Pants on Fire

In this fun, fast-moving story, Londoner Georgia (not Georgie, thank-you very much) is starting over in Australia after breaking up with her cheating fiance. Through her job working at Glow magazine, she ends up in the middle of Sydney social life--a dazzling whirl of parties, easy drugs and sex, and friendships both superficial and strong. She recovers from her broken heart, makes some good friends, learns about herself, love, friendship, and trust, and ends up with a romance after all, even though she'd intended to keep things light. (No, I'm not saying who it's with or what happens--you'll have to read the book to find out! The Good: Pants on Fire could have easily become a cautionary tale about the evils of drug use or promiscuity, but it didn't. It also avoided cliches with Georgia's best friend, Antony, who's gay, but not a caricature. The secondary characters, and there are quite a few of them, are neither perfect nor 2-dimensional 'types'. They're realistic--people you might expect to meet if you were part of the in-crowd in Sydney. I've never been to Australia (my husband did have the opportunity to be stationed there at one point, but we opted for Germany instead), but Pants on Fire made it come to life for me. The Bad: Be warned: lots of promiscuity, and drugs in this one. I had a bit of trouble with all the casual drug use--that's not something I see in fiction much at all, unless it's the villain, and it's a cautionary tale. Entertaining, but it was more of a "slice of life" story than one that actually went somewhere. The Verdict: A quick, fun read, as long as you know what to expect.

i loved this book!!! if you're a fan of jane green, jennifer weiner, jennifer crusie, sophie kinsella, or marian keyes, you'll love maggie alderson. this book is charming and funny. it should be read by everyone who is a fan of chick-lit.

It's a fine, light and entertaining read. I'm still reading and I can't put it down .I like the humorous way that the author - an Australian writer- shows the incoherence of life. It's about a journalist who lives and works in London and moves to Australia to work in a women's magazine to try to forget her broken heart. She mets a lot of people involved in a lot of confusion.Love, sex, drugs, work, richness and poorness are some of the things that this "girly" book embodies in an intelligent way. As another reader said, is a class above most girly reads. It's a good read, and it's worth tracking it down, since it 's not so easy to find it.

Having been a fan of Alderson's column in The Age (Australian newspaper) for years, I was looking forward to reading this book. I read it over a couple of days on holiday and it's perfect when you want a "light" entertaining read. It is well written, with many funny scenes and is well worth reading, however I think Mad About The Boy is better. My favourite books by Alderson are Handbag Heaven and Shoe Money, which are compiled from her many fashion columns. May be hard to get in the US, but would be worth tracking down!

This was a truly fantastic book. I couldn't put it down. There is now a huge queue for it with my friends. I highly recommend it along with her other book Mad About The Boy.