The Rose Revived

March 4, 1996
It's Cinderella time for the three housecleaning heroines of this charming romance, the stateside debut of British novelist Fforde (Living Dangerously). Fiercely independent May Sargent needs a job to pay overdue mooring fees on her houseboat, the Rose Revived. Lovelorn actress Sally Bliss would "be grateful for a non-speaking role as a cucumber sandwich" but can't find one. And quiet single mother Harriet Devonshire has come to London with dreams of studying art. These three women meet in the offices of Quality Cleaners, where a maid's accent counts for more than her experience with a mop. It turns out that housecleaning has some unexpected rewards, as Harriet learns when she scrubs floors for renowned artist Leo Purbright, and as May finds out when her unexpected debut as a cook brings an introduction to sexy hot-shot lawyer Hugh Buckfast. But in a few short weeks, the women's dreams are shattered. Sally is thrown out by her social-climbing journalist boyfriend, Harriet's grandparents attempt to get custody of her son and all three housecleaners are cheated out of their rightful wages by their employer. What to do but to start their own business, Cleaning Undertaken? And they launch just in time, too, for Sally to meet handsome farmer James Lucas. The surprise in this delightfully old-fashioned romance isn't that Fforde has her trio find their Prince Charmings among the Lysol and Comet, but that she does so with a refreshing lack of gratuitous and graphic sex.