Anna Maxted reading

by Alex Richmond

Behaving Like Adults (Regan Books) is that rare novel that is fun, funny and truly moving. It perfectly combines sweet and airy froth with issues as painful and bloody as skinned knees. The book’s heroine, Holly, runs a popular dating service in London, and can’t stand to go a day without wearing something pink. Combine that fun setup with date rape, Holly’s heart-tearing breakup and coming out to your parents, and you’ve got a beach-read that at times feels like the sun keeps disappearing behind a cloud -- but in a good way.

Author Anna Maxted says she didn't plan to write about rape. "But after three months of writing a novel that just wouldn't flow, I realized that something was missing. I binned about 8,000 words and started again. It just seemed that if anything was going to go wrong for my heroine, this was what fitted." Maxted believes that most women, at some point in their lives, have been on the receiving end of unwanted advances -- and since Holly has to put herself in the path of so many men in the name of business, the worst-case scenario comes to pass.

Maxted says she was also "lunged at," and that she found herself apologizing to the lunger. "Funny, but if it's a serious assault, not funny at all. It's terrible that women blame themselves for other people's inexcusable behavior, but for the most part, they still do. And that's so damaging. I did my research on American websites, and the stories there just broke your heart. What came across is that when a woman is raped by someone she knows, it's denied by most people."

Behaving Like Adults isn't all so heavy, though. There's a real-life happy ending for Maxted; her book tour include her husband, author Phil Robinson, whose Charlie Big Potatoes is also new in hardcover. "Like Holly, I believe in love," Maxted says. "What could be more important than finding love?"

Anna Maxted reads and signs Thu., May 22, 6 p.m., Borders, Broad and Chestnut sts., 215-568-7400.