About this title: This delightful piece of fluff from chick lit author extraordinaire Sophie Kinsella, writer of the bestselling Shopaholic series, introduces ambitious, driven London lawyer Samantha Sweeting. Samantha's hopes of a partnership at the firm are dashed when she makes a career-torpedoing error. In her shock and horror, she hops onto a train, ending up in front of a country mansion, whose owner believes Samantha to be a prospective housekeeper and hires her! Samantha welcomes the chance to escape her troubles and accepts the job, even though she hasn't a clue how to perform the simplest of ...
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: The Dial Press
Date Published: 7/19/2005
ISBN-13:9780385338684ISBN:0385338686
Description: Very Good. 0385338686 May show signs of shelf wear. Choose EXPEDITED shipping, receive in 2-5 business days. Please email with questions. read more
"Samantha Sweeting is a stressed out workaholic attorney at the prestigious law firm of Carter Spink, she is desperately trying to become the firm's youngest partner. In the blink of the eye it all changes .
Samantha's work is normally flawless, but one costly mistake spells career suicide. In utter shock Samantha flees her office, wandering the streets until she ends up on a train that leaves her in the middle of nowhere.
Not really sure where she is Samantha spots a house, intending to ask for directions and a few aspirin. The owners of the home mistake her for a interviewee and offer her a job as their housekeeper.
I have read some of the books in the Shopaholic series and I became a fan of Ms.Kinsella, I decided to seek out some of her work and I was very intrigued by this book.
I found Samantha to be very real, she was a young successful professional who has never turned on a stove or knows where to put the bag in her vacuum. With that being said I was wondering how Samantha was going to possibly be a housekeeper? In a series of funny mishaps, Samantha gets lessons and starts to realize there is more to life then high powered stress.
I really did enjoy this book and I would recommend this to someone looking for some light-hearted chick-lit."
"Having read Kinsella's Shopaholic series, I knew what to expect going into this - light, fun, chick-lit, nothing too taxing. I was correct in that it was light and an easy read, but I think what really disappointed me was that it was too easy to read. Everything was utterly predictable, and it all just tied up in such a perfect little bow. Even the conflict, when it happened, wasn't particularly tough on the character.
But what really got to me about this book was how completely unbelievable it was. I guess it was clear that the people who took her in were pretty daft, but still - I find it extremely difficult to believe that in one weekend Samantha could learn everything she needed to run a huge house and prepare fabulous dinners, when the day before she couldn't so much as fry an egg or slice a loaf of bread properly. If she had gone on faking it a bit longer, or if it had been a harder process for her to learn everything, then maybe I could have believed it. Perhaps if she had to start with casseroles and then work her way up to souffles and fois gras, it might have been believable. But there is no way that I could find it plausible that she would take just two days to learn all of the skills she would need to convince her employers that she was as skilled as she claimed to be - especially considering that her teacher was just a patient neighbor. And she didn't just have to learn cooking! At the start of the book, Samantha doesn't even know that vacuums have bags! It is completely unrealistic that she would learn all that in just two days, and not need to go back for subsequent weekends. Also, her actions at time completely irritated me. At least in the Shopaholic books, you felt like the character should be acting that way. In this book, the main character is a high-profile lawyer, the youngest in her firm to be so successful and accomplished. Considering that, a lot of her actions at the beginning of the novel would have been quite different.
Still, I couldn't help but root for Samantha, and hope that everything turned out for her. So, in the end, the book did a bit of what it was supposed to do: it gave my mind a vacation and let me just zone out of the real world. That's the only reason I didn't completely hate it. Kinsella is a fun and playful writer, but not a literary genius by any stretch."
"I'm getting a bit anxious on critiquing another Sophie Kinsella novel that is not part of her Shopaholic series. I felt really bad giving 'Can You Keep A Secret' a bad rating, that I felt like biting my tongue on this new one. Hmmm...I don't know if I can really do that. After all, the title of my review journal is 'Candid Thoughts'. Well, all right then. Here goes... I like the title 'The Undomestic Goddess'. It's pretty witty and charming. I also thought some of the antics and expressions of the heroine, Samantha Sweeting, is rather funny. But moving on to the story, the essence of the novel, the....okay, okay, I do believe I'm stalling. Fine. I'll go ahead and say it. I didn't like the book. It was horrible. I barely choked finishing it. Oh no! What is happening to one of my favorite Chick Lit authors? Should Ms. Kinsella really just stick to Shopaholic and her Becky Bloomwood? From my assessment of this novel, I should think so! The problem with this novel is that the story was not well developed. We start of with a good character who is a young and successful workaholic lawyer. She makes the gravest mistake of her career and is fired from her job (this part of the novel was going good so far. The reader does wonder, "Okay, so what will happen to her now?"). But then she flees into the country and becomes a domestic. WHAT????!!! Yes, that's right. She becomes a maid to a very rich English couple who can't really tell that their new maid cannot really cook, clean, or do any house chores. Okay....so why should the reader continue reading this book? It's obviously going to be a waste of time. Sadly, I testify that it does. The predictable ending: Samantha Sweeting finally learns how to enjoy and live life to the fullest."
"This is by far my favorite Sophie Kinsella book. Right now I can really relate to the main character - Samantha - as she struggles to find her real identity.
Samantha is a successful, smart lawyer ready to make partner and achieve her life's goal at the age of 29. She's dedicated, talented and focused on her goal. She's also tense, stressed, has no life, doesn't know how to make dinner or sew a button on. She was raised to believe that women don't need to know how to do domestic tasks - a woman is only really successful if she has a career. She pities her older neighbor for only being a house wife.
When a mistake at her law firm costs her a promotion and her job, she runs away (literally) and creates a new life. She ends on up on the doorstep of a rich couple in the country where she stops to ask for an aspirin for her headache. They mistake her for the maid they are hiring for and interview her. She tells a few lies about her cooking and domestic background and the fall in love. They hire her as their maid/housekeeper/chef thinking she was trained at the Cordon Bleu and is a gourmet. When she comes to her senses and realizes she doesn't even know how to make toast - it's too late to get out of it. Her job in London is over, she might face charges, her mother is furious and her friends/co-workers are bailing left and right.
She decides to suck it up and do this job, assuming it can't be all that hard to cook and clean. After a disastrous dinner attempt, the gardener tells her that his mother is willing to teach her how to cook and do housework. Thus begins her journey of rediscovering herself.
I can really identify with this. After having to leave my last job, I'm not really sure who I am. That really defined so much of who I thought I was. I was a children's minister, I ministered to people in times of need, I taught families how to know God better, I preached the gospel of Christ. Although I realize I can do all those things without a title and a job at a church, I'm not really sure how to.
I don't know where to work, I don't know when to pursue a ministry career (or if to), I don't know what church to attend. I feel like UBC is full of people who know that what happened with me wasn't completely right and are doing nothing. I don't feel free to worship there, but I haven't found a church that feels like home yet. So how can I use my gifts to glorify God when I don't even have a church?
The passages where Samantha learns how to make bread are especially moving. It is a cathartic scene of labor, pain and finally reward.
I highly recommend it. It moves quickly so be sure to take some time to enjoy the ride."
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