Rating: 
Summary: I Didn't Want It To Be Over
Review: "Getting Over It" is a great new addition to my library. Reviewers have said that if it had been published before "Bridget Jones", it would have given it a real run for it's money. And, I agree. This is a fabulous book by (to me) an unknown author who has so much potential and talent. It's a well-rounded, entertaining, heartfelt, and emotionally accurate novel dealing with the life and love of a main character that I certainly could identify with.If you're a fan of "Bridget Jones".."Love: A User's Guide"...or "Come Together", I really think you'll love this book. I had it on my wish list for ages and I'm thrilled that I bought it. It's a great read!
Rating: 
Summary: characters both easy to love and easy to hate
Review: Twenty-six year old Helen Gayle Bradshaw leads a fairly normal life for a young British girl. She shares a flat with a guy she has adored since forever and her equally adoring cat (as adoring as a cat can be), Fatboy. She's in a long term relationship. She's an assistant for an editor from hell (but not really) by day and by night she gets [drunk] with her fun-loving friends Lizzy, Tina and Luke.
Suddenly her world is turned upside down. She breaks up with her emotionally abusive boyfriend but continues to have second thoughts even though she knows he's cheated on her on at least two occasions. Worse still her father dies sending her into a series of events she would probably never relive. Now she's trying to keep her wits about her and keep her mom from ending up beside her father all while trying to find new love or lose it or maybe find it.
This story wasn't what I expected. Cosmopolitan compared it to Bridget Jones but this book is really about loss. It isn't about the laughs and it isn't about finding someone to spend the rest of your life with. It's about the deepest and most painful change anyone can go through: the death of a loved one and getting over it. As well, Helen is at an age where she has to decide to give up the ghost and grow up. Throughout you can see her struggle as she matures into a woman she can be proud of.
"Getting Over It" isn't all doom and gloom. It's finely laced with funny interludes with her neurotic controlling mother, a friend who could learn the finer points of regular hygiene, a fashionista, a boss with attitude and the delicious Tom. I cannot leave out Fatboy, a vengeful peeing cat with an err for inappropriate flatulence. Some parts were piss your pants funny and to say anymore would ruin the laughs for you.
The only problem I had was warming up to the pseudo diary format. The first person account with an obvious British sound to it that was cumbersome in the beginning for this Canadian. Once I got over it I was able to mesh with the characters. It would have been nice to have a mini-dictionary of terms in the back. [Some were] obvious as we've probably heard it in every British movie in the last fifteen years but there were others that escape me. They aren't excessive but enough to slow reading and make you wonder.
Maxted is excellent at weaving characters both easy to love and easy to hate. If you like a well-rounded novel that will make you laugh, cry, angry, cringe and at times think (or if you're in the right age group reminisce) then you'll enjoy "Getting Over It". I know I loved it.
Review Originally Posted at http:largeandlovely.bellaonline.com
Rating: 
Summary: Better than Running in Heels...
Review: ...but not much else. I liked this book far more than I liked Running in Heels, but I recommend Maxted's Behaving Like Adults over Getting Over It. I found the character to be somewhat shallow as a bulk of the book was about her sex life with bits of her father's death thrown in there for pity and reflection.
All in all...the book was okay by chick lit standards but I would definately read Behaving Like Adults or Something Borrowed over this book.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: The readers of "Running In Heels" mostly raved about this book in comparison. I found the opposite to be true. The first 251 pages covered, in annoying degree, the death of the main character's father, who was never initially developed. There were some funny moments, but overall I found the book a bit flat.
I originally recommended "Running In Heels" and still prefer that over this book. I highly recommend Lisa Jewell's books "Ralph's Party" and "30 Nothing", as well as Jane Green's "Bookends", "Straight Talking" and "Mr. Maybe", also "Welcome To My Planet" by Shannon Olsen, any Maeve Binchy, and an all time fun & dishy read "Ghosts of Boyfriends Past" by Carly Alexander over any of the Anna Maxted books I've read to date.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't bother....
Review: Trust me. Anna Maxted's "Getting Over It" is inane and makes "Sex in the City" look thought-provoking. The romantic plot line is filled with embarassing moments which threaten our protagonist's relationship- yet conflicts of this sort are generally resolved by slipping a note into someone's locker.
The heroine's circle of friends (a key ingredient in Chick Lit) seem like people who just met at work, and don't like each other very much. Her romantic interests are straight from junior high- "I love Bob...no I love Matt...no I REALLY love Steve."
I found nothing laughable in the entire book. What wasn't banal was purely depressing. Hell, I didn't even warm up to the cat!
Jennifer Crusie and Sophie Kinsella's books are far better examples of the genre.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: I loved this book. I read it when it first came out and just reread it to see if it stood the test of time. It did. I was laughing out loud at some of the scenes, yet the story also has its serious side. Maxted's first book was a winner.
Rating:
Summary: didnt even finish it
Review: This book promised humor in the manner of a girl chick book, the type I usually like. Within 5 pages, the main character's dad dies. Not only was this a bit morbid for a comical book, but it also occurred way to soon. I didnt give a rats --- about her father dying. I didnt feel like I got to know the character enough to care. I didnt; consequently, I put the book down after about 20 pages. Which is why I wouldnt even rate this item at all.
Rating:
Summary: Ahh
Review: Some humorous parts I must add. It was a long read for me, maybe it wasn't the best book I've ever read. She goes thorugh a lot, losing her father, finding romance and what not. I wasn't thrilled at all the characters in the book, but hmmm whatever.
Rating:
Summary: A cut above the rest of the Bridget clones
Review: I have to say that I like Anna Maxted's writing style. She has a cleverness that's addicting and knows how to touch on important issues without bringing the book into schmaltzy Oprah territory. For the most part, I love her wit and I love the characters she draws and I love how she can take so many plot threads and tie them off neatly in the end. My only gripes were that it dragged a little toward the end and she could have done without the subplot of Tina's domestic abuse (the plot and the book wouldn't have missed anything without it). But my gripes were only enough to make me take off one star.
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