Diane

Meet "Carrie", the quintessential young writer looking for love in all the wrong places; "Mr. Big", the business tycoon who drifts from one relationship to another; "Samantha Jones", the 40-ish, successful, "testosterone woman" who uses sex like a man; not to mention "Psycho Moms", "Bicycle Boys", "International Crazy Girls", and the rest of the New Yorkers who inspired one of the most watched TV series of our time. You've seen them on HBO, now listen to the book that started it all.

First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes . . . a baby carriage? Isn't that what all women want? Not so for Claudia Parr. And just as she gives up on finding a man who feels the same way, she meets warm, wonderful Ben. Things seem too good to be true when they fall in love and agree to buck tradition with a satisfying, child-free marriage. Then the unexpected occurs: one of them has a change of heart. One of them wants children after all.

Workaholic attorney Samantha Sweeting has just done the unthinkable. She's made a mistake so huge, it'll wreck any chance of a partnership. Going into utter meltdown, she walks out of her London office, gets on a train, and ends up in the middle of nowhere. Asking for directions at a big, beautiful house, she's mistaken for an interviewee and finds herself being offered a job as housekeeper. Her employers have no idea they've hired a lawyer - and Samantha has no idea how to work the oven. She can't sew on a button, bake a potato, or get the #@%# ironing board to open.