Behaving Like Adults
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Holly runs a dating agency. Up to now she's had no need of her own services, but, convinced her relationship with her fiancé Nick has staled, she turfs him out and determines to go in pursuit of hearts-and-flowers romance, true love and the soul-mate she has convinced herself must exist.
In the meantime, to get back into practice, she accepts a date with the hugely eligible Stuart. Rich, arrogant and charming, he's not her type at all, but he's her guinea pig. But Stuart rather likes Holly. And he's used to getting his own way. Much to her dismay, Holly finds Stuart won't take no for an answer and suddenly things don't look so easy.
Brimming with warmth, perception and understanding, Anna Maxted once again mixes the heart-breaking with the humorous to deliver a page-turning, laugh-out-loud, emotionally satisfying read.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The heroine of Maxted's third comic confessional (after Running in Heels) is 29-year-old Holly, the incurably optimistic founder of a London dating agency called Girl Meets Boy. The agency is a hit, but, natch, Holly has her own boy troubles: her ex-fianc , Nick, takes his time moving out, and in the meantime infuriates her with his resolutely boyish sensibility (he makes his living dressing up as Mr. Elephant at children's parties). Holly sets herself up with Stuart, a promising applicant at her agency who turns out to be very different from what she imagined: he rapes her on their first date. The experience leaves her so numb and confused that she's not even sure it was rape, and comes up with heartbreaking rationalizations ("Well, here's the truth I'm so ashamed I'm almost too embarrassed to say but while he pinned me down, I held my stomach in. See? That proves it. If a woman is being you know, she wouldn't hold in her stomach"). She becomes depressed, makes bad business decisions, fights with her sister Claudia and bewildered friend Rachel and makes the bizarre choice to see Stuart again. Worst of all, she can't trust anyone anymore. Holly's road back to happiness is a long one, not helped by Stuart suing her for defamation when she eventually goes public with the facts. Maxted takes Holly's ordeal seriously, but her attempts to keep a light tone come off awkwardly. To Maxted's credit, Holly never becomes pitiful or self-dramatizing, but the author sometimes errs on the side of glibness, making this an oddly breezy read punctuated by jarring moments of anguish.
