Review: Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Luke gives an incredulous laugh.  “I don’t know how you do it.  Every other sector is dead, but you’re still managing to sell expensive designer clothes…”  His face suddenly blanches.  “Becky, please tell me you’re not selling them all to yourself.”

I gasp with affront.  Number one, I made a promise, which I am keeping.  Number two, if I was doing that, then why would I be standing here in a skirt which I bought five years ago from Barneys?

“If you really want to know, ” I say haughtily, “we at The Look have a unique approach to fashion selling, which is seeing us through the difficult times.”

I won’t explain that “unique” means “we hide the clothes in computer-paper boxes.”  Luke doesn’t need to hear every tedious little detail of my job, does he?

(from Mini Shopaholic, page 217)

Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic series is back, and this time Becky Bloomwood Brandon has a two-year-old daughter, Minnie, who takes after her.  When Minnie sees something she wants, she grabs it with her arms and/or legs and hangs on for dear life, which is pretty funny when it’s a store mannequin.

In Mini Shopaholic, Becky must learn to manage her strong-willed child, and at the same time plan a surprise birthday bash for her husband, Luke, while the Bank of London deals with a financial crisis that prompts people to tighten their purse strings.  Luke is a big shot in the public relations world, so Becky has to go to extremes to keep the party a secret…and she’s trying to plan the party on a budget.  When she pushes her friends and family away, upset that they don’t have faith in her ability to pull it off, you’ll never guess who steps in to help.

Meanwhile, Becky is anxious to move out of her parents’ house, comes up with a unique strategy to keep her job as a personal shopper amid the economic downturn, and believe it or not, promises Luke she won’t do any shopping until she’s worn everything in her wardrobe at least once.

Kinsella has brought back the Becky we know and love, and she’s up to her usual hilarious antics in Mini Shopaholic.  At times — and I think this has a lot to do with the mood I was in when I read the book — I began to wonder whether the series has gone on long enough.  Becky finds herself in debt or in a lie of some sort (usually to protect the feelings of someone she loves) in every single book, and I kept thinking that she should know by now that maxing out her credit cards is wrong and telling the truth would make things easier.  But then I realized that Becky wouldn’t be Becky if she wasn’t shopping or getting herself in trouble, and she’s got such a good heart that you can’t help but root for her to succeed where everyone expects her to fail.

Mini Shopaholic is a fun and fast read for fans of the Shopaholic series.  Kinsella takes a light-hearted approach to a shopping addiction and throws in some mother-daughter arguments, parenting issues, and in-law tension without going overboard with the heavy stuff.  Just enough to give it some substance.  And I even turned the last page hoping Kinsella brings Becky back for another round.

Disclosure: I received a copy of Mini Shopaholic from Random House for review purposes. I am an Amazon associate.

© 2010 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.