Synopsis: Samantha is a lawyer in her prime who is about to make partner when she finds a paper on her desk that makes her run away. Confused and afraid she stops at a house in a small town to ask for water and assistance and is mistaken for an applicant for housekeeper. She accepts the position though she knows nothing about housekeeping then antics ensue.

My rating:
4 out of 5

I really enjoy this author and her writing which is part of the reason I was able to enjoy this book as much as I did. The comedy is fun and the romance sucked me in. That said, this book is a wild ride and it is extremely necessary to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy this book.

This book has excellent humor as Samantha learns to navigate the cooking and cleaning she has never done before with the help of a kind-hearted mentor. I loved the mistakes she made early on and it was pretty relatable at times (I have totally accidentally dyed clothes by washing colors with whites).

I had an issue with this book being heavy handed in it's messaging almost to the point of feeling stereotypical. Busy life in the big city is bad. Slower life in the small town is good. Obsession with work is bad. Life balance is good.

I don't necessarily have a problem with the core message of this book which seems to be that a career isn't everything and shouldn't take over your life but at the same time I think the book views everything from a very black and white lens. Samantha can either be a lawyer or a domestic. The book doesn't offer many options for middle ground. Similarly, it more or less ignores the fact that the salary for a lawyer and for a domestic worker are different. In fact, it ignores a lot of things and just hand waves away anything that isn't convenient for the story.

My other major issue with this book was the ending. I felt like we needed an epilogue or something more than it gave. There was not as much resolution as I needed to feel satisfied with the book.

I think this book is a good time as long as you can treat it as a comedy that is super unrealistic and force yourself not to ask too many questions. ( )

Pure chicklit. Easy to read and somewhat funny - if not entirely cliche and predictable. The romance was pretty typical. I didn't really like Samantha. She annoyed me - for someone so smart she seemed rather idiotic. I mean I get not being able to cook but some of her domestic abilities are a bit farfetched. If she can google herself, surely she's capable of googling how to. Apart from that she was just so indecisive. I can't stand indecision. A little bit sure, a whole book of it? No. It just frustrates me to read.

Overall typical chicklit. If you love this sort of read then it'll be right up your alley. If chicklit is more of an occasional genre for you - then this is not the book to pick. ( )

Una partenza lenta e una prima parte decisamente troppo lunga ma, come giĂ  per altri, il libro superato, lo scoglio iniziale, si riprende e la storia scorre veloce e piacevole. ( )

~silly and fully predictable yet entertaining

~possibly the best Kinsella novel I've read so far

~loved the humor, even though I constantly felt a creeping secondhand embarassment on behalf of our protagonist

~I cringed hard when she failed to even make sandwiches, and that Paris Hilton reality show, Simple Life, came to mind *shudder*

~did we really need another career oriented woman as an antagonist to make the protagonist seem sympathetic? it's one of the few times she already was

~at the end it gave me serious telenovella vibes


( )

The Undomestic Goddess is an all around laugh out loud, feel good read for those who need a little “pick me up” and a quick reminder that even when life goes left, it may still be going right.

Samantha has finally reached the culminating moment in her life – being named a partner at one of London’s top law firms. Every decision and sacrifice she has made: The late nights, the lack of a life, the inability to go more than 30 seconds without her phone and blackberry, all of it was finally going to pay off…until the unthinkable happens. Awaiting the “official” announcement, Samantha finds the one thing that will destroy her career. Seeing no way out of her life altering mistake, Samantha escapes the restraints of the big city and ends up in the middle of nowhere! Making one bad decision after the next, the once high powered lawyer finds herself impersonating a highly trained housekeeper and chef! With zero skills in cooking or cleaning, the laughs start rolling in as Samantha’s conning and quick mind keeps her one step ahead of her quirky new employers (not to mention having Nathaniel, the gardener, come to her rescue with a secret weapon). As an initial overnight stay turns into days and weeks, Samantha finds herself re-evaluating her life and wonders if everything she once wanted was everything she really needed.

Charming, funny, and surprising steamy (on the milder side) for Kinsella book, The Undomestic Goddess is a relaxing read with a little social commentary on the role of women. It was entertaining and enlightening to watch Samantha’s perspective of women and their roles shift as her own life was transformed. ( )