For many, summer is a time for relaxing — heading to the beach with a good book, grilling up food in the backyard, soaking up the sun, and sleeping late. But for others, summer is a time to buckle down and put your nose to the grindstone, either at a summer job or at an internship. For many people looking to break into highly competitive fields, internships offer early work experience and a ton of fantastic learning opportunities, and they can be some of the most important items on a resume.
In Laura Stampler’s novel Little Black Dresses, Little White Lies, Harper Anderson is desperate to land her dream internship at the prestigious teen magazine Shift. So desperate that she sort of fudges the details on her application — like taking her best friend’s dating experience and claiming it as her own for the essay portion. This wouldn’t be so problematic…if she wasn’t hired as the teen dating blogger with zero actually true dating experience. Harper hopes to fake it until she makes it — but will her white lies cause her dream job to turn into a nightmare?
I totally adore this book. It’s a perfect read for your day at the beach, or your day off on the couch. I’ve rounded up a list of 6 reasons to pick this title up — check out my list and then check out the extended excerpt, available on Riveted until August 15th!
1. It’s hilarious
This book is one of the funniest things I’ve read in a long, long time. Harper’s voice is pitch-perfect, and her observations on the world around her are both true and wickedly funny. Even if her resume is a lie, her writing skills certainly aren’t, and you’ll find yourself totally charmed by her.
2. Focus on the magazine industry
The Devil Wears Prada is one of my favorite movies, and Little Black Dresses, Little White Lies definitely reminded me of it. The focus on the cutthroat and fast-paced world of magazine writing — not to mention the cutthroat and fast-paced “Shift Girls” — echoes some of the funniest scenes in that book. But Little Black Dresses takes place in 2016, meaning technology is updated — there’s tons of skewering of clickbait headlines and viral articles. The author, Laura Stampler, is an actual dating blogger, so her understanding of the world feels realistic and authentic.
3. Harper
Harper is such a fun main character. She’s super relatable — who among us hasn’t been guilty of over embellishing a little? Not to mention she’s pretty brave, heading all the way across the country to New York City by herself just for a shot at her dream job. Her goals and determination are admirable, and I couldn’t help but root for her.
4. New York City!
It’s probably obvious considering this is part of our Summer in New York promotion, but New York City is a huge part of Little Black Dresses, Little White Lies. Harper is bored of her small hometown in California and in love with the idea of New York, which is part of the reason why Shift is such a dream for her. Her exploration of the city is so much fun to read — the descriptions are dead on. If you don’t already want to move here, this book will make you want to!
5. Great friendships
While there’s definitely a romance in this book (and a pretty good one at that!) a lot of the focus falls on Harper’s internship — and the other interns she’s working with. While there’s initially some struggle there, Harper develops friendships with the people she’s working with, particularly Gigi. It’s awesome to see a book that portrays how important those intern friendships are — it’s so important to have some friends who totally get your struggle.
6. Princess the Pug
There’s a character in this book called Princess the Pug. She’s a Pug. She basically steals the entire book.