I had a lot of fun reading this, but 2 whoppers stopped me in my tracks. May I just say, without spoiling the plot, that (1) no one just finishing his thesis would be appointed head of a department of a university hospital and (2) there is no desert in Nicaragua!

If you are a fan of good, witty chick lit this is a great book. a bit predictable and slow in places, but overall great entertainment.

Annie is a wanna-be novelist and single mum raising a pre-teen daughter and getting ready to marry the doctor that turned her heart around after she and her philandering spouse called it quits. A summer in the seaside community of Cornwall is just what the doctored ordered for R&R and a chance to complete her first novel. Luckily, his eccentric aunt has just the place for her to stay free of charge,

When she arrives, she discovers that absent-minded Aunt Gertrude rented the house out to Matt Malone, a hunky American psychiatrist who is on a sabbatical to write and reconcile with his teenage son. While she tries to get him evicted, Aunt Gertrude lets her know that his rent has already been spent. With no money of her own to shell out for a hotel, she and Matt enter into an agreement to share accommodations.

Soon their little abode is overrun by relatives, exes and friends. As Matt and Annie develop feelings for each other, she is torn between David, the doctor who rescued her from her self-imposed exile after her divorce, and Matt, who challenges her at every turn. And of course her ex Alex just keeps popping in on her wanting yet another chance.

The plot was engaging; the execution was so so. It appears that Alliott has either never been to the US or knows no Americans - the dialogue attributed to the American characters is completely British. At one point, Matt uses the term "nutters," I doubt any American, let alone a doctor would use such a term. And let's face it - Annie never really had to make a choice - it was made for her to keep her conscience clear - what a cop out. This one started out with a bang and had me laughing, but towards the end, I was just ... disappointed.

The characters were actually believable, and I really liked it, appart from the contstant finger nail biting from the main female character, it annoy's me that alliot's characters always bite a certain nail, or lick their lips under stress.

Rosie Meadows was also really good, this book was actually very enjoyable. But after the above, alliot has gone from being fresh milk, to being the dodgy milk that was past its use by date a decade ago.

Please don't read "going too far" by alliot - I can assure you, you'll waste 10 hours of your life on absolute fairy floss, and a character that licks her lips, 152 times in the book.

Yes, it was so bad ... you start actually remembering the flaws, the main character was dumber than dumb, and so completely stupid, that if I met her in the street, I'd want to punch her teeth out, and I've never ever done one violent act in my life.

alliot was obviously on a 3 book deal or something from her publisher, and to fulfil her contract "going too far" was the one - a complete and utter load of crap.

If she was not an acknowled author, I can assure ou, this manuscript would've been binned, and I wish it had. A waste of trees to print complete non-inspired, non-interesting rubbish.

I had enjoyed "Olivia's Luck" by Alliot and really found this book to be a good read as well. The themes are similar in some ways to her other novels (cheating husbands and the wives that learn to pick up the pieces of their own lives). This novel is both humerous and heartfelt.

The one thing that bugged me (repeatedly) is that the dialogue of the Americans in this book was completely British, save a few obvious American slang words. It's hard for me to believe that this book was editted to retain such British sounding dialogue coming from a 13 year old kid or the American doc. Even the doctor's diagnoses weren't spoken as an American e.g. "compulsive obsessive" instead of obsessive compulsive.

Still, this book is worth reading.