I am quite a fan of the Little Black Dress series of books, so I decided to have a browse on Amazon for ones which sounded like a good read. I came across this one after a while, and it had rave reviews. Also, on a book forum I am a member of, they couldn't recommend it highly enough to me so I decided I would have to get it to have a go. And as usual, the book didn't disappoint!
"She'll Take It" tells us the story of Melanie Zeitgar, a woman living in New York City with dreams of becoming a world famous actress. But Melanie has a downfall...she has a penchant for stealing things. Not enormously expensive items you understand, just the odd sweater from Barneys or the odd pillow from the Homewares shop. But Melanie can't stop, even when a man comes into her life whose job in life is to help shops detect thieves. Will he suss out Melanie? And more importantly, will Melanie be able to curb her stealing habit?
I instantly warmed to the main character in this book, Melanie. She is hilariously written, and despite the fact she is a serial thief, I really liked her, even when she was stealing! She was hilarious because it was clear she knew what she was doing was very wrong, but she managed to find a rational way of thinking which would help her to steal! She also started each chapter with the sentence "This is how Im going to die" and then relayed some ridiculous tale of how she would perish. I was actually crying with laughter at points in this book, it was simply hilarious.
The other characters in this book were also great. Her best friend and roommate Kim, a model is funny and a complete opposite of Melanie. And another character I really grew to like was Greg, the man Melanie meets a little way into the book, and whose job it is to catch people like Melanie in the act of shoplifting! His character is very naive, but works well with Melanie, and I was just willing them to work it out in the end!
The book was written in the first person which made it even funnier, as you get to hear all of Melanie's thoughts and true feelings about the situations she often found herself in, more often than not something which would make any normal person just want to curl up and die! But Melanie somehow gets through every scenario, and the way she rationalises it all in her head just makes for funnier reading. The author is very clever at really getting into her character heads, and consequently allowing her readers to do so as well, making for a great reading experience!
The book was a hilarious story following a wonderful character who was really likeable, and a book which really had me laughing my head off in parts. It's a funny take on something which you wouldn't normally be able to laugh at because of course, stealing is wrong, but when written like this, you just can't help but laugh! And being a Little Black Dress book, it isn't too long or too short, just enough for you to get into and then finish knowing you've had enough of the story to satisfy you! Brilliant. I would thoroughly recommend you get hold of a copy if you fancy a book which will really make you laugh!
ISBN: 978-0755335329, published by Little Black Dress books (a division of Headline Publishing) in November 2006. The books contains 320 pages and is available on Amazon for £3.79 (RRP is £3.99). The author Mary Carter is an American Journalist, and her new book has been published by LBD, and is called Accidentally Engaged. For more information on the author, visit her website http://marycarterbooks.com.
Thank you for reading!
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