Product Description

The story of a girl who needs to slow down. To find herself. To fall in love. And to discover what an iron is for...Samantha is a high-powered lawyer in London. She works all hours, has no home life, and cares only about getting a partnership. She thrives on the pressure and adrenalin. Until one day...she makes a mistake. A mistake so huge, it'll wreck her career. She walks right out of the office, gets on the first train she sees, and finds herself in the middle of nowhere. Asking for directions at a big, beautiful house, she is mistaken for the interviewee housekeeper and finds herself being offered the job. They have no idea they've hired a Cambridge-educated lawyer with an IQ of 158 - Samantha has no idea how to work the oven. Disaster ensues. It's chaos as Samantha battles with the washing machine...the ironing board...and attempts to cook a cordon bleu dinner. But gradually, she falls in love with her new life in a wholly unexpected way. Will her employers ever discover the truth? Will Samantha's old life ever catch up with her? And if it does...will she want it back?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1954 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-02
• Released on: 2006-01-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
'A delightful comedy of errors from the funniest female writer around' - Company. 'Definitely full of laughs' - New Woman. 'Witty role-swap comedy' - Grazia. 'Another rib-tickler from the author of the Shopaholic series' - OK Magazine

From the Publisher
The story of a girl who needs to slow down. To find herself. To fall in love. And to discover what an iron is for…

From the Back Cover
The story of a girl who needs to slow down. To find herself. To fall in love. And to discover what an iron is for…

Samantha is a high-powered lawyer in London. She works all hours, has no home life, and cares only about getting a partnership.She thrives on the pressure and adrenalin. Until one day… she makes a mistake. A mistake so huge, it’ll wreck her career.

She walks right out of the office, gets on the first train she sees, and finds herself in the middle of nowhere. Asking for directions at a big, beautiful house, she is mistaken for the interviewee housekeeper and finds herself being offered the job. They have no idea they’ve hired a Cambridge-educated lawyer with an IQ of 158 – Samantha has no idea how to work the oven.

Disaster ensues. It’s chaos as Samantha battles with the washing machine…the ironing board…and attempts to cook a cordon bleu dinner.But gradually, she falls in love with her new life in a wholly unexpected way.

Will her employers ever discover the truth? Will Samantha’s old life ever catch up with her? And if it does…will she want it back?

Customer Reviews

Witty and enjoyable chick lit
I have read and enjoyed every single one of Sophie Kinsella's books and this one was no exception. The story revolves around an intelligent woman who has a high powered career but after making one mistake has to hide away from her old life and finds herself as the new housekeeper for a couple who live in a big house in the country. This would be fine but as Samantha is in no way, shape or form domestic, there are some hilarious scenes in the book where she has to learn the hard way how to run a big house and not be discovered for being a fake in the first place. As Samantha comes to terms with everything she now has to face, she learns to slow down her life in the process. I loved the book, its an easy read but the characters are likeable and the plot moves along at a good pace and although some of it is a little predictable, its still a great read and roll on Sophie's next book.

Loved it!
Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. I bought this book to read on a flight from the UK to Australia and it had me laughing so loud I was quite an embarrassment! I'm not a 'chick lit' kind of girl but this was a real exception. As an author myself I really admire the talent it takes to write a book where almost every line makes you smile or laugh. Pure escapism, very charming and such good fun, and somehow it also manages to be a book which makes you take stock of what really counts in life. This should be compulsory reading for every workaholic - and certainly every lawyer. In fact I'm going to order a copy for a lawyer who's a close friend right now. Enjoy!

If Only ALL ChickLit Was This Good!
If all chicklit authors could deliver work of the same quality as Ms Kinsella, I'd never read anything else ever again!

Never having read any of the Shopoholic series I have to admit that when I bought this, had no idea who Sophie Kinsella was. Just as well as I've always steered deliberately clear of the Shopaholic series because they sounded less appealing than a wet cardboard box served as Sunday lunch.

Having said that, I was still somewhat trepidacious when I bought this book because the storyline, a high-flying legal eagle in the city becoming a housekeeper in the country even though she can't cook, iron, wash or do anything else remotely domestic, didn't sound as if it would work. Maybe most authors wouldn't have been able to pull it off but Ms Kinsella certainly did!

Her characters are all extremely well formed and had me laughing out loud on several occasions. Trish, the nouveau riche "lady of the house" has so many typically chav traits about her as she tries to prove herself a worthy member of the country set and the niece... well, if I ever wanted to slap somebody, it was her!

There are plenty of twists in the tale to keep the story moving and the ending is so well written that I almost believed I was actually there with Samantha, the heroine of the story.

If you want a good laugh whilst enjoying a story about characters you'll care about, this is definitely a book that shouldn't be missed. One word of warning, though. If you start it while laying on the beach, you might well end up burned to a frazzle because time will fly without you realising it!