Synopsis
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?
Hannah Pearl won the Books and the City Heatseeker short story competition, in partnership with Heat magazine in 2017 for her short story The Last Good Day.
Available as an eBook and audio download on all platforms. In paperback and MP3 audio from all good bookshops and libraries.
Hannah Pearl
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.
Sometimes you have to go back in order to be able to go forward …
First of all I absolutely adored the cover. It’s playful and fun but behind this cover there are a lot of other things going on.
‘It’s not you, It’s me’, is what you often here when relationships come to an end, but sometimes it makes you wonder. That’s the perfect time to take a closer look and get yourself the answers you need. Is there a happy ever after for you or are you destined to spend your life alone?
Come and join Evie on a trip through her little (not so) black book. If you ask yourself the same questions, maybe you should follow her example.
A lovely, funny and fluently written story with a deeper meaning. Good friends are forever even if you did not always treat them right.
Evie’s brother’s best friend George is getting married, sending Evie into meltdown. He’s the one guy she had a mega-crush on during her teens but never got to go out on a date with. Now he’s about to tie the knot with someone else. The approaching wedding sees her taking stock of all her past relationships. She has written about them in detail in her ‘little black book’ (actually a pretty floral notebook). By revisiting each of her old loves, she hopes to be able to see where she went wrong and how she might be able to change her luck with men in the future and maybe find ‘Mr Right.’
The first ex on her list grew up just around the corner from where she lives but now the house is occupied by Jake, who is living there with his sister Bea and her small daughter Alice. Evie arrives in the middle of a domestic crisis in the kitchen and she’s only too happy to help Jake and Alice out. She befriends Jake and his family, enjoying their company as she continues to revisit her past and catch up with old flames. However, it’s soon clear that maybe happy ever after is right in front of her if she will only open her eyes.
A delightful romantic debut and super summer read…I absolutely loved it!
I loved this story. Read it in one go, a VERY late night! It is a story which initially seems like a normal, light romance. It is but with a lot of different levels, some of which only were revealed towards the end of the book. Elvie’s search to find out why she is still single will strike a note with many of us. I found the character very real and the different scenarios likewise. Evie’s budding romance with Jake gives hope and light to her future. A smashing book which offers hope for a future we all look forward to.
When Evie has the idea of contacting all of her exes in order to find out where she went wrong in the relationships so she can move forward with her life, the first house she revisits is where the delightful Jake is residing and not who she was expecting to answer the door … and so begins a summer of friendships and finding herself.
This is a lovely fast flowing story and whilst the basis of it revolves around the little black book of exes and Evie’s revisit to the past which is often fun, light and entertaining, the story has a deeper message about relationships and touches on serious issues in a respectful manner.
A fabulous read not to be missed.
I was asked to review this book and so glad I was. It was an original and beautifully written story. We meet Evie, just as she’s been invited to the wedding of the “one who got away”. She’s lacking self-confidence and takes a brave decision to revisit everyone she’s ever kissed to try and discover where she went wrong. It is a lovely easy, humorous read as we discover where all Evie’s exs are now and what happened with each relationship. Along the way she meets Mr Perfect, but convinced she needs to understand the past before she can commit to the future, she is not ready to start a new relationship without completing the journey. A great page turner, a lovely way to spend an afternoon. It was a fabulous read, I can’t wait to read more by this author.
Evie has been invited to her ex-boyfriends wedding which has started her thinking about her past and why she is not in a relationship.
Evie decides to look up her past boyfriends in the hope that this will put to rest some demons and allow her to move on. The little black book is actually floral which lists her past romances and her feelings about them. During her quest she meets Bea and her Daughter Alice and Bea’s Brother Jake, who is single and they are all very welcoming.
I love the way this book took you on the journey with Evie and the last few chapters which explained the true reason that Evie was struggling with relationships. I also found it great to see her relationships with Bea, Jake and Alice evolving.
A lovely easy read which was well written, with great characters showing how revisiting the past can heal the present and make a better future.
Thanks to Choc-Lit for providing me with a review copy of this book in return for an honest review which is completely my own opinion.