Nefertiti's Prodigy

Bellydancing and Beyond #1

by Kerrie McLeod

Nefertiti's Prodigy is a funny, hilarious but bitter sweet romantic comedy, about a big girl who escapes the trap of self pity by learning belly dancing.
Sheryl finally hit rock bottom. She lost her job and her partner and to boot has to work as a cleaner for her abusive mother’s friends.
Her mother is a nasty critic and gossip who is fast driving Sheryl to obesity with her relentless criticism.
Sheryl eats to drown her sorrows, drinks to forget he mother’s humiliations, and lives in a fantasy world, obsessing over her sexual desire, an American wrestler on television. She spends all her time watching matches. Sheryl is unloved, full of self-pity, totally out of shape and trapped in a life that can only lead to self-destruction.
But things start changing for Sheryl when she meets Nefertiti, a belly dancing teacher that has taught her that big curvy girls are sexy too; it is all about self-confidence. Sheryl’s dancing is outstanding and she unleashes her sensuality and beauty so the extra pounds no longer matter on the dance floor.
When Nefertiti invites Sheryl to join her in a performance for the American Wrestler she idolizes, it’s the opportunity of a life time to finally meet the man she has “cum” to love from afar. Finally she could make her mother swallow her words, show everyone she is not a fat loser, and get chance to shine, but will she have the courage to go through with it when she is on the stage?
This funny romantic comedy is full of interesting characters and funny scenes and is set in Scotland.
If you loved Bridget Jones Mad about the Boy book, or Big Girl Panties, or Cuban Fury this comedy is for you.

Genres: Contemporary, Amazon

177 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[E.P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sheryl is a sturdily-built woman whose talents are belly dancing and DIY, neither of which were appreciated by the shallow Martin, the married man who broke her heart when he moved on to the younger Imogene. Now Sheryl spends all her time doing chores for her mother, fantasizing about the American wrestler Johnston, and failing to pick up on the passion of Steven, the librarian/aspiring novelist who secretly pines for her. When Nefertiti, Sheryl's aging belly-dancing instructor, is invited to perform at a wrestling event in Oban, Scotland, and asks Sheryl to be her helper, this could be Sheryl's big chance at happiness--or her big chance at embarrassment.

"Sheryl's Last Stand" belongs to the genre of comedic chick-lit featuring hard-drinking British heroines, of which "Bridget Jones's Diary" is a particularly genteel, American-friendly version. "Sheryl's Last Stand" is much more over the top with the drinking and the slapstick, and involves a slight mystery plot as well. Although some readers might be put off by a main character who spends most of the book hungover, fans of romance, chick lit/comedy, and cozy mysteries will all find things to enjoy about this book. A quick read good for a light laugh, and--who knows?--it might make you want to find out more about belly dancing.

[Robin Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is a woman supposed to do when she’s had a nice home, a soulmate as well as a wonderful career and then all a sudden loses everything, forcing her to start back at the beginning; and to make things worse this woman is already past the age of 35. Sheryl is the woman in this story who already knows that finding love at her age is basically a dream only fools can dare dream about. However, this time around she’s not going to do it by her lonesome, she’ll be constantly under the watchful prying eyes of her sister, her wheelchair bound mother, and several assorted friends who have known her since she was crawling around on the floor still wearing diapers.

One of the problems in all this is that her mother happens to be a horrid faultfinder and gossipmonger who through her persistent criticism of her daughter is slowly but surely driving Sheryl into becoming a fat cow

Sheryl is on journey fraught things such as a obsessive sexual desires for heavyweight American wrestler on television that she spends countless hours watching wrestling matches. She then discovers Nerfertiti, a belly dancing instructor who teaches her that even chucky women like herself can become quite alluring once they’ve mastered the art.

Kismet seems to have come into Sheryl’s life and existence when she gets invited by Nerfertiti to join her in dancing for the American wrestler she’s been infatuated with from a distance and sees it as a chance of a lifetime to end her misery.

Will Sheryl succeed in making her mother eat her own words about fat women being worthless? Does Sheryl possess the determination and fortitude to actually perform in front of her heartthrob?

For having given her readers a poignant romantic comedy I’m happy to give Ms. Noor 5 STARS.

[Dcdfn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is hard to start over when your heart and spirit have been crushed. Sheryl's friends and family are determined to make her realize how capable she really is even though all but one fall into the category of "with friends like these who needs enemies?". The characters are all so zany it is easy to remember who's who. It's fast paced with many scenes reminiscent of a Marx Brother's skit.

[Sara Hawkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh my.
This book was boring. The characters were bland, the story was meh, the writing was choppy.
I couldn't get into it at all.

[Judy Munoz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a review copy of this book from the author through Voracious Readers. I did enjoy this book. It was a captivating story - I had never read a book involving belly-dancing and wrestling before - so that was entertaining. I can’t say anything about the belly-dancing, but the wrestling references and the characters’ reactions were right on point. I enjoyed each of the characters- and ‘characters’ they were, each unique and true to life. The only criticism I can make is that I did find the writing to be a little choppy at times - and sometimes - a little hard to follow who was speaking. Other than that, it was a very enjoyable read.

[Beth Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written but Not my style I don’t think - I was expecting more humour.

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet story, takes a few chapters to get into it. Story remains a little manic throughout, glad I stayed reading to the end though.

[Marzena Wrobel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can’t remember the last time I read a book that would be so critical towards women by women.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once I got the hang of Scot’s speech patterns the story moved along. Wild and crazy

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boring

[Joy T · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny story about Sheryl starting over. Her romantic life, her relationship with her mother who is something else and her friendships. Her newest passions: belly dancing and large wrestlers.

[Gayle England-Triplett · Rating 1 out of 5]

Juvenile.

Poor editing...grammatical errors, spelling errors, profanity. I had to stop reading!! Not a mature storyline. There were a few funny parts, but still not worth it.

[Kevin McAllion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poor Sheryl, the heroine of this excellent comedy, has suffered more than her fair share of low blows from the cruel hands of fate. Upon seeing her marriage collapse when her husband finally summons up the courage to come out of the closet, she falls for a lothario called Martin who soon ditches her when a younger and slimmer mistress catches his eye. Any faint hope of a reconciliation fades further at the start of the novel when Sheryl learns Martin's new beau is up the duff, forcing her to take solace in the bottle.
Drowning her sorrows has become an increasing common solution, especially when one factors in her cantankerous mother Beatrice, who is confined to a wheelchair after suffering a stroke. Sheryl spends most of her time attending to the many errands and menial jobs Beatrice assigns her and has but two pleasures to preserve her sanity...wrestling and belly dancing.
Having been let down repeatedly by the men in her life, Sheryl has now decided to project all her lust and emotional energy onto an American wrestler called Johnson, whose dusky and rippled frame adorns her bedroom walls. She eventually gets the chance to meet the object of her affection when the wrestling roadshow winds into Oban and crosses paths with her other passion.
The leader of her belly dancing class, an ageing but fearless hippy called Nefertiti, has been booked to provide the entertainment for a party thrown in honour of the wrestlers. But Nefertiti's participation is thrown into doubt when she splits up with her artistic boyfriend Rodger, who has been plotting an exhibition to run in tandem with the wrestling show. Nefertiti is Rodger's muse and the exhibition centres around his depictions of her "Flower of Scotland", a euphemism that is thankfully left without a graphic explanation. Broken-hearted Rodger threatens to burn all the paintings as he comes to terms with the breakup while Nefertiti is unsurprisingly aghast about the prospect of her ex displaying her nether regions for public consumption. So she heads off to Oban in a bid to sort things out, with Cheryl brought along to act as her belly dancing understudy and offer moral support.
Joining their travelling party are Beatrice and Steven, Beatrice's co-worker at Lochgilphead library and Sheryl's secret admirer. That admiration doesn't stay secret for long as Beatrice and her cronies discover the Wild West novel he has been working on, which boasts a busty barmaid by the name of Sheryl. His brave hero, Porter, sweeps Sheryl off his feet in the pages of his manuscript but will Steven be able to steal the heart of the real heroine away from Johnson, her wrestling Adonis?

Kerrie Noor builds up the plot with skill and never ceases to entertain. She has a keen eye for dialogue and has more than a few killer one-liners up her sleeve. The book is based on her own experiences of the belly dancing scene in Scotland, something I never even knew existed, and you can tell she's drawing on a rich wealth of stories. The characters are as beautifuly rounded as Sheryl's belly and you feel a real connection with them. My only minor complaint is that there are too many of them as you sometimes see a name crop up and wonder 'Now, who's that again?' But I thoroughly enjoyed Sheryl's Last Stand and I'm glad it's not literally her last stand and other belly dancing adventures await. I shall definitely be back for more of Kerrie Noor's witty and wonderful writing

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

Sheryl is a woman of many layers, be they belly dancing scarves or issues of self-worth. As a protagonist, she is flawed, human, and not everyone might like her, but that’s okay. I found myself rooting for her, and hoping she would prevail.

What I liked about the book:
The characters were flawed and relatable, and their situations tended toward the humorous side. I liked the story enough to finish it in one sitting, and I will be reading the second installment, as I’m now a bit invested in the characters.

What could be improved:
From an editing point of view, it could use another read through to catch some missing words and typos. Also, the story bounces between perspectives without much warning, which I found a bit disorienting. A bit more separation of thought or preamble might help with that.

Overall I liked it and am looking forward to more character development going forward.

[TRACY-ANNE PADDOCK · Rating 2 out of 5]

I recrived a free copy of this book from voracious readers and I'm sorry but no chance would I recommend anyone to read this book. I laughed once I think towards the end and I can only remember that because I just finished it.

It's taken me two weeks longer to read this than it normally takes me to read a book because even though I wanted to finish it as fast as possible just to be finished, I found it hard to pick up and read and would find even the smallest task around my house and garden to do instead of reading it but knew I had to finish to move on to the next book.

Even now I'm not truly sure what the book was about lol and yes there were mistakes which I gave up highlighting because the book just lost all appeal to me very early on and I will not be reading anymore.

[Joyce Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this novel may well be cited as "Sarah's Last Stand" but there was a whole collective of characters and sub-plots that coalesced in the end. Sheryl certainly added to her own duress by over using alcohol. She found her niche in dance. Her romance was hard to see through all the myriad sub-plots and players. The author did set the scenes very well and as like the game of Mahjong each plot is inter-connected to another. All characters and issues assemble at the end where story lines are all tidied up. A fairly complex read to keep a handle on all the characters and issues going on in this story. Interesting read.

I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this novel and I am leaving an honest and unbiased review. I have no affiliation with this author.

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from For Voracious Readers Only for an honest review.

So, here it is. I wanted to like this book. I started reading and nothing. There are too many characters milling around; the characters are not developed enough to help me distinguish between them; and the book is not funny. I stopped after about 50 pages in because I felt like I was forcing myself to continue reading. There are so many good modern rom coms out there.

There were quite a few grammatical errors in the book (run-on sentences), which is a pet peeve. There is also a lot of jumping around within the chapters, sometimes with no warning that the scene is changing and the characters are in a different location.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

To me, this book fit right into my sense of humour. It centres on a small community in a small village(?) in Scotland called Lochgilphead - yes, it does exist, so I'd love to know what they feel about being talked about in the story. I won't go into the story, because other reviewers have done this.

If you like to laugh, or at least smirk, then get this book. [NB. I'm already reading Book 2, and it's just as funny. So maybe you should get both at the same time.]

Highly recommend.

[Barry Martin Vass · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good comedy with fairly depressing characters based for the most part in small-town Scotland. Sheryl is going through a particularly tough time in her life, feeling down about a number of things, and to feel better about herself she turns to belly-dancing. Author Kerrie Ross has an outsider's feel for Scottish life and customs, and Nefertiti's Prodigy is by turns a somewhat funny comedy that struggles with a series of editing issues.

[Myra Gabor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sheryl is single, overweight and lives with her widowed mother. She's also no spring chicken.But her overbearing, overloud mother really only wants what's best for her. She just doesn't realize that her heavy handed hints are getting nowhere with Sheryl. Sheryl has almost given up on men, except for the 80-year old neighbor. It's an adorable story. Sheryl is very much like most of us and we all want her (us) to be happy..

[Jennifer Wertz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was sent a copy of this book from the author through Voracious readers only in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately I really did not enjoy it. The story was difficult to read. There were too many characters all over the place and the scenes were all mixed together between characters in different places with no explanation that it was now somewhere else. I did not really find it very funny and the characters were not relatable at all.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book from VRO in exchange for an honest review.

I was looking forward to reading this book as it was described as a light rom-com. However, I had real trouble getting through it -- it really almost became work to go back to reading this book. I did not find it to be funny, there were so many characters to keep track of and I did not really care about any of them, including the MC Sheryl.

[Rosie Greenwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book from Voracious readers - Thank you

I’m afraid by the time I had read a third of the book I had lost the will to live. I was still waiting for a story line or something to grab my attention. To be honest I read the whole book but really didn’t want to because it held no real storyline.

[Anitra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book from voracious readers only as part of a promotion. I was satisfied with ending. I did get confused in the middle of the story and there were some humorous scenes. I'm glad that the main character was able to become her own person and get the guy in the end which I think was the author's message.

[Maria Woods]

I received a complimentary copy of the book from the author via Voracious Readers Only and its not the kind of story i would usually read but it was very well written kept you guessing what would happen next in the lives if all these characters. I would recomend this book as it bought a smile to my face.

[Cheryl Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this free ebook from Voracious Readers.

I liked this book as it was easy to read, lighthearted and funny in places. It was not at all taxing on my brain although a few times I did have to re-read a few sections as I wasn't sure which character was speaking.

Honestly speaking, I would read it again. Not the best and not the worst.

[Vikkie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I voluntarily reviewed this book after receiving a free copy courtesy of Voracious Readers and Kerrie Noor. The cover initially attracted me to the book and I thought it was going to be an ideal read for the genres I’m currently enjoying. It took me a while to get into this book and I struggled with the introduction of new characters. I did have some laugh out loud moments while reading this.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this quite quickly but I just couldn't keep up with all the new characters that were being introduced. It was a light fluffy read but just not my cup of tea. I was sent a free copy of this book by Voracious Readers.

[Leighann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book free via vicarious readers it took a while to get into but once I did I found it funny

[Welsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny and delightful.