Book Review: Mini Shopaholic

When heading off to camp, I wanted to be sure to bring a book I would find engrossing and humorous. I knew that Sophie Kinsella would deliver, so I checked out the most recent book in her Shopaholic series. Whenever others asked what I was reading, they seemed unaware of the series, so I'm hoping I may have hooked some prospective readers for her books. I have to agree with the USA Today blurb on the back cover: "Hilarious ... hijinks worthy of classic I Love Lucy episodes ... too good to pass up."

Becky Bloomwood Brandon is, indeed, a strong, unique character like Lucy. The escapades she gets herself into are always amusing and consistent with her character, a character with an overly-strong love of shopping, a feisty determination to succeed, and a fantastic imagination which often leads her into daydreams of gigantic proportions. Becky is attempting to navigate the tricky waters of dealing with a high-spirited toddler. Many of her solutions are typical Becky Brandon moves, like providing her daughter with "pocket money" of 50 pence per week and allowing her to overdraw on her account in order to buy the toys she is claiming as "Miiiiine." I loved the scene where Becky decides to throw her own Santa list into the bucket and then gets chosen for her wishes to be read aloud and granted in the mall.

In addition to dealing with the tantrums and misadventures of life with a toddler, Becky is trying to manage a fourth housing fiasco which threatens to leave them living with her parents for yet another year. Plus, she is trying to organize a spectacular surprise birthday party for her husband while reduced to dealing with a budget. When a supernanny is called upon to diagnose the issues with the toddler's behavior, Becky's compulsive habits are identified for the first time as a shopping addiction. Instead of sending the child off to a boot camp experience to tame behavior, the nanny suggests Becky should attend a boot camp for her addictive behavior.

I was hoping that the hints at the end of the book meant a further episode was in the works. Indeed, a seventh installment is projected for Autumn of 2014. You can read about the story-line in Shopaholic to the Stars here.