The Rose Revived

Why are some of Katie Fforde's novels so hard to find in the U.S.? I finally got a copy of this novel and it is utterly charming. Unlike some of her other novels, this one has three love stories and they are all sweet (but a little predictable). I liked the May/Hugh storyline the best. If you like Katie Fforde, you will not be disappointed by this novel.

It's hard to compare Katie Fforde books, because they are ALL so absolutely delightful, something like a delicate sherbet after a meal of lambchops! But "The Rose Revived," which was the book that catapulted her to fame, is just wonderful. Highly reminiscent of one of her later books, Life Skills (which I guess cannot be called reminiscent, since it came several years later), this is the story of a cheeky girl named May who lives on a canal boat. Feisty, self-sufficient and used to a bit of hardship, May is now facing true disaster: She has lost her job and her nasty mooring master(something like a landlord) is threatening to sell her boat's mooring berth out from under her if she does not come up with the considerable debt she owes to him. Fast forward to a nasty man dubbed Slimeball, who offers May and two equally desperate young women--Sally, an out-of-work actress, and Harriet, a single mother in danger of losing custody of her son, jobs as a house cleaners for his agency. The women take the job--even though nobody but Harriet has ever truly cleaned a house. A wild and woolly adventure begins. Will Slimeball pocket all the women's hard-earned profits? Will Harriet become a famous artist, keep her son, and incidentally make her sexy art teacher notice her? Will May keep her beloved boat, The Rose Revived? And what of Sally, who, up until now, has relied only on her beauty and stick insect body to make her way in the world? I defy anybody to read this book without breaking out into huge smiles. This is the type of book where, when you reach the last page, you emit a huge sigh and then read the last chapter all over again just to keep from ending it. Highly recommended!

Rather predictable, this book concentrates more on how the characters react to what happens than what happens. Hilarious and romantic, this book is just the thing for a saturday afternoon. I recommend it to anyone who's feeling slightly down.

"The Rose Revived" is hilarious, romantic and just the thing for a Saturday afternoon. Though the endings are predictable, it's not so much what happens that's interesting but how the characters react. Full of laughs and love, I recommend this book to anyone who's feeling slightly down.

But a good one. Katie Fforde manages to tell the story of not one, but three very different women with this one tightly written book. Three women from very different paths start a cleaning service in order to make ends meet - along the way, the actress meets the farmer (and supplies most of Fforde's trademark humor), the repressed artist meets the successful artist (and regains her son), and the determined free spirit meets the lawyer (her family does supply a few laughs around Christmas). The road isn't smooth for any of them, but the lessons learned by all are wonderful. I highly recommend any book by Katie Fforde, especially Living Dangerously and Wild Designs.