Product Description

Cari's jobless and has an overdraft the size of the national debt. She'll be homeless too if she can't come up with some cash to buy out Martin, her ex-husband - he who cut up her Barclaycard before he moved in with another woman. No wonder she's desperate enough to fall for dodgy entrepreneur Nigel's get-rich-quick scheme, buying the worst house in town to convert into flats. All she has to do - he tells her - is get a bank loan and the money will roll in! But it doesn't work out quite like that…

Cari's lumbered with a bank manager on the warpath, a sister on the verge of a nervous breakdown, a friend who's permanently pregnant, a friend who may be pregnant - but not by the right man - and a tenant who won't pay the rent. It's not long before there are bailiffs at the front door and Cari finds herself in the back of a police van. And Nigel's mysteriously disappeared. There is a knight in shining armour on the horizon, but naturally he's married to someone else.

Whatever happened to Cari's wish list? Make some money, lose some weight, find someone to have a grand passion with, and become so rich and successful that Martin is consumed with jealousy. Will any of them ever come true?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #381732 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 331 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The heroine of Jane Wenham-Jones Raising the Roof has just bought a one-way ticket to a dungeon of debt--a ramshackle house in the grottiest street in town. Cari's house has got woodworm, dry rot, blocked pipes and a slimy green carpet that reeks. Plus there's no one to do her stud work (not that she knows what stud work is). It's certainly not the fast track to becoming a property mogul she thought it would be when she signed on the dotted line.

Before you can say fixed-rate mortgage, she's skulking on the kitchen floor with a pile of unpaid bills on the doormat and the bailiffs at the door. Her sister's had a nervous breakdown, her infuriating mother won't leave her alone and her tenant--who was meant to be the answer to all her prayers--is a drug addict hell-bent on destroying what's left of her house. And she can't work out who's her knight in shining armour--Henry, the podgy supermarket manager with heady dreams of becoming area manager; Guy, the curly-haired journalist with an expert sexual touch or Ben, the massive builder with a House of Horror grin.

Raising the Roof is a thirtysomething girl-seeks-boy spin-off that's got more than a few cracks in its plasterwork. Cari's an unbelievably dizzy heroine, who's more interested in wrinkles and weight loss than the cycle of spiralling debt she's facing. And it's often hard to empathise as the foundations of her life--and house--crumble. But if it's light-hearted, frivolous escapism you're after, Raising the Roof is worth the downpayment.--Jane Honey

Jill Mansell
`Thoroughly enjoyable and full of deft, sparky humour'

Woman's Own (Best Book)
'Frothy and fun - a light and enjoyable read'

Customer Reviews

At last. 'Chick-lit' matures.
When Cari Carringron's husband leaves her she knows she has to make something of her life or more importantly make some money. So when a friend says 'trust me,' she does - with, as they say, hilarious consuquences. Well, not so hilarious actually, although the writer's sharp wit and accurate social observations will have you laughing, as Cari descends into a world of drug squats, baying bank managers and drunken nights in Brighton hotels. For Cari, life is a steep learning curve. Coping with an interfering mother, a phantomly pregnant friend, a crazy sister and how to climb very steep ladders, she learns many things - that not all builders have bum cleavages and big mouths, that the mentally ill are more frightened than frightening and that good can come out of bad. More than a hilarious romp, but not in the least depressing, 'Raising the Roof' is a witty and wry look at women at the beginning of the twentieth century. And what would we do without Cadbury's chocolate fingers?

Laugh Out Loud Funny
...and from the very first page. Raising he Roof is a captivating blend of pin-prick sharp, intelligent humour, hilarious calamities, and a diet that even a derr brain like me could stick to, if it wasn't for my empathy with Cari's main lifestyle philosophy of going to bed and drinking wine - by the bucket, if possible - once the going gets tough. And quite right too - when you've got a irritating mother, a barking mad sister and a dubious character like Nigel in your life. What's really special about this book however, is that it's different. Not a trendy London wine bar or Manolo in sight. Instead we're taken down the highways and byways of property renovation, ably guided by a cast of non-stereotpical chrcters, from Ben, the opera loving builder to hapless Henry, manager of the gloriously named Broadrange foods. But it isn't just high jinks on the scaffolding; Jane Wenham-Jones' handling of mental illness is both sensitive and thought provoking. A delight. Can't wait fo her next.

Everyone has their problems. Cari's are far worse than most!
Cari is jobless, manless and soon to be homeless. Who will help save her from her spiralling debts, provide her with a shoulder to lean on and keep a roof over her head?
The men she meets along the way to self-fulfilment sway between the manically obsessive and the gorgeously incompetent.
A very funny book, best taken with a glass of good wine.