Evie's Little Black Book by Hannah Pearl
Published 21st August 2018
Published by Choc Lit/Ruby Fiction
Genre: Women's Fiction
My thanks for the invitation to be part of the blog tour from Rachel Gilbey of Rachel's Random Resources and to the Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this fun book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.
Book Description:
Is hunting down every man you’ve kissed the answer to finding Mr Right?
When Evie is invited to the wedding of the guy she’d fancied throughout her teens, it’s the final straw. What’s wrong with her and why can’t she keep a man?
In between consoling herself with ice cream and chocolate, and sobbing
her heart out to her cousin Chamaine, Evie has a brainwave – and it all centres
around her ‘little black book’ (well, more floral patterned notebook really) –
which contains the details of every man she’s ever kissed or dated. Perhaps the
cure for her disastrous love life has been nestled within its pages all along
…
Does Evie’s little black book really hold the answers, or will she learn that exes are exes for a reason?
My Review:
I've not read any of this author's work before, and am always open to new writers to add to my ever bulging shelves. Hannah Pearl will certainly be featuring there in future when I need a good dose of feel good fiction.
Receiving an invite to her brother's best friend's wedding is a significant event for Evie due to the fact that she had been lusting after the groom for most of her teenage years. Amazed that someone had finally managed to tame George - whose reputation as a lady's man went before him - Evie is devastated that she is not the one to be doing the taming. So in her hour of need Evie calls on her cousin Charmaine to help her come up with a plan to work out just where she is going wrong in her quest to find her perfect partner. Together the two of them come up with the idea of using Evie's diary in which she recorded her feelings and experiences during each of her relationships and revisit each partner in order to work out where she failed.
I felt Evie was very brave - or very stupid - to be revisiting the people she had dated over the years and I think Evie felt the same as she met up with the first couple of former boyfriends, finding it quite obvious to see why things hadn't lasted long. In fact she feels she had a lucky escape in some cases. I found the way Evie described her reactions to seeing the faces from her past quite amusing and in some ways relatable - I think we've all got that one person in our past who we will cross the road to avoid even now! People often don't turn out to be how we remember them - physically or emotionally.
As the story moves on Evie has to travel further afield to track down some of her later partners, she starts to analyse herself and things get a bit more satisfying in the way of finding answers. She understands more about herself and who she was at various points in her life, and wonders where that person went. Then in her quest to find one particular guy she meets Bea and Alice who now live at the address Evie has for her former boyfriend, instantly forms a bond with them and a friendship starts to blossom. I did find this part of the book a little unlikely, but as it's a fictional world I went along with things and really got caught up in Evie's world. With huge self-doubts and a lack of confidence Evie has to learn to trust both herself and others once again and we gradually learn why and who knocked Evie's world so badly out of kilter.
I really enjoyed seeing Evie re-discover herself and slowly put herself back together again. The later stages of the book take on a much more serious note and there are lots of messages in the book we can all take on board with regards to self care. The outcome of Evie's quest made my heart swell and I was so happy for her in the end. There are plenty of fun moments along Evie's journey which made me chuckle - in particular little Alice is a fabulous character as only pre-school children can be.
As much as this is a tale of trying to find a soul mate, I loved the message of the importance of friendships in our lives alongside the romance. I found this a very fulfilling story and a nice easy, enjoyable read.
Receiving an invite to her brother's best friend's wedding is a significant event for Evie due to the fact that she had been lusting after the groom for most of her teenage years. Amazed that someone had finally managed to tame George - whose reputation as a lady's man went before him - Evie is devastated that she is not the one to be doing the taming. So in her hour of need Evie calls on her cousin Charmaine to help her come up with a plan to work out just where she is going wrong in her quest to find her perfect partner. Together the two of them come up with the idea of using Evie's diary in which she recorded her feelings and experiences during each of her relationships and revisit each partner in order to work out where she failed.
I felt Evie was very brave - or very stupid - to be revisiting the people she had dated over the years and I think Evie felt the same as she met up with the first couple of former boyfriends, finding it quite obvious to see why things hadn't lasted long. In fact she feels she had a lucky escape in some cases. I found the way Evie described her reactions to seeing the faces from her past quite amusing and in some ways relatable - I think we've all got that one person in our past who we will cross the road to avoid even now! People often don't turn out to be how we remember them - physically or emotionally.
As the story moves on Evie has to travel further afield to track down some of her later partners, she starts to analyse herself and things get a bit more satisfying in the way of finding answers. She understands more about herself and who she was at various points in her life, and wonders where that person went. Then in her quest to find one particular guy she meets Bea and Alice who now live at the address Evie has for her former boyfriend, instantly forms a bond with them and a friendship starts to blossom. I did find this part of the book a little unlikely, but as it's a fictional world I went along with things and really got caught up in Evie's world. With huge self-doubts and a lack of confidence Evie has to learn to trust both herself and others once again and we gradually learn why and who knocked Evie's world so badly out of kilter.
I really enjoyed seeing Evie re-discover herself and slowly put herself back together again. The later stages of the book take on a much more serious note and there are lots of messages in the book we can all take on board with regards to self care. The outcome of Evie's quest made my heart swell and I was so happy for her in the end. There are plenty of fun moments along Evie's journey which made me chuckle - in particular little Alice is a fabulous character as only pre-school children can be.
As much as this is a tale of trying to find a soul mate, I loved the message of the importance of friendships in our lives alongside the romance. I found this a very fulfilling story and a nice easy, enjoyable read.
Giveaway – Win 2 x
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Author Bio –
Hannah Pearl was born in East London. She is married with
two children and now lives in Cambridge.
She has previously worked as a
Criminology researcher at a university in Leicester, as a Development Worker
with various charities and even pulled a few pints in her time.
In 2015 she was struck down by
Labrynthitis, which left her feeling dizzy and virtually housebound. She has
since been diagnosed with ME. Reading has allowed Hannah to escape from the
reality of feeling ill. She read upwards of three hundred books during the
first year of her illness. When her burgeoning ereader addiction grew to be too
expensive, she decided to have a go at writing. In 2017 she won Simon and Schuster’s
Books and the City #heatseeker short story competition, in partnership with
Heat magazine, for her short story The
Last Good Day.
Hannah is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association.
Twitter - https://twitter.com/HannahPearl_1
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