Rating: 
Summary: Another Good One
Review: Ms. Maxted does it again! This time the book is a bit grittier and a little more daring for the romantic comedy genre, but she pulls it off.
Aside from being a little predictable, the book handles tougher issues that this genre seems to overlook. And she doesn't handle it with a tooty-fruity, happy ending frame of thought, but with real feelings that her readers will definitely be able to relate to.
This book made me even cry a lttle and I thought this was the best of the three that I have read.
Rating: 
Summary: Do you believe in love?
Review: The protaganist, Holly, a chronically naive thirty year old, has dedicated her life to a love affair with an adult baby and to running a dating agency through which she spreads the feel good news that, hey, love is good and once you find it everything in the garden will be rosy too. Except that, shock horror, she's about to be knocked off her idealistic pedestal and forced to confront some fairly harsh realities. Unfortunately the first harsh reality (the date rape) only comes about a hundred pages into the book, leaving the reader (myself) twiddling her thumbs at Maxted's rambly plotless meanderings, but due to the inclement weather rather than to Maxted's credit, it was snowing heavily outside and since I was thus trapped indoors, I persevered. I am pleased to report, dear potential reader, it did get better. Maxted treated both the theme of Holly's coping with date rape and her boyfriend Nick's search for his birth mother with real skill, honesty and attention to subtle nuances of emotion.
But as for things that don't quite work: I have trouble believing that anyone could live in London for ten years and still believe that everyone she meets is a potential friend. Naturally, the majority of people in London are fine, but you meet plenty of people on a daily basis who are unbalanced, predatory or just plain nuts. That is not to imply that she deserved the date rape, simply that I think she would have been more generally wary. It would be more credible if Holly had just arrived in the Big Smoke at the onset of the tale, from some tiny island like Guernsey rather than being a seasoned London native.
The other thing that doesn't work is the humour. Maybe I simply expect more of British writers but the humour just doesn't work much of the time. Her sister Claudia, who Holly describes as witty and zany, doesn't come out with anything that even made me snort out loud. Nige the resting actor is the exception, he is quite funny. But all in all the humour in this is very mediocre.
To sum up, forgettable characters and much that should have been edited out, but with a core of emotional honesty that is rare to find in these cynical times.
Rating:
Summary: Average
Review: This book is about an optimistic girl who sees the world through rose colored glasses. While trying to get her ex to back off, she goes on a date with a man who inturn date rapes her. She is emotionally traumatized, and that is the stuff with which the book is made of. We follow Holly through the twists and turns of her rehabilitation as she struggles with going about everyday tasks, and watching her world crumble.This is a difficult topic to deal with in a book, and Maxted attempts to use humor to diffuse some of the more emptionally tense parts, Unfortunatley, this device does not always work- many of the jokes fall flat because they are ill timed, or ill conceived. There are a few nice moments, but not enough to make this an interesting read. THe book is also a bit long. THe reader gets the same points thrown at them again and again. This is a book that could be at least 100 pages shorter. It seems to drag at points (another reason why the humor doesn't work) The heroine, Holly, is also not that intersting a character, I feel her pain, but more because of the situation than becaus of the way she is written. ANd you want to kill her sisters! THey are horrible! IF you have nothing better to read, try this, otherwise don't bother.
Rating: 
Summary: Behaving Like Adults: A Novel By Anna Maxted
Review: This is the first book I read by Anna Maxted. Honestly, her other books might be great but this book was about a woman dealing with daterape. I just wanted to unwind over the holiday and an entire book devoted to overcoming rape and the many different ways that it effects a person was not my idea of a good time. Totally disappointing!
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing rambling
Review: This is the first book of Anna Maxted's that I have read and I was unimpressed with it. The book tended to ramble on with the main character never being able to make solid decisions, even before the "incident." The supporting characters I found to be obnoxious and detracted from the plight of the main character. Her relationship with her boyfriend was a warped, dysfunctional, much of the bantering in the book could have been shortened. I ended up skipping to the end just to find out what happened. Please save yourself the grief of plodding through this book and pick up one of her other books if you are so keen on starting on her novels.
Rating:
Summary: A difficult subject is handled with intelligence and truth
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: great read
Review: This was the first book I read by Anna maxted, and it's not going to be the last. I just bought her latest novel "Being Committed' and I hope that will be as great as this one was.
Rating: 
Summary: brilliant portrait of pain, denial, growth
Review: Whoever says this book treats the subject of rape too lightly must have read a different book. To me, this novel was completely engrossing. The protagonist's attempts to block her rape experience are full of so much pain. I don't know when I've agonized so much along with the protagonist. Maxted seems to choose plots of pain, denial, and healing. Yes, all three novels have followed that formula, but I am not yet tired of it.
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