The Secret Shopper's Revenge

A tale of three women, Grazia, Emily and Sandie, whose lives are changed for the better when they become Charlie's Shopping Angels. I enjoyed the secret shopping missions and the growing friendship between the women more than the digression into trying to save a failing shop.

It's a pity that Emily had more chapters devoted to her than the other two secret shoppers, as I found her story the least interesting. Whereas I liked Sandie from the beginning, and Grazia grew on me towards the end, Emily was weak and whiny throughout and I kept wanting to shake her. However, as I listened to the audio-book version, voiced by three actresses and one actor, I was probably influenced by the actresses' performances.

The story is told in the alternating POVs of Emily, Sandie and Grazia. Emily's husband has just left her for another woman, but still expects to control her life from another country, and she lets him. Sandie was unfairly sacked from her job and is ridiculed by her Grandmother for working in a shop. Grazia's husband has just died and has left her with an armload of debt and hurtful secrets. So, Ms Harrison balances out the silliness of shopping with more serious problems that a lot of women can relate to. Unfortunately, none of the women are exactly likeable - Emily is so weak and silly I wanted to beat her with the Grow-Up stick, Grazia is unbelievably shallow and Sandie would have been more pleasant if she wasn't such a show more know-it-all.

Still, the point of these books is watching the characters solve their problems and become nicer people, and that happens in a nice, 'aww' kind of way. I liked how the characters slowly bonded and became closer to each other as their job pushed them together. Plus, mystery shopping is good fun to read about, and I can't say I was sorry when a lot of the bitchy sales assistants got their come-uppance! The concept of 'Charlie,' their mysterious boss, bugged me though. It just seemed silly and completely unnecessary. They could easily have been the 'Shopping Angels' without the tacky gimmick.

It's written in an oddly formal style that just didn't quite match the tone of the story. I mean, it's not meant to be funny or whimsical, but I do think it needed to lighten-up a bit.

This is one of those books that you can really only describe as 'okay.' I enjoyed reading it, but I don't think I'd want to do so again. Just don't make the same mistake I did - it's not a Shopaholic book in story, characters or tone.

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Reviewed here: http://alitareads.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/the-secret-shoppers-revenge-by-kate-h...