The Undomestic Goddess
By Sophie Kinsella
Chic Lit.
Okay; the first time I read this book was while babysitting my cousins in Texas. It was hot, sticky, and the hours kind of melted together as I ate altoids and read book after book after book.
That was the year Venezuala won Miss Universe. She didn't deserve it; Colombia had creamed her in the bathing suit and ballroom dress competitions. It was based merely on that "academic" question; so they could claim it was something other than a beauty pageant.
Anyways, the undomestic godess is about a rich, stressed, disorganized and about-to-crack lawyer Sarah who, by some unfortunate circumstances, loses her company fifty million. Pounds. Right at the minute where she was to be promoted to some position that's she's been trying to attain her whole life. She takes a train to the English countryside and, upon arriving at a large and well-kept house, is mistaken for the maid the family has ordered. Our heroine cannot cook, work a vacuum cleaner, or do anything that resembles fulfilling basic human needs. Sarah is asked to cook an eight-course meal her first day and fails completely. The gardener walks in on the disaster and she tells him a little fib; that she ran away from an abusive husband. He helps her clean up and because the people who own the house are complete idiots; they give her a raise and buy her new supplies... because she failed. Well, the (handsome, dreamy Nathaniel) gardener's mother can cook; so he takes her over there and she starts her training.
Can you guess how the rest of this goes?? She learns to cook and clean wonderfully, falls in love with Nathaniel, just as the world finds out Sarah, six-figure lawyer ran away to the country and became a maid. It comes to Sarah's attention that the mistake wasn't her fault; it was an orchestrated scheme. She explains herself to the right people and gets her old job back... plus the promotion. Plus an extra promotion. But realizes that isn't what she wants, and she runs back to Nathaniel so he can open his infirmary (greenhouse plant things) and they kiss at the train station....
Okay. It was pretty good the first time around; but what I find true about most chic lit is it has no re-readability. Maybe I'm a cheap ass for wanting to get more than one thrill out of a twelve dollar book; but the plot is too simple, the jokes too based on certain situations to be charming a second time, the romance either too forced or too cliché, it can only entertain you for so long; then you want something else; something that you will gleam something new out of each time you read it.
If you don't have this problem, read this book.
