From Amazon:
The heroine of Maxted's third comic confessional (after "Running in Heels" and "Getting over it") 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-fiance, 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.

Even though I liked Anna Maxted's other 2 novels better than this one, I will give 7 points because she really knows how to bring important serious issues close to the reader and still there's humour and romance...

This book will become a bookring now.

list of participants (in final order):

1. jazzy7112 (Canada) international OK
2. arugh48187 (USA) USA only
3. wareagle78 (USA) international OK
4. kymberlie (USA) USA only
5. UTdaisy (USA) USA only
6. tmtdino30 (USA) international OK
7. thescreaming (USA) international OK
8. kalipriestess (USA) USA only
9. tnkbl (USA) shipping within US

I have sent the book off today, Nov. 5th, by surface mail (sorry can't afford air mail at the moment).
I really hope you'll all enjoy the book and I'm looking forward to reading your journal entries!!

Recieved this today. I'm going to start on it tonight, because I just freed up some reading time. Finished Running in Heels last night, so I'm happy to get to move right onto this one now. :) Thanks!

Sorry everyone... I'v taken way too long with this book. I've gotten caught up in schoolwork, and the bookring just wasn't as important as school to me right now. I'm going to package it up and send it out next week, when christmas is done with.
Sorry again!

Update January 25: Sorry again, I set it out to release it, then completely forgot about it. I promise I'm not keeping it, I'll send it out on Tuesday, as i'll have more money then.

The book seems to be stuck, I sent several PMs and got no reply from the person who currently has the book.

So I decided to replace the book and I bought a used copy on Ebay and I'll send it off as soon as I get it from the Ebay seller.

I'll send the replacement copy off to "arugh48187" today, so the bookring can continue!

Received this one in my mailbox today. I have a few bookrings in front of it, but I am a fast reader and will get to it soon. You can keep track of my progress via my bookshelf.

Well as luck would have it I have received both copies of this bookring; the one from jazzy7112 AND the replacement copy sent by allbookedup. I have re-registered one of them and you can find it here.

I liked this book much better than I thought I would. Sometimes chicklit is fairly shallow and insipid, but this one actually had some depth and character development in it. I thought I had read some of Anna Maxted's work, but apparently not. I will have to put them on my wish list.

Thanks for sharing and sorry for keeping it so long. This will go out to the next reader on Monday.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sending off to WarEagle78 who is next in line. Happy reading!

Received today and have already started. I can tell I will enjoy it! Thanks, allbookedup! Will journal again when read.

Interesting book! Maxted's heroine Holly rings true as she tries to hold herself together after a date rape. And while her reactions and her struggle to cope with this, on top of a broken engagement to a man she loves, is painful -- it's written with a loving humor. And somehow, as important as that story line is, it's secondary to the Holly and Nick theme.

I'm not being very articulate -- but Maxted dealt with a horrifying subject in a truthful yet hopeful way, eventually getting it into context in Holly's life.

I recommend it.

I'll send it on to the next reader as soon as I get an address.

On its way to kymberlie today. Enjoy!

Caught this book probably a few weeks ago, but my mom has a bad habit of putting my BC books in with others and some times they get lost in the shuffle! Going to read this as soon as I can.