With a light touch and a simple style, British writer Fforde offers a slight but spirited first novel of three English roses who blossom when they strike out on their own—and finally meet the right men. Housecleaning becomes a path to romance in modern London as the lives and futures of three floundering but well-bred young Englishwomen intersect at a sham cleaning agency. Sally Bliss, a beauty and would-be actress, is trapped in a lose-lose relationship with a snooty, demanding journalist named Piers. Harriet Devonshire, an artist by nature and the mother of ten-year-old illegitimate Matthew, ran away from her controlling great- grandparents when they sent Matthew to boarding school and consequently forbade Harriet to have any contact with him. Spunky, determined, independent May Sargent is living aboard The Rose Revived, a former boyfriend's canal boat, but now she's out of money and too proud to borrow from her family. If she can't pay the harbor master soon, she'll lose the only thing she has: her home. All three women show up at ``Slimeball'' Slater's office in response to an advertisement for cleaners; all three are hired on the spot and sign contracts without reading them—a foolish move that leaves them, literally, in the same boat when they realize that Slater's up to no good. Once the women set out on their initial assignments, though, it's not just trouble they're in for- -genuine friendship is only the first of many benefits to come. With the help of Hugh Buckfast, an attorney May meets at a dinner party she's forced to cater, Quality Cleaners leads to Cleaning Undertaken, a self-conceived, self-run enterprise; for Sally, Harriet, and especially May, running a business leads to self- sufficiency, well-lit career paths, and lasting love. No complex twists or turns, no surprises, just good, clean (emphasis on the latter), old-fashioned fun.
Pub Date: March 13, 1996
ISBN: 0-312-14040-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1996
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
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