Alles oder Nick?

by Debbie Carbin

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.

Genres: Chick Lit, Romance, Fiction, Roman, Humor

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Kate]

This book followed the formula of shallow annoying character who faces adversity and becomes a lovable hero by the end. It was silly and light-hearted and I enjoyed it.

[Paula Sealey]

A really great book if you are into chick-lit! There are some wonderful laugh out loud moments (wait until she eats the dog food!), and some great characters.

You'll start by categorising Rachel as a self-obsessed, vain fool, but by the end, you'll have grown to like her. Hectors character is just what you want from this type of romantic story too. A true hero with a wonderful heart!

A definite must read with plenty of twists and turns to keep you turning those pages!

[Bookread2day]

So much goes on In Thanks for Nothing, Nick Maxwell that I really could not put this book down. I must read more novels from Debbie Carbin.

[Alrasti1]

Rachel is on top of the world. She is sexy, put together, and running things at work. Then she meets the new work hottie Nick Maxwell and fate puts these two super attractive people together. What Rachel thinks is a relationship with a suave twenty-something is actually just a hookup in the mind of nineteen year old hunk Nick Maxwell. So, eventually Nick stops calling and Rachel not being the desperate type decides to ignore him as well. Until she finds out she is pregnant and decides to call his home....surprise when Mrs. Maxwell answers the phone. So, now hot Nick Maxwell is a very married scumbag who has impregnated her. What is Rachel to do? Just move on is the answer.

Then fate steps in while Rachel is dealing with her horrible morning sickness in the guise of hunky Hector. What starts as a funny flirtation over Rachel finding his cellphone at the supermarket turns into a burning attraction and deep friendship (sigh!). Soon Rachel and Hector realize their worlds have crossed paths in many ways. Hector is Rachel's best friends brother-in-law. As Rachel and Hector become closer with Hector helping her through her pregnancy misunderstandings and issues with friends and family brings them closer and also keeps them apart. The big problem is that Hector has suffered from past relationships and thinks that Nick and Rachel are working things out. Little does he know that the office slut Nick Maxwell has truly moved on and is dating the new girl in the office much to Rachel's disgust.

In the end Rachel and Hector find their way to each other and profess their love (sigh again!). Hector is truly a catch and a man that every woman dreams about! This story is beautiful in that it is a real life situation that many women find themselves in. Single and pregnant is a tough situation to be in and Rachel works through this issue and many others brilliantly.

Now for the bad stuff. There are points in time where I really don't like Rachel but that is excellent because I have strong feelings for her throughout the book. That means the author created a good character because there is emotion on the readers part. In the end though I like Rachel a lot. She grows throughout the book and becomes a likable character. The problem though is that at some points the writing is hard to follow. The book reads like a movie script and would be an excellent movie the way it is portrayed but makes the reading hard to deal with at times. Altogether the book is marvelous and beautiful.

[Sam]

When I first started this book, I didn't like it. The main character is shallow and vapid, and the narrative style bothered me because it allowed her to be even more so than a traditional first-person point of view. But I pushed through, and I'm glad I did, because once I hit the halfway point I was riveted. It had just the right mix of missed opportunities and small romantic advances to keep me hooked, and even through we all know how it's going to end up, I couldn't help but almost tear up at the end. Definitely a great vacation read.

[Diane Houdeshell]

3.5 stars

[Lilian Chinwe]

Hector is the kind of man that raises the expectations of other ladies. Brilliant read.

[Tiffanie]

Really enjoyed this book!
Rachel is a gorgeous girl who has guys falling at her feet an after a few dates if she is sick of them she starts ignoring their calls until they get the hint. at work she is the hottest girl there. When they get a new guy working personnel everyone is saying how they would make a good couple their both the hottest people ever. So after they meet have a couple dates an a couple hook ups he starts blowing her off ignoring her. Doing to her what she does to men and she is not liking it. One day calling his home trying to find out whats going on a woman answers saying this is mrs. Maxwell and she instantly thinks he has a wife so she starts telling everyone at the office about it.
She finds a phone one day at the grocery store an when the owner finally calls back for it they get into this joking banter.The day she is supposed to meet this hector to return his phone she has made an appointment to be at the doctor because she has been so sick. she's leaving to meet to return the phone while trying to digest this horrible news at least she feels its horrible right now that she is pregnant an the realization settles in that it is nick maxwells.
She meets hector an they start talking an he notices something is bothering her so being complete strangers she feels that it would be ok to tell him after all she will never see him again. Well she tells him she hasn't decided whether she is going to keep it or not and they talk for awhile. As their leaving he tells her to keep the phone he's already bought a new one an has to pay up til the contract is up and this way they can still talk an she don't have to give her personal number after all he is the only who knows about this pregnancy. So she agrees. they continue to talk over the months finding out that he is the brother in law of her best friend sarah.
Months pass an she never tells nick about the baby when she goes into labor after she has the baby he shows up the hospital tells her he knew he was just afraid to say anything but he did want to be apart of the baby's life. such a touching story of finding love through hard times.

[Rea K]

Verdict! It was addicting. It might not have been the greatest narration, but I was able to manage.
It's very British. As in I'm an American. I don't speak British English, I speak American English. I figured out what most of the strange terms were.
I spent a portion of the book mentally linking it back to Trouble, the Non Pratt book I just read. And suddenly, all of the similarities stopped.
This book is told in retrospect. I think that's what word I want. Rachel Covington tells her story of the year that she was pregnant, the lead up, the things that happened to her, her relationships, that sort of stuff.
It was fun. I got annoyed at the British English when it didn't make sense. I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened at the very end. (ALSO, this does not end with one colliding with a brick wall like Trouble does, there is REAL WRAP UP.)
As a tentative foray into Chick Lit, I'm pleased. I did not want to strangle Rachel (unlike I wanted to strangle Becky Bloomwood of the Shopaholic series). I may have wanted to shake everyone involved, but in the end it turned out alright.
Oh, that's right. I spent a lot of time thinking his name was Nick Caldwell instead of Nick Maxwell. Whoops.

[Cara]

Empty-headed yet increasingly charming girl ends up with the rock-solid, wonderful man in the end and they live happily ever after. Grr. Of course, how else would it end? I hate this particular plot right now.

Seriously, the girl is so annoying in the beginning, I almost put the book down, especially the device of narrating from outside her body and pointing out all the nuances of her facial expressions and how hot she looks. Come on! But she does mellow into a very likable character by the end of the book, and the happy love stuff is delightful to read. The timing is a bit unfortunate in my life--I don't want to be wanting exactly this kind of happy love stuff for myself! But I guess a book about a chick happily living alone with her cat and yarn would be mind-blowingly boring, so what can you do.

Quote of the book: "Arses arses ARSES ARSE!"

[Liz]

Thanks for Nothing, Nick Maxwell Debbie Carbin.
Not the best book. I can't believe it took me so long to read. When I picked it up off the shelf, I thought "" Just a short quick read for the week.."" But no.. It took me the better part of two weeks to get through.
I hated the character who got pregnant ( can't even remember her name at the moment. ) How shallow and cruel she seemed then out of nowhere, she becomes caring. Out of no where... Kinda ruined it for me. No clear definition of where her lie changed ( as opposed to when she found out she's pregnant.
Not a fan of the book at all, and would not be interested in any of the author's books, especially if she writes in the same way as this novel..
So glad I can take my book mark out of it, and never open it again.

[Heidi]

I really liked this book, despite copious amounts of people stating how self centered the main character is but i beg to differ... She starts out self centered but actually ends up rather self actualized and I really like a character that grows with the story and changes a little bit. She does start out just like any other early twenty something, wrapped up in herself and about her. But when she discovers a baby she has to grow up as she grows with her pregnancy. I liked this book alot and recommend it.

[Melissa]

I just happened to pick this book up at the library...didn't know much about it, it just looked interesting. When I started the book, I wasn't too keen on the writing style, but it really grew on me.

I laughed so hard in spots as she described her pregnancy and some of the things she did due to severe pregnancy brain.

I wouldn't recommend this for everyone...the language is pretty bad. But I did enjoy the book the further I got into it. If you like Sophie Kinsella, you will like this book.

[Bree]

I was put off by this book at first. It was odd the way "Rachel" would describe the a scene that was taking place...almost like a movie. I also wasn't into reading a British narrative. I waited out to see if I could look past these two things and eventually it did. I liked the story and the way it was coming together. I think I loved the way "Rachel" grew during the course of the book. I probably won't read it again and was very happy that it was a library read. Yet I was happy enough with it to see it through and glad it was on my "To Read" list.

[Lisa]

I stopped reading this on page 91 (middle of Chapter 5). I never stop reading a book in the middle of a chapter. I had a hard time getting past the "all about perfect me" heroine (?) of the book. I have put it aside and will (maybe) try reading some more, hoping that the story actually goes somewhere. I'm not *too* hopeful though, considering it has been 5 chapters and it's still about "perfect me".

[Shelley Kowalski]

This book had the potential to be so much better.
While I loved the underlying story, I hated the writing style. There were alot of questions directed towards the reader, that I felt were pointless and lots of descriptions that I felt were unnessessary.

I disliked it that much that I almost stopped reading it after the 5th chapter, it was only that I had nothing else to read that I carried on.

In saying all of that as the book progressed I liked it better and liked the story line.

[Stephanie]

I hated Rachels character when I first started this book. I had to force myself to keep reading it as she is very self-involved, conceited and I couldn't relate to her at all.

once she gets knocked up, she slowly becomes more humble and likeable. she falls in love with hector and really lets her guard down.

hector proposes in the end. she names the baby ruby. nick wants to be involved in the child's life.

[Noelle]

This book started off really slow. I was contemplating not finishing it, which I rarely do, but I decided to stick with it. By the middle it gets better. The one thing that bothered me was that the main character would "talk" to the reader. She would stay stuff like, I'm taking a shower now, so please shut the door. It was weird and I found it distracting.

[Mandy]

While it was well-written and it may be a book that many would enjoy, both the writing style (looking at scenes as though in a movie) and the story-line weren't my cup of tea. About halfway I gave up reading, and, before casting it aside, flicked to the end to see what happens ... exactly what I had expected happens.

[Jessica]

A hilarious new author from across the pond. Debbie Carbin is a hilarious writing with an engaging style that sucks you in and doesn't let go. Watch out Sophie Kinsella, there's a new British import in town!

[Debbie]

This was a very cute story that probably most if not all women can relate to. I really enjoyed this book very much. It is also a very feel-good book. You are left feeling very happy and hopeful.

[Amanda Henninger]

Vacation/Beach Reading

[Lyz]

Really good book! Great chick lit!

[Brybaby]

this book was ok wasnt quite my interest

[Nicole]

Hector was a great character.

[Lacy]

Cute storyline but a very odd writing style. Probably won't read another from this author.

[Gabriela]

I laughed out loud so often with this book!

[Bear]

Surprisingly fun.

[Melissa]

Slow start and it took at least half of the book for me to care about the main character. It picked up eventually and was predictable, but entertaining.

[Cj]

Really enjoyed dont want to ruin anything by saying too musch but has a good mix of humour and serious stuff. Now need to get her otger book.