The Undomestic Goddess » (Reprint)

With her winning, witty series of Shopaholic books, British author Sophie Kinsella (real name: Madeline Wickham) has created nothing less than a phenomenon. As Entertainment Weekly puts it, "[Kinsella] gives chick-lit lovers a reason to stay home from the mall."

Workaholic attorney Samantha Sweeting has just done the unthinkable. She s made a mistake so huge, it ll wreck any chance of a partnership.

Going into utter meltdown, she walks out of her London office, gets on a train, and ends up in the middle of nowhere. Asking for directions at a big, beautiful house, she s mistaken for an interviewee and finds herself being offered a job as housekeeper. Her employers have no idea they ve hired a lawyer and Samantha has no idea how to work the oven. She can t sew on a button, bake a potato, or get the #@%# ironing board to open. How she takes a deep breath and begins to cope and finds love is a story as delicious as the bread she learns to bake.

But will her old life ever catch up with her? And if it does will she want it back?

Publishers Weekly

Samantha Sweeting, the 29-year-old heroine of Kinsella's latest confection (after Shopaholic Sister), is on the verge of partnership at the prestigious London law firm Carter Spink-the Holy Grail of her entire workaholic life. But when she finds she has made a terrible, costly mistake just before the partnership decision, she's terrified of being fired. In a fog, she stumbles out of the building and onto the nearest train, which drops her in the countryside, where she wanders to a stately home. The nouveau riche lady of the house mistakes her for the new housekeeper-and Samantha is too astonished to correct her. Numb and unable to face returning to London, Samantha tries to master the finer points of laundry, cooking and cleaning. She discovers that the slow life, her pompous but good-hearted employers and the attentions of the handsome gardener, Nathaniel, suit her just fine. But her past is hard to escape, and when she discovers a terrible secret about her firm-and when the media learns that the former legal star is scrubbing toilets for a living-her life becomes more complicated than ever. If readers can swallow the implausible scenario, then Kinsella's genuine charm and sweet wit may continue to win her fans. (July) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.