Review #17 - Little Black Dress

Author: Sarah O'Rourke, Brynne Asher, Layla Frost and Sarah Curtis

Rating: ★★1/2

A marriage going through crisis. A woman smitten by childhood love. A police officer with a handsome partner. A woman scared to let a man in, due to her uncanny profession. What can possibly bring about some help from, let's say, Cupid, in such situations? A "little black dress" (LBD), to be precise.

When I read the title of the book and saw the ratings on Goodreads (4.25/5), I was drawn to the idea of contemporary romantic stories revolving around LBDs, and wanted to see how these four writers, who wrote this book coincidentally as a fund raiser for the cancer support group - "Gilda's Club Rochester", would romanticise the idea of a thing such as a dress.

Well, let's just say, I was disappointed. To be honest, there was no such romantic idea to it, as much as there was the idea of getting laid, for all the four women, except maybe for the first story, where the emotions made sense. The other three tories, were not only a repetition of the first one, but in fact didn't even bring about the same emotions as the story of the married woman, and the LBD seemed more of a lucky charm for women to get laid, more than find Mr. Right.

You can say, that I have a little of an orthodox idea about romance, and definitely don't see the connection between getting laid and a romance, they're two different entities. However, it is contemporary romance. And nowadays every romantic angle invariably has the sex appeal first, and the love later. So this book is more for the people with the new age idea of love, than for those who enjoy conventional love stories of "Where beauty is more than what meets the eye".

#romance #anthologies #contemporary