Little Black Dress Books (Informal) Challenge

Little Black Dress was an imprint of Headline Publishing and specialized in chick lit(ish) books. Little, cute one's. 

Some years ago I challenged myself to read all of their back catalog. Problem was, they released new books in the series faster than I could read them so I got sidetracked.

I recently came across another one of their books and went to their website to see how many hundreds of books they had by now, but they seem to have stopped publishing them :(

They used to have a website at http://www.littleblackdressbooks.com/little-black-dress-books.html but that's gone now too, sadly. There is a FB group but I don't think that's maintained either.

They were such cute books, I'm a bit sad that they are no more. I'm going to challenge myself to read them all and this time I'll do it! It's hard to find a complete list, even the website didn't keep up to date with a list of all titles but I've managed to track down 124 of them and add the missing ones to the database over there and that will be the goal at the start. If I find any more I'll add them to the total but for now....124 LBD books it is!!

I just like having them all in one place with a goal to work towards. Plus, the cover gallery for them all is a thing of beauty :)

Feel free to join the challenge and keep me company!! No start and finish date, just an informal dip in and out type challenge but I'd love to hear from you if decide to join in.

DNF at 27% - The Martian by Andy Weir

I just don't get the Hype.

Audible: Running Time: 10hrs 59min
Publisher: Audible Studios
Publication date: 01 Jan 2020
B082BGX3CG

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars's surface, with no way to signal Earth that he's alive. And even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, Mark won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.

Armed with nothing but his ingenuity, his engineering skills--and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of strength--Mark embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive. But will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

DNF at 27%.  I should have known it would end like this since it's a Richard and Judy recommended read.  I may or may not go back and try again some time but definitely not in audible form.  I thought I could just let my mind wander when it got to the science-y bits but there's just too much of it.  I could lay down the headphones, go hang out the washing, come back and he'd STILL be going on about how to mix gasses. 

I like the guy in the story, Mark, but there's only so much I take.  The bits going on back here at home were interesting but not enough to keep me going.

Gutted that yet again I fail to get the hype.  I should just steer well clear of hot books, I never get them.

Review - The Queen's Promise by Lyn Andrews

Kindle: 496 pages
Publisher: Headline
Publication date: 28 Feb 2013

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 075538671X

Alluring Anne Boleyn knows she is required to use her charm to her advantage - and secure the status of her family at the Tudor court. She easily captivates the noblemen, most notably Henry Percy, future Earl of Northumberland and, hopeful of her father's approval, Anne agrees to a secret betrothal.

Controlling Cardinal Wolsey, though, will not countenance an alliance which could threaten his position. Exiled to the north, Henry is forced into a marriage of duty, whilst Anne's fortunes reverse when she bewitches the King himself. Unwilling to be simply his mistress, Anne will settle for nothing but the throne. But great power brings even greater enemies, and Anne's past actions - and long-kept secrets - might prove to be her undoing...

Anne Boleyn's life and subsequent death have been the subject of many, many books. She was a fascinating woman and her story makes for a riveting read.

There can't be many angles left which haven't already been explored to tell her story but The Queen's Promise seems to have found a refreshing one. It's told mostly from the viewpoint of Sir Henry Percy and his squire and really Anne is just one of the supporting cast, rather than the main focus. This is a story about Henry, for the most part. Anne is in there, obviously, but the story most Tudor fans will recognise has been turned inside out and it's like being on the inside looking out, rather than the outside looking in.

I liked that about this book. Henry Percy is usually mentioned briefly in most other stories about Anne. He was the young gentleman who fell in love with the young Miss Boleyn and I don't really know that much about him but I felt I got to know him so much better, thanks to this book.

It's got it's flaws and sometimes I got frustrated that it wasn't heading in the direction I wanted it to follow but overall it's a great story which is well told.

A great book for Tudor fans, History fans and romance fans. It's still a tragic tale but it's got a bit of everything in here.

Review - Unbelievable by Jennifer Pickup

Kindle: 320 pages
Publisher: Unbound
Publication date: 05 April 2012
ASIN: B00WDP9IP8

Neona White is rather extraordinary. The thing is, while she knows that she's very different from other teenagers, she doesn't know quite how different…yet.

A traumatic incident leaves Neona without the desire to keep living and a fear that she's not entirely human, and her mother is less than forthcoming. She is soon sent to live with her Grandmother where, after making some unusual new friends, she begins a dangerous quest to unravel the mysteries of her identity. Her supernatural identity.

Neona continues to face the eternal struggle between what people want her to be and who she actually is, as the world she thought she knew begins to disclose its unbelievable secrets.

I read this over a few days and my enjoyment of it rose and fell throughout. In the end I came down on the side of 'Really liked' because it was a good story, but there were a few times when I thought it was going to end badly for my rating.

My biggest problem with it was the secrets and lies and all the cloak and dagger stuff. It drove me mad. The story itself is a good one but I felt that a lot of the suspense and angst just didn't make sense. It felt forced and as the story progressed it became obvious that the withholding of information wasn't justified or explainable.

The whole tale revolves around Neona (the heroine) being different but not knowing why or how. She asks those closest to her if they know anything that will help her figure it out and they all say "NO, we know nothing". Something happens and they all say "Oh yeah, I knew that but didn't tell you when you asked because....Really? I'm not sure why I can't/won't tell you". I'm paraphrasing but that's about the size of it all the way through. 

She asks questions - she gets no answers or only half answers - something happens and she finds out a bit more herself - they tell her they knew that all the time but didn't tell her - she asks if they know more - they say "No" - something new happens and she finds out they knew about that too - and on and on and on. It became tiresome. 

Having said all that, I did like the story. I would want to find out what happens next but if there is any more to this story I'll hope the 'secrecy for secrecy's sake' is missing.

Review - The Greatest Love Story of All Time by Lucy Robinson

Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: Penguin 
Publication date: 12 April 2012

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0241952986

It's Fran's thirtieth birthday and things are good . . .

She's bluffed her way into a Very Posh Job and her outlandishly handsome and talented boyfriend Michael is escorting her to the Ritz with a bulge the shape of a ring box in his pocket.

But something has gone wrong. Very wrong. By the end of the evening Fran is howling in bed with a bottle of cheap brandy and one of Michael's old socks.

In her quest to figure out why her life has suddenly gone down the pan, Fran comes up with a failsafe plan: live like a badger, stalk a stranger called Nellie and cancel her beloved Gin Thursdays in favour of drinking gin every night. But then Fran's friends force a very different plan on her and it's nowhere near as fun. How could eight dates possibly make her feel better?

But eventually she agrees. And so begins the greatest love story of all time . . .

This has so many good reviews, I thought I was in for a great read. I was disappointed.

There was a lot of swearing in this one and despite not being bothered by it I did think it was a bit overdone for a Chick-lit read. That's not the reason I didn't warm to this story though...the single defining reason that this was a terrible read for me was Fran's Scottish friend, Dave. Yes, he's funny and yes he's a good friend to Fran but as soon as he called her by the cute little 'nickname' he had for her I couldn't bear him.

I'm Scottish so I've heard that word used plenty, and in it's proper context. It's really NOT a nice name. It certainly isn't a name to be used in affection for a close (female) friend by a man. *shudder*

There's no grey area here, it's just simply not a name anyone would want to be called. It's derogatory. The word might sound harmless to someone who's unsure of it's meaning, but it's really not.

Had it been used once I might have been able to overlook it. Maybe. But it's used over and over and over. If Dave were real he'd find himself without any friends if he persisted in calling them that name.

I can only assume the Author knows the word from a Scottish acquaintance and used it without knowing the connotations. It was a terrible choice of word. Had she checked the Urban Dictionary she'd have been in no doubt that it was a poor choice.

For me, that word just sucked all the joy out of reading this.

DNF - The Outside by Laura Bickle

Wow.   I just... What the hell just happened? I rarely pass comment on the books I DNF, but I can't get my head round this one. W.T.F?

Were they even written by the same person?  I can't even.  

I barely know where to begin. 

Disappointed!!

 

Review - Dead Road Vol. 1 by Robert Paine

Paperback: 51 pages
Publisher: Smashwords 
Publication date: 07 July 2013

ASIN: B00DTXDRAA

It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation. It turned out to be the complete opposite...

A camping trip in the mountains of Vermont is interrupted when a group of friends discover there has been a zombie outbreak. Having been disconnected from the world for the past week, and one of their group already bitten, the friends have to make their way down the mountain and find safety.

Can the group cover miles of dark woods on foot while trying to avoid getting overtaken by the undead? What caused the outbreak? Are there any other survivors?

Just a little mini-review because it's just a little mini-story.  I don't know why I keep trying these serial stories... Oh wait, I do...The first parts are free! 

51 pages.  It's like a couple of chapters worth and not very satisfying.  The story itself had potential but too much of my reading time was spent picking out typos and tense slippage and wishing ill luck on the characters as they were tstl. 

Ok, so imagine this - You're a guy and and you and two of your spooked guy friends are being chased down a mountain track by a pack of zombies.  There are probably a couple dozen of them and they're only 5 minutes behind you on the trail.  You stop for a second to catch your breath and a stray zombie stumbles out of nowhere and knocks you flat and tries to eat you.  Your friend takes a hatchet to it and eventually stoves it's head in.  It's all good but when you get up off the ground you notice there's zombie gunk on the back of your jeans.. Oh noes!.  It's stinky and messy!  

Do you:

• a) Say "Whatev's" and keep running down the mountain because you just wasted 4 minutes of your 5 minute lead while fighting off the stray one?  

Or:

• b) Strip off your pack, your hiking boots,  your jeans and your socks, root around in your pack for clean jeans and barely get your new pair of jeans on before you see the minute lead that you had on the zombies has actually now dwindled to about 10 seconds which results in you taking off barefoot to complete the last 9 miles of the mountain hike to the bottom?

Our MC chose poorly.  He went with option 'b'.  

Yeah, I know...  Give me a break! 

It just goes downhill from there (no pun intended) and I stopped caring about how stupid it was because I knew I only had about 5 more minutes until it was finished. 

It'll come as no shock to hear that I won't be buying any further into the series.

Review - The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date: 25 September 2012
ISBN13: 9780547859262

Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers can get a taste of the real world. But the real world comes to her in this dystopian tale with a philosophical bent. Rumors of massive unrest on the “Outside” abound. Something murderous is out there. Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man, she can’t leave him to die. She smuggles him into her family’s barn—at what cost to her community? The suspense of this vividly told, truly horrific thriller will keep the pages turning.

Is this a Movie yet?!! If not, why not?!! 

I've been wanting to read a story featuring the Amish for quite a while now and have been collecting interesting ones when I find them.  I've had this one since it first came out but was put off a bit as I think it's YA.  I don't usually get much from YA stories but there are always exceptions, plus I was also in the mood for something end-of-the-world-y so I figured I could use this one to kill two birds with one stone.  I wasn't sure what I was getting into as Vampire apocalypse and the Amish don't really go together...Turns out they go together like PB & J!!

I. Loved. It.  Simply wonderful.  I lapped it all up and the only reason I didn't finish it in one day was that I had to sleep, otherwise I'd have ripped through it.   

Great writing, great storytelling, great characters, great dialogue, great everything.  Plain folk and scary vampires, what's not to love?! 

I've heard that the next one isn't as good but I'm going to try it anyway and I'll hopefully get to it this week while it's all still fresh in my mind as I'm keen to see what happens next.  Especially if the Bishop meets a grisly end. 

Review - Red winter by Drew Montgomery

Paperback: 291 pages
Publisher: 3.5 Miles Behind Stage Publishing
Publication date: 13 Apr 2013

ASIN: B007U92R4Q

Accounts of the plague are few and far between. No one knows how it started or how it spread so quickly, and even in the era of social media, little was recorded. There were, however, a few who struggled to keep hope alive, to maintain a semblance of normalcy in the face of panic. This is the blog of one such person, unaltered and unedited so that the world may know of the last days of life as we know it.

The fall of humankind told through one man's blog in the suspenseful prologue to The Plague, now available.

I found this one deep down in the far reaches of my kindle shelves so it must have been there some time as I rarely venture down there these days.  I'm guessing it must have been a freebie at some point because I wouldn't pay the current price of £0.99 for it.  It's 33 pages long.  Granted, it's not too terrible as short stories go, but still...33 pages. 

It's not without some typo's and at least one slippage in tense but overall it was entertaining while it lasted.  I'd actually be happy to read a full book about this apocalyptic world. The zombie apocalypse is always something I can get behind and rarely tire of and this was a nice addition.

It's set out in a sort of blog format and is written by a survivor on his own (If his name was given I don't remember it).  The blog entries are spaced out over about a month and it's nicely done and the pacing is good.  The ending was satisfying but I wish it could have gone on for longer.  It's quite hard to find good zombie fiction that is just about the surviving aspect but this one ticked most of my boxes so a bit disappointed it wasn't longer.  I see that the author has a longer one available called Plague though so I'll give that one a try too. 

Review - Nowhere But Home by Liza Palmer

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: 02 Apr 2013
ISBN13: 9780062007476

Queenie Wake, a country girl from North Star, Texas, has just been fired from her job as a chef for not allowing a customer to use ketchup. Again. Now the only place she has to go is home to North Star. She can hope, maybe things will be different. Maybe her family's reputation as those Wake women will have been forgotten. It's been years since her mother-notorious for stealing your man, your car, and your rent money-was killed. And her sister, who as a teenager was branded as a gold-digging harlot after having a baby with local golden boy Wes McKay, is now the mother of the captain of the high school football team. It can't be that bad…

Who knew that people in small town Texas had such long memories? And of course Queenie wishes that her memory were a little spottier when feelings for her high school love, Everett Coburn, resurface. He broke her heart and made her leave town-can she risk her heart again?

At least she has a new job-sure it's cooking last meals for death row inmates but at least they don't complain!

But when secrets from the past emerge, will Queenie be able to stick by her family or will she leave home again? A fun-filled, touching story of food, football, and fooling around.

Mostly I pick which book to read next based on cover alone.  When I first buy the book I skim the blurb to see if it's in the ballpark of something I'd like and to make sure it's got nothing in it that would turn me off.  After sitting on my kindle or bookshelves for eons I've usually long forgotten what it's about by the time I finally get around to reading it.  I rarely if ever read the reviews for books I'm about to read either so I go in blind most of the time. 

I read across all kinds of genres so my shelves are a total mismatch and riot of covers and I never know what I'm in the mood for until one of the covers calls to me.  

This cover called.  From the looks of it I had thought it might be a quirky Small Town Romance but it's sooo much more. Actually, I wouldn't even call it a romance, it's just Small Town but I still love this book!

I'm never very good at giving a quick run through of plot and there's just so much to this one that I barely know where to start with it but long story short...

The names of the MC and her sister actually threw me a bit in the beginning and took a while to grow on me but eventually I just loved everything about them, including their names.  Queen Elizabeth and Merry Carole.

Queen Elizabeth (Queenie), is a talented chef and originally from a small Texas town (North Star).  She has spent the past ten years moving from one job to another and from big city to big city to try and outrun her past which has left her with a lot of emotional baggage.  Top of her baggage list would be - Being raised by an uncaring and at times cruel mother who had a taste for other women's husbands, a town full of mean girls and snobby first families who took delight in letting her (and her sister Merry Carole) know they were considered trash, and a broken heart from the man she's loved since they were in junior school together.  After losing her latest catering position and tied accommodation she returns home to North Star to try and collect her thoughts and see where she should run to next. 

While she's considering her options on where to head next she's offered a position as chef at the local prison, with the responsibility of cooking the Last Meal for prisoners on Death Row.  

It all sounds a bit bleak, no?  Just take another look at that cover though... It's a story about finding yourself and making your own luck and laying your demons to rest by meeting them head on.  It's such a great story and I'm selling it short and probably turning a lot of people off it but it's brilliant. 

For all it sounds depressing it's actually really heartwarming and the characters are vivid and funny and likeable and the Texas setting just came to life for me.  I loved every single thing about this book.  Everything!

I'm rambling.   I find it really hard to put into words how I feel about 5* books but I want to let as many people as possible know that this is a great read.  My mum isn't much of a reader but I pick out two or three titles a year to pass on to her as being special and this one went straight to her house. 

I'm going to go now and buy all Liza Palmer's other stories and although I may take my time in getting to them I know that when I do they'll be written by someone who knows how to tell a story.  This lady can write!