Lime by Melda Beaty.

This is a first person narrative of a black woman, of Ethiopian descent, with a British accent, living in Chicago who becomes a Supermodel. She is called Lime because her eyes are green in colour.

The aim of this book is to highlight abuse and violence against women. Melda Beaty starts off her book when Lime goes to hospital to visit her bestfriend AJ, who has been brutally attacked by an ex-boyfriend. This alerts the reader to the very real problem of violence against women. Then the story goes back in time before Lime becomes a model and she is working for an accountant. From here it becomes a regular tale of a woman who has a dream to become a model and is successful in her quest. Lime is taken on as a model and she becomes famous. This is now a story of fame, glamour, money and success. Lime even picks up an Airline pilot as a boyfriend. The story rolls on to the part when AJ is attacked, her recovery and Lime's attempts to help her and other victims of domestic violence.

Violence against women is wrong and I appreciate how Melda is using her novel to bring about social change. I fully support her aims but I found this book a disappointment. I did not like the structure Melda used, going back in time is one of my pet hates. Lime was written in an light reading, holiday book, magazine article style. Everything goes well for Lime and she is so lucky. Lime travels the world and has money coming out of her ears. I found this fame and glamour a real turn off. I did not develop an empathy for Lime.

As a campaign for women's rights, this book is okay and does it's job. But as a regular novel, Lime is a POOR read. Everything is in place for Lime to be successful in everything she tries to do. She has good friends and family who open doors for her. All the detail is already there for Lime to be the admirable heroine. Things are just so convenient for Lime that it is plain sailing for her all the way.

When I got to the end of this novel, I felt a little betrayed. I was left with the strong feeling that I had ploughed through a lenghty resource of human rights campaign literature that was disguised as a regular novel. The plot was nothing out of the ordinary and the writing was not special. The characters were there to help the campaign and were from tick box stereotype bingo. Lime was a disappointing POOR read that I will only vote 2 stars.

This novel was written in 2012 and is available as a 434 KB Amazon Kindle eBook.