From Lawyer To House Keeper? (The Undomestic Goddess - Sophie Kinsella)

Member Name: daylelisahall

Product:	The Undomestic Goddess - Sophie Kinsella
Date:	29/03/09 (253 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to read, likable characters, funny storylines

Disadvantages: Not going to teahc you anything new

I always thought that I never really enjoyed reading girlie books. Having said that, while on holiday last year, I was browsing the hotel library and I came across the whole collection of Sophie Kinsella books which I decided to read. One of these books was 'The Domestic Goddess'.

About Sophie Kinsella
Sophie Kinsella's real name is Madeline Wickham and she was born on 12th December 1969. She has written a series of books which are based around a shopaholic. These books include: The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic, Shopaholic Abroad, Shopaholic Ties the Knot, Shopaholic and Sister and lastly Shopaholic and Baby.

The Plot
The Undomestic Goddess is written through the eyes of Samantha Sweeting who is 29 years old. She lives alone and works 17 hour days at the law firm Carter Spink where she eventually hopes to become a partner. To reach her goal, Samantha finds herself working every hour god sends and even going into work on her days off to help cope with her ever increasing workload. Samantha basically has no life, she is always stressed, always tired and never gets the time to even meet up with her friends.
Eventually Samantha reaches her goal and she becomes a partner in the law firm. Samantha is over the moon but soon comes back to reality with a bump when she realises that she has forgotten to pay attention to an extremely important document - Samantha's mistake costs the law firm 50 million dollars.

Realising her mistake, Samantha runs out of the office and promptly jumps on the first train she first train she finds. Her head, an absolute mess, she can't even think straight. Eventually the train stops and she finds herself in the middle of nowhere. Samantha disembarks the train and her head starting to clear, begins to walk and look for someone to ask for directions.

Samantha arrives at a large house and rings the doorbell. The moment the owner answers, she seems over familiar with Samantha but because he head is in such a jumble, she goes along with everything the woman is saying. Before long, it soon becomes clear that the owners of the house think Samantha is their new housekeeper.

From here, Samantha tells a whole load of lies to try and keep up the pretence of being their new housekeeper; including telling them that she is a trained chef. The rest of the story follows Samantha from being a high flying lawyer in the City to a housekeeper in the countryside. But how long can Samantha lie her way into her new life, and what other events has she yet to overcome?

My Opinion
Once again, I surprised myself by actually really enjoying a girly book. As with most girly books, The Undomestic Goddess is really easy to follow. I also found this book really funny as some of the situations Samantha gets herself into, I found myself being able to relate to. Although Samantha is the main character in this book, there are also a few other characters to keep you entertained, such as her new employers, Eddie and Trish who seem to have lots of money and not much brain. I found these two characters particularly amusing with some of the lines they come out with throughout the book.
I think the book moves at a nice steady pace with lots of little twists that always keep you guessing as to whether Samantha is going to be caught out trying to blag her way into a new career path.

Summary
I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Sophie Kinsella or any girly books for that matter. Although this book won't teach you anything new, I really enjoyed escaping into Samantha's world and following her on her exciting but also nerve-wracking journey.

Summary: A great escapism book