This is one of the Katie Fforde novels where you get a lot packed into the pages and a story which covers not just three very different women but three very different men too!
Sally, May and Harriet are thrown together when they all end up working for a cleaning company. They need to make some money. Sally is an actress, between roles, Harriet is hiding from something and May is trying to keep her head above water – literally as she needs to pay the mooring fees for her beloved narrow boat.
However, all three of them are proverbially taken to the cleaners and thrown together in their plight they decide to set out on their own. It is only then that we begin to see the real stories behind these women.
Through friendship they discover what they really want in life and it seems that male company might seem a dream it is going to be a reality for them all by the end of the book.
Whilst the cleaning company is a vehicle to get these women together and moving forward, we are taken through what it is like to be living on a narrow boat with May’s trials and tribulations. Sally’s quest to find something better, even if it means getting her perfectly groomed self a bit dirty. I loved this particular part of the story. Or maybe quiet Harriet’s secret talent and expressing it more freely away from the constraints of her family.
This is not my favourite Katie Fforde, I think I would be hard pressed to name my favourite but it is a lovely indication of the quality of writing and atmosphere of Fforde’s novels. I will say that her later novels, do not pack as much in as this one does. This is one of her very early novels and as you read through all her work you can see how styles and plots have developed.
However they are all worthy of a read!
It is only when I go to look back at how many of Katie’s books I have read do I realise that this is her second novel. Therefore it all makes sense that I can see how her books and writing has developed as the years have gone on.
I am going to treasure my copy as it is signed by the author herself.
The Book Jotter 