Getting Over Mr Right

Author: Chrissie Manby
Genre: Chick Lit
Pages: 291
First Published: 2010
First Line: "My love life was and always had been a disaster."

Synopsis: After years and years of dating losers Ashleigh finally meets her Mr Right in Michael. After years together Michael goes through a transformation from a guy who wore high-waisted pants and mismatched shoes to a guy whom most women would notice. While Ashleigh is dreaming of her future married life with Michael complete with house and kids, unfortunately Michael has different ideas.

Suddenly Michael breaks up with Ashleigh ... via Facebook! Ashleigh is totally gobsmacked and cannot believe her life has changed so drastically when she thought things were great in her relationship.

This news devastates Ashleigh and sets her in a whirlwind of emotions that threaten her career and close friendships. Over the course of the book we see Ashleigh to through the various stages of grief and how she copes with learning that Michael has a new girlfriend. Ashleigh goes on a quest to win Michael back which quickly becomes an obsession.

My Thoughts: Let me just start off by saying that writing Chick Lit has got to be a really hard genre to write. There are very few writers of Chick Lit whom I love to read. A Chick Lit author has to be quirky, witty, funny and romantic. This book was quirky but it went so over the top trying to be funny/quirky that some of Ashleigh's antics to get Michael back went from quirky to silly to stupid and unbelievable (calling a psychic cat? really?).

This book is written by a British writer so there were many references that this Canadian just didn't get. References to various British TV personalities (I assume) and other famous people. I'm quite well versed in the differences in British words compared to Canadian (love British authors usually) but there were so many of these references that it felt like I almost needed a Brit/Canuck dictionary to get through some passages.

It had a good premise but Ashleigh was too over the top for my liking. I had a hard time liking her because she just came off as too desperate and needy. I felt more compassion for her best friend who tried to talk some sense into her but ended up getting smacked down by Ashleigh in her attempt to help.

My Rating: 2/5 stars