Thanks for Nothing, Nick Maxwell

by Debbie Carbin

Overview

Rachel Covington is twenty-five, sexy, single, and smug. Her life is a glorious whirl of looking fabulous and toying with gorgeous men. So it's obvious to everyone that she and the hottest guy in her office, Nick Maxwell, are destined to hook up—but what happens after that is a little less obvious.

First, Nick stops calling her—her, Rachel!—and then she discovers that there's something even worse than being dumped: It's being dumped and pregnant. Suddenly, she's faced with a choice she never expected—does she keep the baby and start thinking about someone besides herself, or try to go back to the way things were?

Brilliantly funny, with a wonderfully fresh and original voice, Thanks for Nothing, Nick Maxwell is a smart, romantic novel about love, relationships, and knowing when it's time to start growing up.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312383688
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/22/2008
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	5.54(w) x 8.22(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

DEBBIE CARBIN, a 30-something mother-of-two, lives in Kent, England. Thanks For Nothing, Nick Maxwell is her first novel.

Editorial Reviews

Debbie Carbin is a fresh and entertaining new voice in women's fiction. With an engaging style and an unrivaled sense of humor, she holds the reader willingly captive until the very last page. Do you see me sitting on my couch, reading this book until 3:00 in the morning? Notice how I just can't put it down. That's how much I loved it!” —Jessica Brody, author of The Fidelity Files

From the Publisher

Carbin's brisk, funny first novel records the changes in a shallow, self-centered beauty brought on by a bun in the oven and an unlikely connection with a stranger. After being callous with many hearts, Brit Rachel Covington gets her comeuppance when her interoffice romance with superfoxy Nick Maxwell comes to an abrupt end. While pining for him and experiencing bouts of nausea, moodiness and ravenous hunger, she spies her friend Sarah McCarthy's husband, Glenn, passionately kissing another woman. Rachel also happens upon a lost cellphone and develops a friendship with its owner, charismatic Hector, soon revealed to be Glenn's successful older brother. When Rachel confirms her pregnancy, her decision to only let Hector know strengthens their bond and puts them on the fast track to potential romance, but circumstances prevent the would-be lovebirds from getting together. These are contrived in a necessary chick lit way, but Carbin fashions a convincing transformation for her protagonist. Other genre tropes abound (including the charged climax and Hector's wealth), but Carbin's engaging main character and swaggering sense of humor save the day. (Aug.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

Debut author Carbin takes a chance with a main character who is largely unlikable for almost half of this novel. Shallow, self-obsessed Rachel enjoys her telesales job, dating, and keeping herself gorgeous. She falls for handsome Nick Maxwell, only to learn the hard way what all those guys she dumped had felt. Their brief fling's end is made especially difficult when Rachel discovers she is pregnant. With nowhere else to turn, she develops a phone friendship with Hector, a stranger whose cell phone she found while shopping. As she accepts the responsibility of a new baby, she becomes a better person-just in time to help her friend Sarah through a time of crisis. Her burgeoning relationship with Hector also showcases Rachel's more charming side. Rachel's frequent coy asides, as she narrates the highlights of her life like a tour guide, hamper the flow of action. Still, this sturdy debut is appropriate for collections where British chick lit is popular and may interest fans of Adele Parks's similarly developed heroines.
—Lisa Davis-Craig

Library Journal