Annie May's Black Book

by Debby Holt

[Leah]

Looking at my rather large TBR pile today I decided to give Debby Holt’s Annie May’s Black Book a whirl. Having never read a book of Debby’s I didn’t know what to expect but I’m pleased to report I enjoyed Annie May’s Black Book!

In 1988 Annie May was jilted at the altar by Ben Seymour. He was subsequently entered into her black book (full of all the names and offences of those who have done wrong to her) and his offence was by far the worst! 17 years later he’s moving into a house around the corner from Annie…

I really enjoyed Annie May’s Black Book and found it quite amusing in parts. I liked how the plot was woven together and how all of the characters seemed to gel really well. You would think somebody who kept a little black book of all wrongdoings might come across as bitter but I didn’t feel that from Annie. She was very enjoyable to read about and I loved how close-knit her family and friends were to her.

Being introduced to some many characters in the first few pages made me wonder if I’d be able to keep up with who was who but after a while I stopped having to flick back a few pages to check. Although the story was written in third person it was focused solely on Annie – she was in every scene yet I still felt we had a good understanding of all of her friends and family.

In particular, I loved Sidney (her sister’s son), and Bella (a girl she teaches drama to) and I also liked Grace (Annie’s best friend). I thought all of the characters were well fleshed-out and I felt sympathy for Josephine and all she was going through with her evil step-daughter.

Of course I can’t not mention Ben, the man who jilted Annie. Until he came into the book I felt angry on Annie behalf but as we got to know more about him I started to like him. Even Annie admitted she’d been a tad bit wrong with her anger with him.

Along the way there were some unexpected shocks – I didn’t see the Bella and Ben thing coming although I think it’s something I should have seen coming! There was also the unexpected attack on William, Lily’s (Annie’s younger sister) husband, I was willing him to pull through!

It was a really enjoyable read and I’ll be definitely on the lookout for more of Debby’s novels!

Rating: 4/5