Bel Reviews: Liz Deep-Jones – "Lucy Zeezou's Glamour Game"

It’s hard enough being a girl when you love to play the male-dominated sport of soccer. It sucks being told you can no longer play on the same team as your mates. To be relegated to a girls only team, for which there are only a certain number of positions. To have to make the team or miss out for an entire season.

Lucy Zoffi is part of a world famous family. Dad plays for AC Milan, Mum’s a model, and together they run a fashion label called Love Lucy. This equals insane public outings, with the paparazzi following them everywhere. This kind of life seems normal to Lucy (though an annoying normal), right up until the media get hold of the information that Lucy has a half brother who has just signed with AC Milan. The stable life she’s always known is tipped on its end. How will Lucy keep her world from shattering apart?

Liz Deep-Jones knows her stuff when it comes to sport–she’s been a part of the media covering the FIFA World Cup, the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the Australian Open Tennis, and is also an ambassador for Sydney Football Club. So, it should be no surprise when I tell you the action sequences had me bouncing in my seat. Capturing the heart-stopping adrenalin rush of being on the pitch is not an easy thing, and can sometimes fall flat when the author is imagining, rather than living, it. I’ll bet there’s a pair of shin pads in Liz’s handbag.

The paparazzi moments are extremely suffocating. It must be a scary thing, being the hottest thing since sliced bread. Being a young teen in that situation would be enough to explain the young Hollywood misfits. The reactions of some of the characters seem a little bland for the enormity of the complex situations Deep-Jones puts them through, however, and how Lucy’s dog GiGi gets out of Australia and into Milan so easily had me scratching my head. If you liked Bend it like Beckham, you’ll enjoy Lucy Zeezou’s Glamour Game. The fast pace and witty repartee makes this a great read for those mornings when the weather is too horrible for kicking the ball around.

Lucy Zeezou’s Glamour Game – Liz Deep-Jones

Author details for Liz Deep-Jones

1 June, 2010 by Random House

Paperback, 274 Pages

ISBN: 9781864719734