The Undomestic Goddess

This is my second Sophie Kinsella book.

Samantha Sweeting is a stressed, workaholic lawyer who comes from a family of hard-working lawyers. She works at the top law firm in London, and finds out that she's going to make partner. It's her dream. All that she ever wanted in life. That day the decision would be officially made, and she's really excited.

That is until she finds an expired legal document on her messy desk. Everything turned upside down as Samantha realizes that she made a HUGE mistake which costs the client 50 millions. In a rush of panic, she jumps on a train and ends up in a small village.

Samantha approaches a big, beautiful house to ask for some aspirins, yet she's mistaken for an interviewee applying as a housekeeper. In order to spend the night, she applies and gets the job. The problem is, Samantha isn't exactly a domestic person. Her cooking is disastrous, she fails at cleaning, and has no idea on how to sew a button. She doesn't even know that vaccuum cleaners have bags.

When her boss calls up and informs her that she's fired, Samantha has no choice but to continue her current life — as a housekeeper. There, she finds many things she had never realize before. She starts to cope with her job and finds love with the gardener, Nathaniel.

But then, what if one day she finds out that she never made that mistake to begin with? What if she was set up in the first place? She wants to clear her name, but does she want her old job back?

I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed Can You Keep a Secret?. It's funny and light, perfect for a nice read when you want to relax. It's fun to see how Samantha tackles the household chores, and ends up buying food and new clothes to cover her failed attempts. Her employers — Eddie and Trish Geiger — are very peculiar people, but they really care about Samantha.

At times I find Samantha thinks too much for her own good. Because of her old job she's way too tense when facing everything, and that's why I couldn't help but root for her. As for the other characters, personally I love Nathaniel as much as I want to punch Guy in the jaw like Samantha did. But my favourite character is probably Iris, Nathaniel's mother. It'd be nice to have a mother like her. :)

The Undomestic Goddess delivers a very important message to the readers, that happiness worth a lot more than money.