Author: Sophie Kinsella
Published: 2004
Publisher: The Dial Press
Series: Shopaholic #4
352 pages (hardcover)
I have been avoiding this particular installment of the Shopaholic series actually, mainly because it just didn’t seem interesting. I was really looking for Shopaholic Ties The Knot but it was unavailable at the library, and I was really itching for some more Shopaholic so I half reluctantly picked this out.
I’ll be honest though: I did end up liking this book. I don’t like it as much as I love the first two, but I do like it. Becky and Luke are back from their nearly-one-year long honeymoon traveling around the world (and Becky has, of course, sent home a load of “crap” with her which she is trying to figure out how to hide from Luke). Upon her return, she was most disappointed to find her family too busy to see her, and her best friend, Suze, seems to have found a new best friend during the year she was gone.
As if to answer her loneliness, Becky’s parents randomly appear at her flat one day to tell her very shocking news: Becky has a half-sister! Way back when, before Becky’s father met Becky’s mother, there was a stewardess on a train that he met … anyway, Becky becomes ecstatic to learn she has a sister and of course, her mind begins fantasizing all the fun she can have with her new sister. However, her new sister is nothing like she imagined. In fact, she’s quite the opposite of Becky. It came to a point where Becky isn’t even sure this can be her sister. Surely a sister of Becky can’t hate shopping.
As I said, I did end up liking it, though in comparison to the first two Shopaholic books, I found this one … average. Firstly, I wasn’t super keen on the idea of Becky finding a long lost sister in the first place, which explains why I have been avoiding the book in general. I mean, the story turned out alright, but in general, long lost sisters (or other family members) are not my cup-of-tea plots. And the way her sister was introduced into the story is just so random. It’s really just my personal preference of plot. Of course, if you don’t mind such a plot, or if you love stories like this, you’ll probably enjoy it.
The second reason I didn’t really like this book as much as the first two is Becky’s decline into becoming a cartoon character. I think I’ve mentioned this before in my post about the fifth book. First two books: Becky is still a believable albeit clumsy character. In this book (and the fifth one), Becky just becomes too unrealistic. In fact, I found myself really annoyed with Becky even though I am normally a fan of her. Like in the fifth book, Becky’s character overstepped the boundary between a believable airhead to just … stupid. I couldn’t believe how ignorant she could be when Luke and her sister and everyone was telling her to stop throwing her money away, and stop lying to people, but she comes up with these ridiculous fantasies how they’ll thank her later; too silly for me. I mean, I realize to some people, Becky’s always a silly character, but I don’t know; for some reason, to me, she seems to become too cartoon-ish.
However, overall, I did enjoy this book. It’s a pretty simple plot. I think what I liked was the contrast between Becky and her sister, and it was kind of nice having people finally just lash out on Becky for being a crazy spender. If you enjoy the Shopaholic series, I think you’ll like this book too, though I don’t know how well it would do as a stand alone novel.
My Rating: 3.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment