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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Anna Maxtet delivers another winner!, June 2, 2003
This review is from: Behaving Like Adults: A Novel (Hardcover)
Getting Over It is one of my favorite chick lits of all time. Even though I was not impressed with her second novel, Running in Heels, Anna Maxtet is one of my favorite authors of the aforementioned genre. She, aside from Marian Keyes and Jillian Medoff, is the only modern romance writer who mixes dark issues with lighthearted humor. And she has outdone herself with Behaving Like Adults. In Adults, Maxtet introduces us to Holly, a twenty-nine-year-old woman whose dating agency, Girl Meets Boy, is a growing success. However, her personal life isn't as impressive as her thriving career. Nick, her fiance, refuses to grow up, and so she decides to put an end to their courtship. Little had she imagined that her professional and personal life would take rapid turns toward disaster after she embarks upon a date with someone from her agency... In typical Maxtet tradition, there are as many laugh out loud moments in this novel as there are poignant ones. Maxtet tackles some rather serious situations with a great deal of insight and wit. I also love the eccentric characters -- Claudia, Rachel and Nige are my favorite ones! And what about Maxtet's unique writing style? Hers is the sort of language that sounds conversational without really trying. I know that I'm resorting to some tiresome cliches here, but I couldn't put this book down and I hated to see it end. A definite page-turner! I so look forward to reading another novel from this talented British writer. Behaving Like Adults is a great reading investment. Enjoy!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Chick Lit With Soul, May 13, 2003
This review is from: Behaving Like Adults: A Novel (Hardcover)
At the beginning of "Behaving Like Adults," Holly Appleton appears to have it all together. The successful owner of Girl Meets Boy, a dating service for individuals "beautiful inside and out," she takes pride in bringing people together and in her rosy view of the world. Still sharing the house with Nick, her ex-fiancé, rankles Holly, so she and her friends at Girl Meets Boy decide to speed up the process of getting him to move out. And thus begins the minor event that causes everything else to happen in the novel. After some coaxing, Holly agrees to go out with one of the new members of the dating service. Things do not go well and he does something that shakes her belief in herself and in the essential goodness of the world. Once that belief is gone, Holly has trouble in dealing with the everyday happenings in her own life, much less those of her beloved dating service. As things worsen with her, so do they worsen with Girl Meets Boy. Her sister and co-worker, Claudia, tries to get through to Holly, tries to get her to see the good in the world again. With the support of her sisters, her friends, her clients, not to mention the reappearance of Nick in Holly's life, slowly she finds the inner faith that helped the dating service become successful in the first place. Although this book could be termed "chick lit" because of its themes, Anna Maxted brings a reality to her characters that goes beyond such labels. Despite the fact that the novel is set in London, and some of the more British turns of phrase are unfamiliar, the reader is drawn into the world of Holly and her cohorts at Boy Meets World. Maxted is able to make these people seem like friends, co-workers or others you might know. She also brings a lightheartedness to the novel so that even in its darkest moments, you know things will work out. As Nick tells Holly at one point - most people want to see a happy ending.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A difficult subject is handled with intelligence and truth, November 13, 2004
This review is from: Behaving Like Adults: A Novel (Hardcover)
This is the second book I've read by Anna Maxted, and I'm beginning to notice a pattern. She begins each book with a light, breezy tone, introducing us to a female main character who is in her late 20s, successful, and who initially comes across as somewhat superficial and shallow. However, a life-altering event intervenes, and then the main character (as well as the book itself) becomes more complex and substantial.
In this case, the main character is Holly Appleton, owner of the successful dating company Girl Meets Boy. The intervening event is a date rape which she experiences when she agrees to go out with Stuart, one of her clients, in an attempt to move on after the recent end of her engagement to Nick, the ex-fiance who is still living with her in their shared home. Following the date rape, Holly becomes incapacitated, and her life begins to fall apart bit by bit: Nick finally moves out, her business starts to go under, and Stuart keeps reappearing in her life. Even after Holly finally acknowledges the rape to her sister, Claudia, and reports Stuart to the police, she still can't quite get herself back together; it takes the rest of the book for her to realize that only SHE has the power to reclaim her life.
As a psychologist, I believe that the portrayal of Holly's confusion about the rape was dead on, from her reluctance to acknowledge her experience as a sexual assault to her feelings of guilt and shame to her unreasonable fears and behaviors. Happily, the book also displays an accurate picture of what happens when a rape is reported as well as the beneficial role which therapy can play in healing. Although the subject of the book is both deep and difficult at times, in the end, optimism prevails, and so does Holly.
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