His Little Black Book by Heather MacAllister

Frustratingly bland short stories

3 stars

This is a collection of three short stories all based around one wrong text message sent by the boss of an advertising agency and the consequences of the text.

Text and the Single Girl

Junior copywriter Sophie Callahan is determined to move on up the corporate ladder so when she gets a text to attend a private party with the creative director of the ad agency she sees it as her great chance. But when she gets to the beach house she finds the party only consists of client Adrian Dean – what will they do to pass time when a hurricane strikes?

Neither Sophie or Adrian were particularly likeable characters – Sophie because she was too grasping and Adrian because he felt too weak. With that the story fell flat and I didn’t believe that the pair would ever have a happy ever after.

Text Appeal

On her way to the beach house party, Mia Weiss skids off the road in the hurricane only to be rescued by hottie, Kevin Powell. Mia has always been smart in love but Kevin makes her want to throw all her resolutions out the window and just wait out the storm in his bed.

This was a fair enough story but it wasn’t particularly exciting and it was obvious that Kevin and Mia’s attraction was purely physical for the vast majority of the story which is not great when you’re reading a romance.

Safe Text

Being assistant to a demanding boss is running Cammy ragged especially since she’s infatuated with him. But Gil, Cammy’s former partner has the perfect cure in mind and it involved changing her mind about the right man for her while the storm rages outside.

While being the best of the three stories, this one was let down as Cammy had given up three years of her life and a promising career due to her ‘love’ of her boss. Gil deserved a better woman.

For all the stories I didn’t like the fact that all the women were so hung up on or obsessed with Jonathon – the boss of the agency and the man who sent the original text. I know that without that fact the stories wouldn’t make sense but who can root for women who are so pathetic and delusional? Unfortunately this anthology is only worth 3 stars and even then I think I’m being quite generous.