Review: Lottie Biggs is (Not) Tragic by Hayley Long

Just when things were starting to look up for Lottie her life's gone a bit pear-shaped, wonk-ways and downside up again. Her mum's all soppy over a bloke with a horrible shemo daughter, her best pal Goose has disappeared in a cloud of nerd-gas and Lottie's in the midst of an existential crisis. There's only one thing to do - get the hell out of Cardiff and go on the road with the gorgeous Gareth Stingecombe (and his manly thighs). But things don't go to plan, and Lottie starts to realise she might have been a bit me me me lately...a female emo.

Firstly, I think that it's worth pointing out that this is the third book in the series, but it's the only one that I've read, thankfully it's a book that you can pick up and not have to have read the whole series to get. 

 In the press release, I was promised Louise Rennison meets Jacqueline Wilson, both of which were favourites of mine a few years ago, so obviously, this book had a lot to live up to. I can see the comparisons to Louise Rennison, but whats this about 'all the depth of Jacqueline Wilson', maybe it's just me, but I thought that this book was actually pretty shallow. Not that that was a flaw!

I really enjoyed this book, it was witty, fun, sarcastic and had me giggling my head off at so many points! Lottie is such a funny and relateable main character, I totally saw myself in her, blowing the smallest situations out of proportion and trying to be a lot cleverer than she actually is so that was what I totally loved! I also totally loved Gareth, her boyfriend, he is so funny and sweet and totally wacky that he just hit the spot for me!

This book doesn't really have a steady plot, it's more a lot of random events happening around one main event and I liked this about it, it meant that I was never actually waiting for anything to happen and that I didn't really have any pacing issues. It also meant that I didn't really connect with the story though, so that was a bit of a problem. The pictures were a good point though, it made the book more interesting and seem less like just a reading experience. I also want to point out that this book is so British! (Though Lottie, Goose and Gareth would shout "WELSH" at me!), I totally love books with British slang and stuff!

Overall, Lottie Biggs is not Tragic was a totally fun and refreshing read, with a totally awesome and witty main character and so pretty wacky happenings I really enjoyed it. I connected with the characters but can't say that I fully connected with the story!

Overall rating: B+


Stand alone/series: Third in a series (preceded by Lottie Biggs is Not Mad and Lottie Biggs is Not Desperate)
UK Release: August 5th 2011
Publisher: Macmillan Childrens (PanMacmillan)
Book obtained via: Received from the publisher for review