DIGITAL DOMAIN
Bondi Blonde - Lucille Howe (2012)
It's just before Christmas and London magazine staffer Emily is attending an MTV party to launch Jessica Alba's latest movie. The next day, she's late to a boardroom meeting where it is announced the magazine has been sold and their jobs are gone. Even though her knowledge of Australia barely extends beyond what she's learnt off the Neighbours soapie, Emily books herself a flight to Sydney. But just before she goes, her ex Jude, a photographer, comes back into her life and she struggles with her decision to still go ahead with her escape Down Under. Landing in Bondi where the women are all bikini babes and the boys are all bronzed surfers, Emily soon gets caught up in this body-conscious world. While struggling with her weight, she catches a career break, has a sizzling romance with barista Sam and enters the Miss Bondi contest. This is an entertaining beach read and Howe certainly has a sharp wit about her but overall it's a bit vacuous like some of those Bondi models.
British journalist Lucille Howe started writing Bondi Blonde while working for Cosmopolitan magazine in Sydney. The summary says: "It's Christmas Eve and jobless Emily has just made the biggest impulse buy of her life. Arriving on Bondi Beach, pear-shaped, lily-white and clutching a bottle of factor 30, she has two options: 1. Hide out in the Irish pubs or 2. Get with the program. Join Emily as she falls for Sam, the hot barista, and meets her nemesis in Kiki, the Japanese surf siren. Bondified, and bent on perfection, will Emily be saved from the surgeon's scalpel? Can she win Miss Bondi, and does love mean reading between the tan lines?"