Sophie Kinsella

The Undomestic Goddess

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by Sophie Kinsella

“There’s no such thing as ruining your life. Life’s a pretty resilient thing, it turns out.”

After reading them quite a while ago, I’m listening to all of Sophie Kinsella’s books on Audible. They have been even better than I remember thanks to the great narrators. They have wrung every little bit of comedy, wit, heart, and romance out of every one. And The Undomestic Goddess was no exception. When I first started to listen to it, I was a little put off because Rosalyn Landor, the first-person narrator, seemed too old and serious for a SK heroine. They are usually a little goofy and hapless. But as it turned out, as I got into the story, she was perfect.

As the book starts Samantha Sweeting is anything but a flakey but nice airhead. She is a brilliant corporate banking and contract lawyer, “one of the country’s top legal talents”. She is on track to achieve her lifelong dream: to be the youngest partner at the most prestigious firm in London. Until she does something she never does: she makes a mistake. And it’s a doozy, losing her firm £50,000,000. Thrown into disarray and disbelief, she leaves the office building in a trance and finds herself in the middle of the English countryside knocking on the door of a beautiful estate to ask for information as to where she is exactly. They mistake her for an applicant for their cook and housekeeper position, and Samantha, thanks to her ability to think on her feet (and lie), gets the job even though she has never cooked or done anything remotely domestic in her life. Earlier, when interrupted at her office by her cleaner asking where she keeps her vacuum cleaner bags, she wonders why one would want to put a vacuum cleaner in a bag. Where is she taking it? (she puts “order a new vacuum” on her to-do list since she has no idea and figures a new vacuum would come with a supply of bags. Problem solved! ) But she can fake it at the Geigers for a day or two. She only needs a place to stay until she figures out her next step forward.

But one thing leads to another and her break from the pressure-cooker existence at her firm does its good work. Despite stumbling around in the dark as far as her duties are concerned, she starts to enjoy her time and freedom.

“[When] you’re a lawyer at Carter Spink, you don’t sit around. Not when every six minutes of your time is worth money. If I let six minutes of time tick away, I’ve lost the firm £50. Twelve minutes, £100. Eighteen minutes, £150. And the truth is, you get used to measuring your life in little chunks. And you get used to working. All the time.”

Her disastrous adventures doing the laundry, cooking, and cleaning are hilarious, and still more hilarious is how she bluffs her way through her ignorance of all things domestic and worms her way into the hearts of her employers and visa versa. They think she is the best housekeeper they have ever had! Thanks to the cooking and cleaning lessons of the gardener Nathaniel’s warm and wise mother, she actually starts to enjoy the work and becomes pretty good at it. She doesn’t have a genius I.Q for nothing, though she has to take great pains to hide it.

As the days go on, she and Nathaniel, who also owns 3 pubs and hates lawyers, fall in love and Samantha starts to become part of the community.

…I’ve learned a different way to live. I do my day’s work, and I finish—and that’s it. I’m free. I don’t need to take paperwork home. I don’t need to have my BlackBerry switched on twenty-four/seven. I can go to the pub, I can make weekend plans, I can go and sit in the garden for half an hour with my feet up—and it doesn’t matter. I don’t have that constant pressure anymore. I’m not stressed out. And it suits me. It’s like … The Waltons.

But one day she sees something on the internet which causes her to realize that she is possibly innocent of the mistake she was accused of, but was framed. The last part of the book concerns her, at first, almost hopeless efforts to clear her name. The triumphant yet troubling aftermath causes her to come to a fork in the road as to her career and future life.

I can’t emphasize strongly enough how much Rosalyn Landor’s interpretation added welcome layers to this book. The tension between Samantha’s mature serious tones while being driven into consternation and bemusement by her own incompetence and her employers’ antics are priceless. We are privy to her frequent and panic-stricken inner loss of poise while never losing her calm, competent, and collected exterior in front of the Geigers. The voices she gives to the snobby but good-hearted Trish and Eddie capture them perfectly. In fact, every character is a gem. Sophie Kinsella is always funny but this one seemed to have more than its fair share of emotional and poignant moments.

I’ve read that Sophie Kinsella is very ill but currently in stable condition. I am so grateful for the many hours of joy and delight she has given me and will continue to give me even if she never writes another new book.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The Burnout

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By Sophie Kinsella

“Don’t worry,” I say hastily. “It’s fine.”
“It is not fine.” He shakes his head mournfully. “It is far from fine. These are not the high standards we expect of ourselves at the Rilston. We have let you down and we have let ourselves down….
“Believe me, Ms. Worth, I am mortified by our failure. I will get you that noni juice, if I have to squeeze the noni myself.” “Well…thank you,” I say, feeling embarrassed….
“Other than that, has your stay been comfortable so far? You’re here for a health break, I understand? Ah, here’s Nikolai with your green smoothie,” he adds. “In the absence of organic kale, our chef used frozen Birds Eye peas.” Birds Eye peas?

This was a delightful and entertaining new Sophie Kinsella, just not my favorite. I liked the premise and the romance. As usual, although portraying women, their foibles, and ultimate healing and triumph is her specialty, she always creates a romance with a worthy and intriguing hero. This one was no exception. I loved both Sasha and Finn. And as always, there were plenty of laughs and plenty of heart. Kinsella’s humor is effortless. And our heroine was not the silly flake on the edge of disaster that so many of her women characters are through many of her books.

Oh, she starts off pretty crazy. Sasha works at a prestigious and successful company in the marketing department. Unfortunately, it is very poorly run which is frustrating to her, and poor management has resulted in much work and too little time to do it. To add to her stress, she has to answer to Joanne, her boss’s henchwoman, whose main priority is an “aspirations mood board” and insists that she must use the little time she has to “find her joy”. Or else. When Sasha finally breaks down in a panic attack, it is both funny and alarming. She tries to join the convent next door and knocks herself out by literally running into a brick wall. Put on medical leave by her doctor, she retreats to a haven of her childhood, Rilston Beach, of which she has so many happy memories. Her mother books her a room in the formerly fabulous and elite Rilston Hotel, which was far above her family’s touch when they spent their summer vacations in the town. But it is the off-season. And I mean off in more ways than one. There at the all but deserted hotel, she meets a fellow sufferer from burn-out, Finn Birchall. And as usual in a Kinsella novel initial antipathy and misunderstanding eventually turns to friendship and then love. Along the way, they make friends with the quirky and endearing skeleton staff of the once glamorous resort hotel, some of the townspeople, and most importantly the beloved and legendary surf instructor, Terry, who is now sadly suffering from dementia in his old age. And we get a mystery or two to keep things chugging along.

Unfortunately, the ending was a disappointment. Oh, it was a happy one of course. But it was just too pat and easily won. The reader is prepared for a real struggle that Finn is going through between a painful breakup with his girlfriend of 10 years and his new relationship with Sasha. We are led to believe it was the reason for his freak-out at work. Sasha learns about this through a rather sketchy action on her part. Usually, when our heroine does something she should probably be ashamed of (like spying or lying) she gets caught out, and embarrassed, and it causes a big problem with the hero. But refreshingly, Kinsella does not rely on this cliched cause of drama. I was very relieved. But in the end, we learn that the break up with his ex-girlfriend was not such a big deal after all. His heart is free. The whole problem which separated them for 6 months was just glossed over with no explanation. Even though his 10-year relationship with his ex, Olivia, was all but forgotten (I guess), he kept it a secret from Sasha for some mysterious reason. Actually, we don’t know if he went through any pain at all over it. It seems like it must have been pretty traumatic going by Olivia’s Instagram that Sasha understandably pours over. Was she the lovely woman that she seems? Did their lives take different directions and they just each agreed to move on with no drama? Was it something more hurtful or shocking? Or was it just that her Instagram was not an accurate portrayal of their lives together at all? This was the theme of the last Kinsella novel I read, My Not So Perfect Life.
We are left in the dark, and I don’t like being left in the dark. It didn’t ruin the book, but it was just so confoundedly weird and unnecessary.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

My (not so) Perfect Life

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By Sophie Kinsella

Original review: March, 2017.
Right up to Sophie Kinsella’s best work. As usual, Kinsella is a master at showing the characters and personalities of her players, not just telling you. It was very refreshing that she didn’t follow the usual “country good, city bad” cliche. I liked the message and it’s a welcome reminder, when, with social media, one thinks one knows a person and their life. Maybe you really don’t. **4 stars**

**Additional thoughts upon re-reading on Audible. 10/03/2023**
I am bumping this one up to 5 stars. First of all, the narration by Fiona Hardingham was funny and touching. I loved her Somerset accent and hearing it really highlighted the divide between country people and city people and the accompanying assumptions that are made. She made Katie so lovable, and her boss, Demeter, so layered. She was contemptible and admirable at the same time. What a character!

Katie is a farm girl raised by a single father who has made her way to London. To be a “Londoner” has been her dream. She works in an advertising agency, and though she is the low man on the totem pole, she is a tryer, and she has talent. To make a long story of her personal and professional struggles short, she gets laid off and is forced to return to the farm in disgrace. Not wanting to disappoint her loving Dad, she tells him and his second wife Biddy that she is on sabbatical. Her Dad and Biddy have decided to turn their farm into a “Glamping” site, and thanks solely to Katie’s guidance and marketing talent, it is a fabulous success.

Katie’s old London boss, Demeter, is a piece of work. Katie was a great admirer and thought that Demeter had the perfect life. Demeter is brilliant and creative (almost a legend in her field) but is totally disorganized, has no self-awareness, is a braggart, does not play well with others, and many other things. When she fires Katie in the most insensitive manner possible, Katie joins her former officemates in hating her guts. Then Demeter shows up at her family’s glamping site for a family vacation. And Katie starts to hilariously and cleverly wreak her revenge.

How she goes from being Demeter’s mortal enemy to her comrade in arms is as funny and entertaining as can be. Together, as an unlikely team, they turn each other’s trouble-filled and imperfect lives into darn near-perfect ones. I think Demeter is one of Sophie Kinsella’s most wonderful creations. And Katie’s journey is heartwarming and exhilarating. Of course, there is a romance for Katie, and, as usual, her love interest is appealing and a bit unusual with issues of his own.
This book is romantic comedy at its best. And a witty satire to boot.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The Party Crasher

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by Sophie Kinsella

This weekend,” she says, sotto voce. “It’s mad. It’s the maddest ever party, ever.” “Agreed.” “I can’t believe you’ve stayed hidden this long,” she adds. “You must want to leap out and say, Surprise!” “Nope,” I say. “Not even a tiny part of you?” I try to imagine Krista’s face if I popped up from under the brunch table, brandishing a pair of cheerleader’s pom-poms, yelling, It’s me! I mean, it would be quite funny. Until the recriminations and carnage began.

There’s a moment of silence—then I lift my chin firmly and walk into Greenoaks. Effie Talbot is in the house.

This book was a pure joy. It’s not deep, there are no serious issues tackled unless you count the importance of family and keeping the lines of communication open (hardly an uncommon message in chick lit, or women’s fiction if you will, or, OK, just fiction) I teared up a couple of times near the end, but it was hardly heart-rending. But it was one of those books that I not only enjoyed but made me happy. It took me back to those rare times when reading a book just engulfed me. Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt when I was a pre or young teen, Barbara Michaels and Georgette Heyer a little later, and recently, Milly Johnson, Kristan Higgins, and Mhairi MacFarlane. Also, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Effie as well as her brother and sister, have been estranged from their father since his divorce from their beloved stepmother and his new relationship with the avaricious but sexy schemer, Krista. To her horror, she learns the two are selling their huge, quirky, and beloved childhood home. Krista is throwing a big “House-cooling” Party, to which Effie, who has been Krista’s main antagonist, was not properly invited.

She decides to secretly infiltrate the party to save a precious childhood treasure. She hides in attics, secret alcoves, under tables, and behind bushes, all the while observing and listening to all of the goings-on. She learns a lot and is eventually aided by her sister and brother and her ex, Joe, her first love who broke her heart. The set-up is genius. It promises adventure, suspense, comedy, ah-ha! and oh no! moments, and romance. It delivers on all counts. And of course, we have some twists and surprises for the reader as well as Effie. All of the beautifully realized characters have their stories which, needless to say, all come to satisfying resolutions. It’s one of those books that you want to read slower so it will last but just can’t help just gobbling up. I think I need to add a special shelf on GoodReads for books like these.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

November 11, 2021

Love Your Life

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By Sophie Kinsella

I swear, Sophie Kinsella just keeps getting better. This book, which I listened to on audiobook, started off to be very dull. Matt and Ava meet on a writer’s retreat in Italy and fall in love. They were both perfectly likable but pretty nondescript. Their romance went smoothly and sweetly. Yawn.

But boy, when they returned to the real world from the vacuum of paradise, all hell broke loose! And it was delightful! It turns out Ava is a lovable flake (not unlike most of SK’s heroines)with a squad of crazy friends. And Matt is a closed-off uncommunicative CEO of his family’s global corporation with a cold and manipulative family. They not only have nothing in common, but they are total opposites in every aspect of their lives and tastes. It was hilarious. I couldn’t decide who I was more in sympathy with (or felt more sympathy for). But remarkably, as much as they are horrified by what they learn as they get to know each other, they stay in love. And just when I had had it up to here with their personalities, each would do something lovable or we would learn something about them that helped to make me understand and (almost) forgive their behavior.

When it all comes to a head late in the book, and they inevitably part ways, you know that it will be the making of them. But will Matt-land and Ava-land be able to negotiate an accord, become allies, and once again and fall back into their “special friendship?” Well, may I remind you of who the author is? **5 stars out of 5**

Rating: 5 out of 5.

January 26, 2021

I Owe You One

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By Sophie Kinsella

“Family bloody first. I’m not saying Dad was wrong, I’ll never say that, but maybe I’m starting to see “family” differently. It’s not just the people you share genes with; it’s the people you share loyalty and friendship and respect with. It’s the people you love.”

This was a delightfully typical Sophie Kinsella. She is a master at wanting to make me slap some sense into her heroines while simultaneously adoring them. I loved Fixie. Yes, she was very frustrating due to her letting her brother and sister walk all over her, and her blindness and delusion as to her childhood crush’s true nature. The reader is so far ahead of her in seeing what her family and Ryan are doing to her that you just itch for her to finally see the light. It takes quite a while! You think she is going to see clearly and act accordingly, but she just is not strong enough. When both her family and their beloved Farr’s housewares store is in shambles and her horror at disappointing and hurting her mother finally cause her to turn the corner for good, it is all the sweeter and more satisfying. Kinsella doesn’t take the quick route here. When she finally fixes things, it is not by giving her brother and sister the hell they richly deserve. It is out of love and concern for them and her own kind and generous nature, which never wavers. Kinsella gives us a glance at a childhood trauma, that helps us understand her better, and gave me more patience with her than I normally would have had.

The love interest, Seb, is wonderful and has a little more depth than some of her early heroes. He loves and appreciates her but also tells her a few home truths about herself and her family that is one step in her growth and change.

“I think you need to start thinking less about what you owe other people and more about what you owe yourself.”

He is a strong presence and her port in the storm until she makes some mistakes. Luckily, though painful, the separation is not drawn out, and in the long run, it was good that her family and business had her full attention at last. Family first!

The ending is the best ever, with everyone and everything coming together at the end. She could have ended it sooner and I still would have given it 5 stars, but I love that we finally saw the mother back home again, and her family whole and happy and giving Fixie her full credit for everything she fixed. I loved Jake’s reformation. He was so awful for so long, despite Fixie’s efforts, It was hard to believe. The complete turn around at last about gave me whiplash, but I loved it.

The narrator, Fiona Hardingham, was superb. Her intonation and accents made the bad guys, Ryan, Jake, and Uncle Ned even more hateful, and really made Leila, Nicole, and the rest of the secondary characters come alive. Her reading of Nicole made me want to laugh, roll my eyes, and shake her all at once.

If the last two books are any indication, Sophie Kinsella is just getting better and better over the years. Her books are still light and fluffy, with lots of humor, but she has developed some seriousness and depth as well. **5 out of 5 stars**

Rating: 5 out of 5.

April 29, 2019

Surprise Me

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by Sophie Kinsella

Where’s the joy in our lives?” He looks around the kitchen with a questing gaze, as though it might be in a jar labeled joy, next to turmeric.

In Surprise Me Sophie Kinsella has achieved an undercurrent of real depth, seriousness, and complexity running under the usual fun and humorous shenanigans. There is potential for real danger and harm in the mostly amusing misadventures of our heroine. Maybe it is because the stakes are higher given that the possible outcome is the breakup of the happy marriage of a mother and father of two little kids. A family is at risk, not just a single girl seeking love and career success. In addition, we are teased with the possibility that our unreliable narrator, Sylvie, is actually unstable and in serious danger of a breakdown once the truth is revealed. Fairly early on in the book, the reader realizes that our heroine has been coddled and cosseted all of her life. She lives life in a bubble wrapped in cotton wool and sprinkled with sparkles. She hero-worships and adores her dead father whom the reader knows early on is not the shining golden hero she thinks he was. We know that she is headed for a fall, and we are in suspense as to what the nature of his weaknesses is and how badly Sylvie will react to her bubble being burst.

Even though we laugh at her antics and inner dialogue and shake our heads at her self-delusions, we like Sylvie. At least I did. She is a sweet funny woman, and good mother, and has her priorities in the right place, despite the fact that she comes from a world of wealth and privilege. Usually the author’s heroes are kind of cardboard and interchangeable, and her heroines kind of shallow. Not so in this book. Both Dan and Sylvie reveal hidden depths. The revealed secrets throw the reader for a loop by both their nature and how widespread the effects. Just when we think we know the extent of the damage, she adds another twist of the knife, and then another. But worry not. The depth of what Sylvie has to confront and heal from makes the resolution all the more affecting. Even powerful. I never thought I would use that word about a Kinsella novel.

Sylvie’s challenges with her personal life would have made this a 5 star book. But Sophie Kinsella ups the ante with a fun career subplot which further reveal her character arc. Add to this mix rich and multifaceted secondary and tertiary characters and you have so much more than her usual light-hearted romp. And the ending was great. It made me want to cheer. I hope SK continues the growth as a writer that she displays in this book: by far my favorite of hers so far.**5 out of 5 stars**

Rating: 5 out of 5.

March 21, 2018

Wedding Night

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by Sophie Kinsella

“You can’t switch sides!” I glare at him in fury.

“I was never on your side,” retorts Lorcan. “Your side is the nutty side.”

I Loved this book. and loved the performances for the audio version even more. I am sure this was a very funny read, but I am also sure that the audio version was twice as funny as the book would have been. It was everything I have come to expect from Sophie Kinsella. Of course, it had its drawbacks. Lottie was very flawed (as is usual for SK) but I kept my patience with her because she is shown to be wise, kind, generous, and talented in her professional life. In a great scene, she and her colleague speak to a class of what they assume are science majors but who turn out to be cosmetologists. Her partner freaks out (they are recruiters for a pharmacological corporation) and walks off the stage, but Lottie carries on, changes her approach to fit her audience and ends up getting a standing ovation. Fliss, her overprotective sister, was also a very likable character as were both of their love interests. And Fliss’s little son Noah is one of the funniest creations of a little kid I have read in a long time.

There were aspects of the plot that went on a little too long and tended to go over the top at times. I wish there had been a little more closure as to what became of Ben’s company and his relationship with Lorcan. Kudos to Sophie Kinsella and the continuing maturation of her plots and characters. (this one had a bit of a serious thread that I have enjoyed in the last 2 or 3 novels and are not present in her earlier ones.) But extra Kudos to Mark Bramhall, Jayne Entwistle, Fiona Hardingham, the brilliant performers in the audio version.**5 out of 5 stars**

Rating: 5 out of 5.

October 24, 2019

Twenties Girl

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By Sophie Kinsella

I had to speed read through a good portion of this one because I found the Heroine and the Ghost both so incredibly annoying. The Heroine, due to her blind obsession with and criminal behavior towards her ex, and Sadie, the ghost, for her unreasonable and constant screeching and selfishness. Lara’s great Aunt Sadie, who is a ghost, starts to haunt Lara. Sadie gives her the mission to find her missing necklace. It’s a fantasy. In the course of her mission, Lara learns many things. It kind of got bogged down, but things got back on track about 2/3 through when Lara came to her senses about her ex-boyfriend. The romance was pretty great, and the resolution was top notch.**3 stars out of 5**

Rating: 3 out of 5.

October 4, 2016

Confessions of a Shopaholic

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By Sophie Kinsella

I’ve read almost all of Sophie Kinsella’s stand alone novels and enjoyed them all. I have avoided the Shopaholic books because people being irresponsible and wasteful with money really frustrate me. As predicted, despite her charm and good heart, Becky made me angry and contemptuous. It was amusing in places and the end salvaged the book for me. She finally sees herself for what she is, acknowledges the ruin she has brought upon herself and innocent bystanders and makes it good. I got 10 % into the sequel to realize she had not learned her lesson and was worse than before. I couldn’t take any more. I quit reading Shopaholic Takes Manhattan and skipped through to the end. I won’t be reading anymore of these, going by the reviews of the rest in the series.

But I simply can’t tell my kind, loving parents that their so-called successful daughter with her so-called top job is in fact a disorganized, deceitful mess, up to her eyeballs in debt.

You forgot selfish, gluttonous, thoughtless, delusional, lazy, foolish, shallow, and just plain dumb. But Hey, if these are traits you don’t mind in your leading lady, knock yourself out! **3 stars out of 5**

Rating: 3 out of 5.

June 28, 2017