Product Description

Love is always just around the corner in a Jill Mansell novel - with a few surprises and a lot of humour on the way to happiness

Nell O'Driscoll's known Marcus Kilburton for years - according to her diary, she even had a crush on him as a teenager. When he decides to open Kilburton Castle to the public, Nell takes a job as his assistant - and soon sparks are flying between them. But is Nell free to pursue Marcus, when a figure from her past refuses to let go?

Meanwhile, Nell's best friend, Hetty Brewster, has other problems. Her husband has abandoned her for a bitchy but successful writer. Now the press is full of stories about the frumpy, boring wife losing out to a younger, slimmer model. But Hetty's about to get her chance for sweet revenge - if she can stop being a nice person long enough to take it!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #170322 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Sun
'This frothy romance will give any girl the giggles and there's enough wit to keep you turning the pages' Sun

About the Author
Jill Mansell worked for many years at the Burden Neurological Hospital, Bristol, and now writes full time. She lives with her partner and their children in Bristol. Jill is the author of many bestselling novels with Headline and appears regularly in the Guardian Top Hundred list.

Customer Reviews

An enjoyable tale of the landed gentry and the gypsy!
I read this book in a couple of sittings. As with all of Jill Mansell's books (yes I have read them all)the beauty of them is the fact that you feel that you really want know the characters and care about what happens to them. Jill Mansell's ability to continually create characters that are life-like is what makes her books so easy to read and so popular.

This book like many of her other books follows basically the same formula ,beautiful girl with whacky/not so beautiful friend fancies a very handsome/rich man but the path of true love never follows the smoothest or shortest route, just like life really, eh! The main characters Nell and Marcus are the beautiful ones, but chaotic friend Hetty has her fair share of attention, as does Nell's strange but loveable family. Also there is an adequate helping of sex and lust just to keep it ticking along nicely!

I simply gave this book a four star rating only beacause I did not enjoy it as much as some of her previous books,Millie'Fling being my all-time favourite so far, but Open House is still definately worth a read.

fantastic
This is the second Jill Mansell book i have read and i'm equally impressed with this then "staying at Daisy's".
I read this within two days because it is so easy to read but very difficult to put down. The characters are amazingly real and you begin to feel you know them, and you sympathise with their situations. It's so real you begin to wonder what you would do in their situation.
The story lines and twists are also really good and a couple were unexpected. Overall this is a fantastic book. Jill Mansell is great...i've already started another book of hers! Enjoy!

Not my favourite
I was a bit disappointed with this, I've read all of Jill Mansells books (I think, there are quite a lot!) and this one didn't stand out. Hetty seemed very familiar as a similar character (plump and abandoned by her husband) has appeared in at least one of her other novels. There was also a rather convenient death of one of the characters (I won't say who!) There wasn't much of a spark between the 'hero' Marcus and the 'heroine' Nell either. As the book is about predictions, maybe the feeling that they were bound to end up together was intentional but it would have been nice to keep us guessing just a little! I do love this author, and I enjoyed this book, its just not my favourite (that would probably be Perfect Timing).