Bed of Roses

by Daisy Waugh

A fun, feelgood romp of country life from bestselling author Daisy Waugh

When the restless, rootless Fanny Flynn lands the job as Head Teacher of Fiddleford Village Primary School it feels more like a last resort than another of her new beginnings.

She's a great teacher and all the villagers claim to be behind her. But are they really? In no time she's locked in a feud with the gruesome Mrs Guppy, stalked by the pushy newcomers from the Old Rectory, plotted against by Kitty, the predatory children's author at Laurel Cottage, and demonised by her pathologically lazy Deputy Head…

Yet Fanny has fallen in love with Fiddleford. Together with her troublesomely handsome best friend, Louis, and with a little help from the deliciously scented Solomon Creasey, Fanny vows to make this new beginning her last…

Genres: Chick Lit, Fiction

Paperback

First published May 3, 2005

Reviews

[Marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

After this book I told myself no more Daisy Waugh. The tone just really irritated me!

[Sarahlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A refreshing surprise. I'm getting sick of the same old predictable plots. This one is more unconventional.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

First Daisy Waugh book I read that I picked up from a charity stall.
I'm afraid I just couldn't get into it and I ended up missing out a chunk in the middle. Like soap operas I picked it up again without too much loss (except the full details of the stalker except that he was dead by the time I picked it up again)
It was too "villagey" for me which says more about my taste that the author's writing but I couldn't relate the appointment of head teacher with the central characters naivety.
Sorry.

[Catsalive · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fairly unremarkable but OK. Solomon was the only character I liked at all so it made it hard to be much interested in Fanny's trials, most of which she seemed to bring on herself. I can't see why she even liked Louis- he may have saved her life once but he was completely unreliable & they had nothing in common. It is slightly different from the usual village romance in that most of the population is repellent rather than eccentric. A rom-com that's fairly light on the rom & com.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was ok and I read until the end but the story didn't grab me and I found that nothing really happened until right at the end. Although I liked Fanny none of the other characters really sat with me

[Jenny Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly light easy read. Some of the characters annoyed me certainly wouldnt want to meet them in real life.

[The Bookish Wombat · Rating 1 out of 5]

I expected to like this book, but I lost patience with it very quickly. I found the heroine annoying, passive when she should be active and prone to poor judgement. I hate books where people have a misunderstanding at the beginning which could be easily sorted out by talking to someone, but this doesn't happen so the misunderstanding goes on longer than it should. I disliked the portrait of rural life given here and it seemed to me that the working class characters are treated more harshly (and described more cruelly) by the author. I felt disappointed with the book and won't risk any of the author's others.

[Preet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I was missing something when I started reading this book, and I was right. I picked up the third book in a series about the village. The good news is I don't think I missed too much. This book was definitely a bonkbuster and had a lot going on. The interesting thing was there was more than one villain and a lot was happening in the book. It definitely kept me on my toes.

So now I'm debating whether or not to go back and read the first two books...

[Maureen Vincent-Northam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The style of Bed of Roses is a little different from the norm and something I found myself enjoying. When Fanny Flynn gets a job as head teacher in the village primary school, not everyone in Fiddleford is happy. Can she win over the ghastly Mrs Guppy and her troublesome son, deal with the over-ambitious lawyer couple and other colourful locals out to cause trouble, while fending off the greasy deputy head? Plenty of fun here.

[CB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every once in a while I go on a British chick-lit bender. This book was entertaining and engrossing. Lots of great characters that you'll love to hate. Thought it wrapped up a little bit too neatly and that Fanny ended up with the wrong guy. But I ended up loving Mrs Guppy! Hope there are some sequels in the works....

[Lauren Miliotis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt a little long (I think it was 80 chapters!), but a fun enough read if you like light books with a bit of romance :D

Don't let the cover/title/author name trick you, though, it's got sex and language... language that felt unnecessary :/

[Julz Manu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was another light weight read, author has quite a witty humour which shined through the book - another fast read :)

[Annabelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get past the 'Fanny Flynn' and the 'Fiddleford' of the blurb. I had to put back onto the holiday-cottage book-shelf before I'd even started.

[Amanda Nolan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok!