bare-Naked Lola by Misa Ramirez

Bare-Naked Lola by Misa Bourbon Ramirez
Goodreads Summary:

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…

Dislosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher/author via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

My Review:
It's kind of difficult to review mysteries. If you mention something and say it's not a spoiler, then you're basically giving away the fact that that's not a clue/important, etc. Which is a spoiler. So I like to focus on characters because I think that in the modern cozy-type mystery, characters make or break the story. Why? Because most of these are series and you have to like and/or be interested enough in the characters to keep reading the series year after year.

Which brings us back to this series and its main character, Lola. Now, the previous book in the series, Hasta la Vista, Lola!, was released in 2010. Then, no book in 2011. I was disappointed and sad because I really like the MC, Lola. So, I'm very happy that this series is continuing. More importantly- for review purposes- is that I even remember Lola. Now, I read about 400 books a year. I've read 1000's of mysteries. Many of the mysteries blend together and I often can't remember the name of the main character, but I do remember Lola. I love Lola's loving, loud, sweet, and eccentric extended family as much as I love the mystery parts of the book. The one bad thing about this series: not enough of Lola's grandpa. Who I just think is adorable and cute. This is why creating great and memorable characters is so important in a mystery. Every year when you get the latest book in the series, it should be like going to a family reunion. It should feel like visiting and catching up with friends. And this is how that series feels.

Back to this book...in part of it, Lola needs to do some investigation at a nudist resort. Which, um, Yuck. And because Lola shares my feelings about nudist resorts, the scenes there are among the funniest in the book. The nudist colony pretty much freaks Lola out. I think that Lola would agree with my "4 Layers Rule". Which is logical and only right when you think about it. The "4 Layers Rule" is one of the cornerstones of my family's neuroses. The "Rule" states that: "At all times there should be 4 layers of clothing between your genitals and other people's genitals." (Your underwear and pants/dress/skirt and the other person's underwear... 4 layers.) Now obviously a nudist colony violates The Rule in an extreme way and, rightly, this kind of leads to Lola's discomfort with being there. In a humorous way. Just thinking about someone getting all gross and sweaty playing naked volleyball, then going into the (nudist) restaurant and sitting their sweaty...um, butt on a chair...that I would later sit on. {{{Shudder}}}

   

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Overall Rating: 3 1/2 stars  
Genre Rating: 4 1/2 Magnifying glasses 

   
The author also writes The Magical Dressmaking Mysteries under the name Melissa Bourbon. This is another great mystery series you should check out. The first book in the series is Pleating for Mercy.