Author:       Annie Sanders

Publisher:    5 Spot/Hachette

ISBN:          978-0-446-50544-4

Website:      http://www.anniesanders.co.uk/

 Type:         Fiction:Chick Lit

Pages:        303

Purchase:    $10.28 @ Amazon.com (HERE)

The Story

“To a casual observer, Londoner Alex Hill is every inch the calm and collected executive of a global sportswear company. In reality, she’s constantly frantic, with barely enough time to take out the trash. When her demanding mother, a 1960s style icon, has a bad fall and has to move in with her indefinitely, Alex realizes she needs someone more committed than a maid-what she needs is a wife. An ad in the local paper soon produces a young woman who seems both enthusiastic and capable. But something odd is definitely happening behind the scenes of Alex’s new, perfectly ordered existence. Someone distinctly male is charming her mother as well as doing all the ironing. He’s no one Alex would ordinarily ever notice, never mind date. But now she can’t help wondering if her new “wife” could perhaps have husband potential… ”

(Above excerpt is from the back cover of Busy Woman Seeks Wife)

The Review

The author of this book is actually two women: Annie Ashworth and Meg Sanders and both were pregnant when they wrote this book.  I find it curious how they were able to have babies and co-write a book.  Smart, driven, and dedicated would be my only way of describing them. 

I am addicted to Chick-Lit and find it to be my best escape from the pressing issues of my life.  Honestly, after reading more than the average amount of it over the past six months, I am finding that I’m experiencing a metamorphosis into a bit of a Chick-Lit snob.  Isn’t that terrible?  I’m getting pickier and pickier about my escape reading?   That’s just shameful!  I admit it.  Shameful.

I’m assuming that you know where this review is heading.  I wasn’t completely thrilled and enthralled by Busy Woman Seeks Wife.  It was a standard, escape read for me.  The characters were fun and I enjoyed them all.  But, and the predominate word here is definitely “but,” this read was entirely too predictable for me.  I could see the writing on the wall for Alex and Frankie.  I knew, early on, that Camilla was not to be trusted.  And, poor “Saff.”  Her character had only one place to go in this story and I’m afraid that I guessed that one, too. 

I needed more from this book than it offered me.  I think that “Annie Sanders” could have really expanded upon Frankie’s character as he discovers what life is like as a wife and spent much less time going into his frustrations about being a failed actor.  Likewise, “The Bean” was a character that I would have love to dug into, had they given me more depth into her mind as a woman once famous now facing a life without a husband and riches.  Alex was entirely too one-dimensional for me and I couldn’t connect with her as our heroine. 

All in all, this book fell flat for me and left me wanting more.  Perhaps a sequel with more depth would bring them the book that was this great idea amongst the two of them. 

My thanks to Hachette for the opportunity to review this book.

On Sher’s “Out of Ten Scale:”

As aforementioned, I couldn’t find what I needed in this read.  However, if you are the true Chick-Lit fan and a pure lightweight story is on your menu, order Busy Woman Seeks Wife.  For me, in the genre Fiction:Chick-Lit, I award this book a 5 out of 10.

Better luck next time, Annie Sanders.

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