The Undomestic Goddess

Welcome to my little Niche within the library. So grab a coffee and let's review some books. The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Samantha Sweeting is a high powered, Workaholic attorney for a respectable law firm, Carter Spinks. She is good at her job and is waiting to be made a Partner at the firm. On the day she is to learn if she made Partner she discovers a huge error she's presumubly made.....one that costs her client £50,000 and Samantha her job. With her career over, Samantha flees her London life and boards a train to the country. Arriving at Gloucester, she comes across this house and rings the doorbell.

To her surprise she is mistaken for a housekeeper by Trish who opens the door. Samantha is confused as to why she'd be mistaken for a housekeeper. She knows nothing about keeping house. But soon she is offered the position. Samantha accepts the job thinking it is only a temporary thing. With little knowledge of what to do with a whisk or a broom, Samantha assumes the role of housekeeper, leading her employers, Eddie and Trish Geiger, to think she is a top-notch housekeeper and cordon blue chef! Learning as she goes along, Samantha begins to love her new role and life in the country.

She meets Nathaniel, the Geiker's gardener, his mother, Iris, who teaches Samantha how to cook and bake bread. Can Samantha keep her secret identity from her new employers and Nathaniel? Is she ready to toss her lawyer career down the drain and become a full-time housekeeper? The Undomestic Goddess is the story of a girl who has to slow down, fall in love, turn her life around and discover what an iron is for!

I really enjoyed this book. It made me laugh so much my sides ached! I read many of Kinsella's works, including the Shopoholic series, Remember Me and Can You Keep A secret, but this book really drew my interest. I couldn't put it down!

Little Beach Street Bakery

Welcome to my little Niche within the library. So grab a coffee and let's review some books. Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan




After Polly Waterford's world turned upside down when the business she and her depressed and ' mamma's boy' boyfriend, Chris, went down the pan and had to sell their flat in Plymouth, all Polly wanted to do was start a new life.

She found a cheap flat in Cornwall in the little sleepy Cornish village of Mount Polbearne. There she meets a motely crew of characters including the insufferable Mrs Manse, her grumpy landlady who owns the local bakery, a group of lively fishermen, an American bee keeper named Huckle, Huckle's eccentric friend, Reuben and a puffin named Neil.



Polly tries to forget her past and takes out all her frustrations by kneading bread, which is Polly's favourite pastime. Soon her bread becomes famous throughout Polbearne and word soon spreads of her delicious bread much to the chagrin of Mrs Manse who forbids her to bake more bread. Determine to continue making bread, Polly starts selling her bread to the locals in secret.

When an accident strikes, though, involving Mrs Manse, Polly is forced into helping the old woman in the bakery. Soon Polly, with the gift of a brick oven given to her by Huckle's friend, Reuben, opens a new Bakery in town called The Little Beach Street Bakery.



I enjoyed this book from beginning to end! I especially loved Kerensa and Rueben's Star War-themed Wedding and the scene where Neil comes in the picture. Without giving too much away, the book has a happy ending.



This is the fifth food- related book that Jenny Colgan has written. I loved her Meet Me at the Cupcake Café, and she delighted me in The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris.

What inspired me to read her books was her baking -themed fiction. Being a baker at heart, I can relate to several of the characters in Jenny's books.



Each of these books include lots of recipes for the reader to try. Little Beach Street Bakery is a feel good kind of read. One of the themes covered in the book is starting over or turning a new leaf in life. The characters are well-rounded and believable. My favourite characters in the book are Polly Waterford, Neil the Puffin, the unforgettable Tarnie, Huckle, the Beekeeper from Savannah, Georgia, Polly's quirky friend, Kerensa and the eccentric chef, Reuben.



Born in Scotland, Jenny Colgan now lives in London and France with her husband and three children. Her books, Rosie Hopkins Sweet Shop of Dreams has won her the Romance Novel Award in 2013. A true Dr Who fan, Jenny has written a Doctor Who- related book, Dr Who-Into the Nowhere (Time Trip). Life definitely is Sweet with Jenny Colgan!

Lessons Learned

Welcome to my little Niche within the library. So grab a coffee and let's review some books. Lessons Learned by Nora Roberts
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Italian celebrity chef Carlo Franconi is a charismatic ladies man. He can charm women by his mere smile! His latest book, The Italian Way, is a best seller and publicist Juliet Trent helps him to promote his book. To Juliet Trent this assignment is the best so far; it can be her ticket to opening up her own Public Relations firm. Together, Trent and Franconi travel the US on a book tour. By the end of the tour Trent turns Franconi into a celebrity chef sensation. Even to a guarded, career woman as herself, Carlo Franconi, with his sexy looks and cooking talent, is hard to resist. Yet Carlo is a ladies’ man and Juliet cannot afford to fall head over heels for a man who loves so many women. The thought of ending up like her mother who fell in love with a man who left her eventually, Juliet Trent is bent over backwards to avoid the same fate. Over time and plates of linguini and spaghetti, Juliet Trent falls in love with Carlo Franconi. Can she resist his charms and learn the lessons he has to teach her or will she fall into temptation and indulge in his love?
This was the first Nora Roberts book I’ve read. I liked the book. The characters are believable and well-rounded. It is a light, romance novel that will have you falling head over heels in love. Who can resist a sexy, Italian chef, good food and sex? I am looking forward to read more of Robert’s work.

Remember Me

Welcome to my little Niche within the library. So grab a coffee and let's review some books. Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The last thing that Lexi Smart remembered after waking up at a hospital after a major automobile accident was a night out with her friends the night before her Dad's funeral. Upon waking in hospital, however, she discovers that it's 2007 and she can hardly recognize herself. Her friends used to call her snaggletooth because she had crooked teeth but now, to her amazement she has perfectly straight and polished teeth, awesome nails, a gorgeous body, chestnut hair and wait.......is that a designer bag on her nightstand? Not only that, but she discovers that she's now twenty-eight, married to a drop-dead gorgeous man, lives in a penthouse and is now the boss at the Flooring Department at the company she used to work for. Who is this stranger and what has she done with her twenty-five-year-old body? She can't remember a thing about her life after that night out on the town with her friends in 2004. She was told that she had a terrible automobile accident and is now suffering from amnesia.

This book was written by Sophie Kinsella, author of the Shopaholic books. I read Shopaholic Ties the Knot and loved it. I certainly loved Remember Me! I couldn't stop reading it....it was a page turner. There's a few twists and turns in the plot that shocked me and made me wonder...'did that really happen to Lexi?' I can't wait to read the author's other works. A former financial journalist, Sophie Kinsella turned to fiction writing in 2000. Her book, The Secret Dream world of a Shopaholic' was published in 2000. The author lives in London with her husband and family.