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    Running in Heels: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Running in Heels: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Running in Heels: A Novel
    Ebook542 pages9 hours

    Running in Heels: A Novel

    By Anna Maxted

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "To say that Babs has been my closest friend for sixteen years is rather like saying that Einstein was good at sums. We were blood sisters from the age of eleven (before my mother prized the razor out of Babs's hand)."

    But now Babs, noisy and as fun as a day at the beach, is getting married. And Natalie Miller, twenty-seven, senior press officer for the London Ballet, panics. What happens when your best friend pledges everlasting love to someone else?

    It doesn't help that Nat is dating a guy named Saul Bowcock. As the confetti flutters, her good-girl veneer cracks, and she falls into an alluringly unsuitable affair that spins her crazily out of control. Nat is on the rebound and allergic to the truth—about Babs's relationship, her boyfriend's ambition, her parents' divorce, and her golden-boy brother's little Australian secret. Her mother's lasagna and her roommate Andy's fuzzy slippers are also monstrous affronts. But what Nat really needs to face is the mirror—and herself . . . .

    Wickedly witty and refreshingly honest, Running in Heels is a hilarious look at the lies we tell ourselves—and the unwanted truths that only our best friends can tell us.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061862793
    Unavailable
    Running in Heels: A Novel
    Author

    Anna Maxted

    Anna Maxted is a freelance writer and the author of the smash international bestsellers Getting Over It, Running in Heels, and Behaving Like Adults. She lives in London with her husband, author Phil Robinson, and their son.

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    Reviews for Running in Heels

    3.5/5

    155 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Loved this book. A bit naughty here and there. Very funny and witty.
    • 4/5
      This is a vast improvement from Getting Over It. It's a bit long, and mid way through it almost seems as if you've suddenly been thrown into a new book altogether. I don't want give anything away here, but as you recover from the jolt, it should occur to you the reason why Maxted planned it out as she did. It really was brilliant. There are some really laugh out loud while tears roll moments. At one point I was in such a foul mood from an argument with my other half when I picked it up to continue reading and after just a few pages I couldn't remember even being upset anymore I was so totally taken in by the story.
    • 4/5
      With much lightheartedness, Maxted broaches the very serious problem of eating disorders. Through her main character, she shows how feelings of control, anxiety and lack of communication can spiral into destructive behaviour. She's quick to point out the health issues and the fact that men are just as vulnerable as women. She avoids the pitfalls of preaching through the use of humour, although this sometimes results in scattered scenes. A good read.
    • 4/5
      I can't believe it took a whole week to read this book I enjoyed it so much! Maxted's writing is quite light, although not quite as fluffy as some chick-lit I have read, which was thoroughly welcomed. Chick-lit is not really my favourite genre.I thought Nat was a great character, and I had a lot of sympathy (or empathy) for her and what she was going through in terms of her obsessions and compulsions. The other characters were quirky but well defined. - ie Babs was a firefighter who had struggled to become accepted in her job, her new husband one of the lads. I liked all the characters, even the 'user' Chris and the boring Saul. Maxted made them all interesting. Although the story and ending was probably somewhat predictable, I think I would have felt cheated if the book had ended any differently. I will certainly be reading other Anna Maxted books. I just hope I enjoy them as much as Running in Heels
    • 3/5
      Similar to the Bridget Jones humor, but a little darker.
    • 1/5
      I bought this book many years ago, when it first came out, and, as with many books in my life - to my shame - has languished on a bookshelf for years whilst other books and indeed other things in life have come and gone. In a bid to reduce the clutter, I am trying to get through some of these older books, and ended up grabbing this one at random. And I have to admit to wondering what it was about this book that ever appealed to me in the first place? I can only assume that I was going through a chick-lit phase, and thought this would be a nice feelgood story with a happy ending. After all, according to the blurb on the back, it was 'witty and clever', 'a brilliant debut' and 'warm, poignant and very funny'. I have learnt, as I've got older, never to trust the quotes on the back of a book.

      Anna Maxted's Running in Heels is a 450-page book, the story in which could have been dealt with in about 250 pages. There's way too much unnecessary descriptions and random asides that bear no relation to the story whatsoever - Maxted's editor should have told her to cut the dross!

      This book also tries to be too many things. It appears to want to be taken seriously as an insight in to the thought-process of someone with an eating disorder, at the same time as being a light and frothy chick-lit girl-meets-boy-girl-loses-boy-girl-wins-back-boy happy-ending novel at the same time; the two don't mix well and the book is poorer for it. It doesn't help that the big reveal that the protagonist, Natalie, is anorexic and developing bulimia comes halfway through the book, by which time I had already concluded that Natalie was an annoying simpering misery who needed a good slapping. So when the big reveal came, I had no sympathy for Natalie. In fact, none of the characters in this book are likeable. Maybe the provincial 2017 me just can't understand 2001 London life!

      Not that not liking a character should have any bearing on whether I like a book - I've read books where I have hated the characters, but the quality of the writing has transcended that. Maxted is, or at least was, no such writer (I've not read anything else by her so can't comment on whether she's improved).

      With two exceptions (one being the bible), I always finish a book I start, no matter how bad. It's such a relief to finish this one; I pray that the next work I read is more worthwhile.
    • 2/5
      One of Maxted's less annoying novels. This heroine has anorexia and a serious best-friend problem. But, she's also got an incredibly cute male roommate around, so it's not all bad.