Leah
Written on May 17, 2010
Out of Chrissie Manby’s (or Chris Manby, which is the name she went by until last year) 14 books I’ve read quite a few of them and I’ve found myself quite enjoying them although there has been the odd strange one. Her books, one from the next, are never similar in any way which can make it difficult to tell if a book is one of Chrissie’s (hypothetically, if books didn’t have authors names on). I mean I read The Matchbreaker a couple of years ago and I just wasn’t a fan of that book, it was a bit… odd (and not like her other rom-coms) so I didn’t read another until I managed to get my hands of Spa Wars which I really liked and it seemed as though Chrissie was back to her best so when I saw the synopsis for Getting Over Mr Right I was intrigued and was so thrilled to be sent a copy to review.
Getting Over Mr Right starts with a prologue with Ashleigh telling us that she was dumped via Facebook. Now, that has got to be one of the most humiliating ways to be dumped, no? We then go back through Ashleigh’s dating history, from the first boy she ever kissed all the way through to her meeting with Michael and it seems that Ashleigh hasn’t had the best of boyfriends. Ever. So when she meets Michael, it is, conveniently, right after she swears off men. We learn how Ashleigh and Michael got together and how their relationship got to such a point that Michael dumps Ashleigh on Facebook. For me, that is where the book really begins because from that point on, it is total madness. The tag line for the book reads: “Been dumped? Get mad… But not this mad.” and I can’t actually believe how mad ‘this mad’ actually became!
It really is quite astounding how far Ashleigh is willing to go to get Michael back. It kind of reminded me of Lucy Dawson’s books His Other Lover but without the dark overtones (well, they’re less dark anyway). Ashleigh really does push the boundaries when it comes to trying to get Michael back and, at times, I found myself cringing because it was all just too much! I wanted to give her a shake and tell her to smell the coffee. And yet that’s what makes Ashleigh so likeable. I’m sure a lot of women have suffered the kind of heartbreak Ashleigh suffers and I’m also sure a lot of people will nod along as they read just what Ashleigh does as she tries desperately to win Michael back. A few of the things are a little bonkers and there’s a certain part of the book where Ashleigh is just down right mean but, overall, it was fun, if a little sad to see Ashleigh put herself through so much.
As I said, Ashleigh despite all of her madcap schemes is a likeable character. I was surprised I liked her so much actually because she could, possibly, come across as a bit of a drip. While there is that understandable heartbroken side, some will think that you know, she should just get over it and thankfully Chrissie manages to balance Ashleigh perfectly. She has her moments, sure, but overall I liked her. There aren’t many other main characters within the book, but I’ll tell you now that I didn’t like Michael. At all. Ever. All I wanted Ashleigh to do was to wake up and realise he totally wasn’t worth all of her tears and all of her madness. He never came across as likeable at any point throughout the book. One character I did love was Becky, Ashleigh’s best friend. She let Ashleigh wallow for a while but then put up her tough girl act to try and get Ashleigh to snap out of it. I thought she was a fab character and well worthy of her best friends status. Ashleigh’s family are quite important to the book and I thought Ashleigh, her mum, her dad and brother all had a great dynamic and seemed to get along (for the most part) great.
Chrissie is quite a fantastic writer, Getting Over Mr Right flowed perfectly for me and even when Ashleigh was at her most mad, I still wanted to carry on reading to see how it was all going to pan out. I managed to finish the entire book in just over 4 hours and I just couldn’t put it down. Writing the book entirely from Ashleigh’s perspective was a fantastic idea because I could really get to know Ashleigh and it helped me be able to read the book as quickly as I did. Chrissie even managed to add some humourous moments into the book, one scene in particular had me in stitches and there was also, surprisingly, a rather sad and touching moment which I saw coming a mile off but it still managed mad me feel sad.
Getting Over Mr Right is definitely worth a read and although it does have some cringe-worthy moments I did enjoy it. I did, at times, want to give Ashleigh a good slap because some of her ideas were a bit stupid but overall I thought it was a quick and enjoyable read. It’s definitely one to pack in your beach bags this summer and hey, maybe if you’re suffering a break up yourself, it could help you get over it. Particularly if you’re thinking of doing what Ashleigh does.