Living Dangerously by Katie Fforde

by Katie Fforde

Polly Cameron is tevreden met haar leven als single. Het gezemel over vlinders in je buik, slappe benen en vurig verlangen heeft ze nooit begrepen. Ze heeft het hartstikke druk met haar baan in de Nootzaak. Vriendin en moeder eisen hun portie van haar tijd op en haar bezitterige kat claimt haar schoot als ze eens een avondje thuis is. En wat is hoogtevrees toch lastig als je actie wilt voeren tegen de sloop van een mooie oude huizenrij. En dan is er dat opgedirkte etentje waar ze ook nog als tafeldame moet fungeren van David Locking-Hill, een even keurige als gevaarlijk aantrekkelijke man die een bovengemiddelde aandacht voor Polly heeft. Aanvankelijk si het echter zijn 17-jarioge zoon aan wie Polly haar handen vol heeft.

Genres: Romance, Chick Lit, Fiction, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Womens Fiction, Romantic

Paperback Bunko

First published April 1, 1996

About the author

Catherine Rose Gordon-Cumming was born 27 September 1952 in England, UK, the daughter of Shirley Barbara Laub and Michael Willoughby Gordon-Cumming. Her grandfather was Sir William Gordon-Cumming. Her sister is fellow writer Jane Gordon-Cumming. Katie married Desmond Fforde, cousin of the also writer Jasper Fforde. She has three children: Guy, Francis and Briony and didn't start writing until after the birth of her third child. She has previously worked both as a cleaning lady and in a health food cafe.

Published since 1995, her romance novels are set in modern-day England. She is the founder of the "Katie Fforde Bursary" for writers who have yet to secure a publishing contract. Katie was elected the twenty-fifteenth Chairman (2009-2011) of the Romantic Novelists' Association. She is delighted to have been chosen as Chair of the Romantic Novelists' Association and says, "Catherine Jones was a wonderful chair and she's a very tough act to follow. However, I've been a member of the RNA for more years than I can actually remember and will have its very best interests at the core of everything I do."

Katie lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England with her husband, some of her three children and many pets. Recently her old hobbies of ironing and housework have given way to singing, Flamenco dancing and husky racing. She claims this keeps her fit. The writers she likes herself is also in the romantic genre, like Kate Saunders.

Reviews

[Amy]

Not quite sure why I was so determined to finish this, other than it was undemanding and I was bored.

I've grown to hate Ffordes characters. The women always act like they're about 60, despite supposedly being quite young, but are always innocent, sweet, naive and old fashioned while the men are always much older, overly protective and patronising, inevitably calling them (or implying) 'you silly little thing' one way or another. The woman stubbornly holds on to her ideas of independence and refuses any sort of relationship even after having the most amazing sex. But, is eventually worn down, before finally admitting that she secretly yearns to have a man to take care of her and the man smiles kindly at her, knowing he was right all along. Generally the heroine bleats about keeping her ideals and tells him not to expect her to give up her feminist ways, which is usually silenced with a bit of seduction.

Something about this type of romance just sets my teeth on edge. Not even the awesomeness that is Rebecca could make me like Maxim and our narrator's relationship for those very reasons.

There's nothing wrong with Fforde's books, but they're not for me.

[Hannie]

Ik heb vaker boeken gelezen van Katie Fforde. Hoewel haar boeken geen hoogdravende literatuur zijn, heb ik wel van haar boeken genoten. Dat kan ik over dit boek niet zeggen. Er zitten wat leuke stukjes in. Daarom heb ik het twee sterren gegeven. Verder is het zo’n clichéverhaal en Polly echt een tuthola. Ondanks de leuke mannen in haar leven blijft ze maar volhouden dat ze liever single is. Ook zeurt ze over het feit dat ze bepaalde dingen niet kan, omdat ze arm is en ondertussen zegt ze dat ze niet om geld geeft. Dit boek vind ik geen aanrader.

[Jill]

Pure fluff, but a quick, enjoyable summer read.
The best line? When someone tells our heroine that she should live life to the full and take chances, she says something like....
'I already live dangerously. I read library books in the bath'.

[Neenee]

Enjoyable. A typical chic-lit. When your brain wants a quick chocolatey sugary fix, this is for you. Though its cover illustrator obviously hasn't read the book. Polly's not that skinny as in the cover.

[Gillian]

OKAY SO this very easily could have been a 3 or even a 4 star read until it took a hard swerve into Problematicville, very much showing its age. I've had a mountain of my mom's old Katie Fforde books for ages, and I've been meaning to read them my whole life. Yesterday the urge gripped me after twenty or so years of seeing them around. I picked Living Dangerously at random and was instantly engaged.

Fforde's writing is HILARIOUS, witty, and nimble. Her books are cozily, clunkily, old-fashionedly English, with lots of talk of AGAs and Rayburns and public schools and English Warms and Wellingtons and tea kettles. I loved the main character, and I even quite liked the main dude. BUT OH GOODNESS, does the fact that this was written in 1995 show up in GRAND FASHION near the end, when Fforde has the hero (who, up until this point, was sort of lovely and stuffy and vERY INTENSELY STIFF UPPER LIP BRITISH) develop this terrifying and horrid and sexist temper and all these absolutely terrible randomly abusive things and OOF and NO and ARGH and WHY and WHERE DID THIS COME FROM and CRINGE

So, yes, delightful and hilarious and made me laugh out loud many a time, but oh dear, Katie Fforde, why????

I'm so going to read the rest of her books, aren't I? SIGH.

[Kate’s Book Spot]

I found that this story took me a while to get into but once I did it was definitely addictive – I really wanted to find out what Polly would decide to do with her life.

Polly is a cautious character who is happy living the single and celibate life, she had some not so great experiences when she was younger and this has left her unwilling to jump into the dating scene. Her friends and mother all urge her to give men a chance and they keep trying to set her up, this has some funny consequences that had me laughing out loud.

There were many great characters in this story – Tristan is cheeky and persistent with a unscrupulous edge, Patrick is a young, misunderstood boy who I thought was actually really nice and had a good head on his shoulders. David is a character who I continually changed my mind about, I disliked him then liked him, then disliked him then liked him again! He’s a gentleman but also very mysterious, he doesn’t always show his true feelings and to me this sometimes came across as being rather arrogant.

I have to admit that some of the decisions Polly made confused me, she seemed to push people away without giving them a chance and I couldn’t see the reason for it. I really did like her character though and I found myself getting annoyed with her for having so much self doubt.

This is a lovely light book that is great for curling up on the sofa with, perfect escapism. I will definitely be reading more from Katie Fforde.

[Diana]

This is another modern take of Pride and Prejudice, but in Fforde's deft hands, it truly shines. It's her first book and unlike most romance authors, her inexperience does not show. In fact, this and The Rose Revived are her best books. She's gotten too formularic as she has continued writing.

As in all of Fforde's books, you've got the artsy heroine (Polly) who's set in her ways (making pottery, living frugally and celibate) but has her whole world changed when she meets a rich, but aloof man (David). The trials Polly goes through (dating hot young thing Tristan) are comical as is her resistance to love. A great book from start to finish.

[Sandee]

This is one of my favorite books. I read it over and over again. It includes three of my favorite things--A strong sassy heroine, a village in England and a truly amazing romance. I love, love love this book!

[Tali]

Although I took longer to read this novel than I usually do with Katie Fforde novels, I actually really liked this book. The composition of the heroine, Polly, is really well done and although she has her issues and quirks, like most romantic heroines do, Fforde has managed to write her in a way where she doesn't become too quirky or contrived as a character. Being able to stand reading the protagonist's POV without wanting to bang your head against a desk is always a nice surprise. As for the story and Fforde's hero, they're more traditional in the sense of this being a relatively straight love plot without veering all over the place which I appreciated, rather than there being excessive plot tangents which you sometimes find in Fforde's novels. My one gripe with this story is the sex scenes - they're not particularly sexy and you can't help feeling that while the author has got the romance pitched just right, she hasn't been particularly successful with the erotic part of the relationship. There's few words as un-sexy during lovemaking scenes as 'vagina' and unfortunately in trying to go into more detail than a strategic fade to black, Fforde has approached these scenes far too clinically for them to be an appealing part of the story.
A lovely love story, but not really hot enough when it tries to be sexy. 4.5 stars.

[Helena Chiara]

Just like the slogan, love will definitely find its way...

The book starts off pretty slow and quiet confusing but its not short of funny musings from a 30-something woman. Polly is witty but her stubborn feminist self gets on my nerves. No wonder there's so much on feminists. Although i agree that women should independent on this day and age but i would've liked Polly more if she understands the time and place to show that side of her. For a 30 something she's quiet childish at some parts that it almost made me hate her.

David Locking-Hill (such an interesting double name) is a male character that will have a place in me. Of course a man like him doesn't exist but he still received my admiration for his patience in dealing with the ever indecisive Polly. I just love reading the interactions between them even though its icy cold and stiff every single time they start conversing. It gets warmer with their witty and mature jokes. I don't intend to spoil anyone but at one point i literally feel sorry for David and would've be at all surprised if he gave up on her. But of course. Happy endings always befall on the heroine. Perhaps not to my liking but then again, i'm just another avid reader.

I'm a bit hesitant in reading Katie Fforde's other works (i've purchased a number of them on a bookfest). Crossing my fingers that the next book will worth my time.

[Lita]

After going through a number of quite serious/complicated books, it was nice to fall back on light and funny chick-lit for my book club readings. All I expect from a good romance novel is that it is entertaining, and this one certainly was that. Would something like that happen in real life? No. Should you read it? Yes, if you want to enoy some sweeping off the feet and all that jazz.

The story centers on a 35-year old spinster that is trying to make it on her own, professionally and otherwise. She doesn't believe in marriage, cannot understand what's all the fuss about sex... until the prince charming comes around and shows how it really needs to be done between the sheets (and no, you won't see it coming). Well, who knew! Of course, situation gets complicated mostly because Polly (the main character) is overthinking everything (women tend to do that a lot...). But things get sorted out in the end (and this is not a spoiler because they always do get sorted out in proper romance novels).

[Jewel]

Poorly edited and lacks the character development I've grown to expect of her, but I love this author and if you're a romantic at all, she's always a nice read.

[Nienke]

Awesome book, it went totally the unexpected way, but the good way :)

[Alison]

Three and a half stars.

Gah! Forgot what I wanted to say about this book. Polly is a 35 year old single woman, she works at a health food shop and has dreams of making a living from her pottery. She bumps into an old school 'friend' who invites her to a dinner party. All of the other guests (and the hosts) are wealthy middle-class and fairly smug, especially the single man, David. Later Polly comes to know David better through acquaintance with his rebellious teenage son Patrick.

There is a love triangle/square between Polly, a journalist called Tristan, David and his son Patrick, although I think most readers can see which way Polly is going to jump. I understand that this was Katie Fforde's first novel and it exhibits some rather dated views of how a hero should behave, at times I thought David was like a teenage boy in his ridiculous jealousy when he wasn't even dating Polly - that sort of behaviour screams stalker to me. Also, as I have mentioned previously, Katie Fforde doesn't really flesh out her heroes, they remain shadowy characters whose motivations are vague and never truly explained. David is no different.

If you like novels where friends and family are desperately trying to set our heroine up with a man, she's artsy and involved in saving a local parade of shops from being torn down by developers, where there are snobby dinner parties and surly teenagers and scary housekeepers you'll love this.

[Teàrlach]

The protagonist got on my nerves more often than not (okay, I get it, you're unhappy and you're fat and poor, Jesus, I felt sorry for you at first but there's only so much self-pity I can take), and her relationship (if I can call it that) with her love interest developed entirely inexplicably, with absolutely no chemistry.
Her (lack of a) sexual past was only ever discussed with her friends and inside her head, and I thought maybe the guy she's knockin' boots with should be told about it as well. I actually rooted for them to not get together.
The blurb on the back of the book also made the protagonist's involvement with the building preservation thing sound like it would make more of an appearance in the book than it actually did, and I was disappointed by that as well as the happy-ending solution on the whole thing.

Romantic Interest: You're a great person, Polly, clearly these buildings are such a great cause to support, I've definitely seen the error of my rich man ways, realised my friends are all assholes, let me just casually donate £10,000 to the fun. Can we fuck again now?

[Ria]

Polly Cameron is happy being single, independent and living her life the way she wants to with her cat Selina even though her well meaning friends and mother are desperate to see her married and settled down.
When she accepts a dinner invitation from her friend Melissa and meets David Rocking Hill her ideas on her life are turned upside down due to the sparkling mutual attraction between them.
Offset against a variety of Polly's escapades including her penchant for pottery, her save the buildings campaign she is involved in with the locals, running the Whole nut, fighting off the attentions of the lecherous Tristan Black a local radio host and a myriad other complications can Polly ever give in to her true desires and finally risk losing her heart and give up her freespirited lifestyle to settle down to be David's wife and a "sort of" mother to his rebellous son Patrick?
Absolutely hilarious and a wonderful read.

[Christine]

I just loved Polly's character. She seems a very real person, with a life that many of us can relate to: working at a 'job' so she's able to afford doing what she loves.

The humor is very British, but that doesn't detract from the story, since we all know people who are just like the people in Polly's life.

The romance is warm and friendly, although David's attraction seems rather sudden. However, the supporting characters are well-drawn and likeable, and you're cheering for Polly the whole way through.

[Leelan]

Finally a heroine I can relate to. She's a hardcore feminist, buys her clothes in charity shops, doesn't live in New York or London, has a messy house, fulfilling work, likes kids without being desperate for her own, she's comfortable with herself and won't be anything other than who she is for anyone and most important of all SHE DOESN'T NEED A MAN TO BE HAPPY. The story lags in the latter half and the ending is a bit anticlimactic but it's well worth the read for a protagonist who isn't obsessed with men and shoes.

[Jennifer]

compared to erica james, this book has a more realistic take on life. the heroine of the novel is a character im sure many people can relate to. it was however a lot more raunchier than erica james. but it is a book you can curl up in bed or on the sofa with, and thats what i look for in books. it was lovely, light and really good for the first time i ahd read katie fforde. on the whole though, i would say i prefer erica james.

[Emily]

Fairly typical chic-lit. Had to keep reminding me the heroine was supposed to be mid-thirties, she acted/thought more like she was in her fifties. The ending was a bit abrupt and too unrealistic. One of those stories where the author had to blatantly write what was happening because it didn't come across in the action or dialogue. Having said that, it was an enjoyable enough read, and I'm pretty sure Helen Fielding read this book before writing 'Bridget Jones'.

[Jacqueline]

mmm not bad, although much the same as the last one.

I do love a Katie Fforde hero - always tall, dark, rich with a stately home or at the very least a big house, a man of few words who proposes immediately after (really good) sex. Not met many of these types in real life, so always good to read all about them via a Katie Fforde.

[Lindy Dale]

Very slow at the start and I didnt even know if I was going to finish it but by mid-way through I was dying to see what would happen to Polly. David was very annoying in parts and the ending was entirely predictable apart from the changes in David's son which were a nice surprise.
Well worth a read.

[Kim]

This was one of the older Katie Ffordes that I still needed to catch up on. I loved the story. She's one of my fave authors for a comfy , curl up with a cuppa read. They are always warm characters and storylines. I'm almost sad that I think I've nearly read all of her books now! Hope she's releasing a new one soon!

[Nina Levison]

This story was slow to get going with the introduction of a lot of characters quite quickly. It soon settled down and was an enjoyable read with lots of Katie Fforde's trademark humour. The story zipped along with a satisfactory ending. I enjoyed the humour and Polly's tangled love life and looked forward to the next few chapters each night.

[Liesel]

Oh, Katie Fforde, your books are all the same, but I enjoy every bit of them. This book was quite a bit more explicit than most. Pretty close to an "R" rating, particularly compared to books she wrote more recently.

[Elena]

This is the first novel from Fforde that I read. I was immediately charmed by her witty writing and sense of humor. The characters are very alive and the plot flows nicely. It's a perfect leisure read!

[Suzanne]

This book was a gift from a friend in England. I have since read most of Katie Fforde's books. The are light and funny, a very quick break.

[Jo]

An easy relaxing read. Perfect for an exhausted, wet Monday night!

[Elaine]

As her first fforde did herself proud

[Lily]

The hopeless romantic in me absolutely adored this book!