Shopaholic & Sister (2004)

Becky Bloomwood gets a little more annoying every book... ( )

I love these books! They're definitely a huge guilty pleasure but I don't care. They're so light and entertaining, which is refreshing. Becky and Luke are just finishing up their year long honeymoon and preparing to go home. Everything doesn't turn out as Becky is imagining though and it's highly amusing to see what she gets up to. Everything in her life is so insanely ridiculous I just can't help but laugh. This one was packed full of adventures and the ending left me longing to read the next one. I really enjoy this series and I'm glad I decided to read it ( )

This book was all about the fact that opposites attract one sister buys to much the other reuses her coffee grounds. When they are thrown together there is a grand battle of love and war. I think that this is a very funny delightful book a must read for any sister.
This audio book was bought from Great Escape ( )

First published on Booking in Heels.

So I'm not a huge chick-lit fan, but I do have particular authors whose work I know I'm going to love. Sophie Kinsella is definitely one of these, if not the highest ranking on my personal scale of Awesome. I haven't read a single book of hers I didn't immediately love - I've read all the Shopaholic books up to this one and Can You Keep A Secret? was the story that got me reading chick-lit in the first place. That said, I have to admit I didn't like Shopaholic & Sister quite as much as the others, although the light and fun tone this series is famous for is still intact.

So Becky Bloomwood can be a bit of an annoying character occasionally- she makes stupid decisions, gets herself into scrapes and then never owns up until it's too late. She's loveable (and I do sympathise with her faults more than I'd like to admit), but most of her troubles are down to her own lack of judgement. Not so in Shopaholic & Sister though, or not completely at any rate. That's not to say Becky isn't her usual spending self - she is. It's just not really the focus of the novel.

See, all her close relationships - her husband, her sister, her best friend and her boyfriend are all absolutely horrible to her in this book, for no apparent reason. It actually crossed the line into downright depressing. I mean, I know it's a chick-lit book so chances were always that it'd all be resolved into fairy dust at the end, but it genuinely made me sad while I was reading. I can't help but think it could have been toned down a little.

I think that, for me, the problem wasn't that Becky's sister didn't like shopping. The problem was that Becky's sister was an irritating, judgemental bitch. I wanted to smack her a good few times myself, and I wasn't the one trying to befriend her! It just didn't seem realistic that Becky would keep trying to reconcile, even though Jess shunned her more more than once. I just wanted her to get a backbone.

The ending is actually very good. Slightly over-dramatic and unrealistic (not to mention twee), but it successfully dispelled the dark cloud hovering over my head from the rest of the book.A true chick-lit ending - fluffy and happy-making!

I have to give a nod to Sophie Kinsella for this one - it must be difficult coming up with so many different premises for the Shopaholic books. It's such a simple concept that I'm amazed her books haven't just become the same thing over and over again. I know I've complained about how depressing this book is, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Like I said before, I've never read book by this author I didn't like. They're just so fun and easy to read (bouts of depression aside). ( )

I very much enjoy this entire series. They are light, fun, easy reads(i finished each in 2 days). The wit of this book is what I love the most. It is constantly amusing to bear witness to the delusional inner thoughts of Becky Bloomwood as she goes about life in a shopping frenzy. :) ( )