Little Black Dress (BookShots)

This is a great little book, loved the story. Great size for in your purse and can be read in a few hours which is good when you have a long drive or a doctor's appointment. A definite must read.

I have to begin by saying that this is an opinion piece. I fear I have a great many opinions on this novella. For what it is, it is very well written. You get a sense of the main character and several side characters very quickly, and I have to say it is never boring. That said... it was not what I thought it was. Jane Avery has been let down by love. For the last sixteen months since she caught her husband cheating on her she has spent her evenings either working or at home. As editor of Metropolitan Magazine, there is always enough work to keep her busy. One day she is shopping and sees The Dress. Black and slinky, sexy and still somehow classy, she feels stronger, more confident. The new Jane is taking chances that old Jane feared. She is flirting.... and taking men to bed. There are very few rules- one of which is no second dates. There's a freelance writer from her magazine, an older gentleman, a man from an Italian grocery store, a young man and a man from a sex club. Add to this, she is having erotic thoughts about several men, including her therapist. With all this sex, where does the author have time to create a good plot? Well.... there's the rub, isn't it? For me, I love a good romance but there must be a balance. A plot-to-sex ratio that is high in favor of plot. This story, I fear was the opposite. There was a plot-don't get me wrong. Girl is in an emotional rut, doesn't date. Sees the perfect outfit and feels freer, more confident in it. Goes out and reclaims her sexuality. Yeah, I get that. But that was laid out in like eighteen pages maybe? The rest is soft erotica. If she isn't doing it, she is discussing it or fantasizing about it. I found that shocking because it is far away from what I have come to expect from my favorite author. While Patterson has never shied from the sexual... there is usually a reason behind it or at least the above ratio. It would be easy to blame this on Emily Raymond, say that this is her writing style... but it isn't that. She co-authored First Love and a Witch and Wizard book with Patterson. Both were very well done. All this aside... did I enjoy the book? Yes. Is it worth the $4.00 I spent on it? Oh yes. Would I read it again? Yes (hey some of those scenes were dang sexy:). Was it his best work? Certainly not; but it we look at it as soft erotica... it is pretty great.

When I got divorced I also wanted to feel glamorous and desired, which caused me to want to change how I lived my life, but this character's reaction feels pretty dangerous to me. More extreme than I would feel good about, but whatever floats your boat I guess. The important thing I guess is to get your confidence back. In any case, I could see this happening.

What can I say but WOW! This is not at all a "normal" James Patterson" book. I enjoyed it because it was a very quick, easy read, the story line was very intriguing but I wouldn't have wanted it any longer.Depending on your views regarding random sex, it's hard to say if you'd enjoy it, but I did.

This seemed tome a departure from the norm. Not really a murder mystery unless innocence was the victim. Very interesting in a weird way. Kept rewriting in my mind to the horrible murder of Jane. At least it kept my mind engaged. I liked it very much.

I have to say that the book was well written but t the storyline was just not believable (in my opinion).

Not really my style

This was not a typical JP novel. While the story was somewhat interesting, it had more sex in it than I am use to seeing in his novels. Some sex is OK, but this was too much.

Good value for money for a quick read not my favourite.

Loved that it was quick to read & very entertaining.

Obviously this was not written by James Patterson alone, the subject matter and style of writing was bordering on pornographic , very disappointing piece of trivia.

I'm sorry but these BookShots are not really doing the job for me. The issue may be that any James Patterson book is fast and furious, sometimes leaving you disappointed it wasn't longer. To then reduce one of these stories to a few pages feels very much, as this book did, as if there are huge chunks missed out of the story. It's almost like an Amazon Kindle sample, except you can't go ahead and order the 'long version' if you like it. Disappointing.

I love James Patterson's books but i must admit that I found it hard to get into this book, the bookshot Witnesses i thought was good but very short and a funny ending but I'm not sure whether i'll carry on reading this book.