Confessions of a Shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
Genre - Fiction
Form: Audio Book

Becky has a fabulous flat in London's trendiest neighborhood, a troupe of glamorous socialite friends, and a closet brimming with the season's must-haves. The only trouble is that she can't actually afford it—not any of it.

Her job writing at Successful Savings not only bores her to tears, it doesn't pay much at all. And lately Becky's been chased by dismal letters from the bank—letters with large red sums she can't bear to read—and they're getting ever harder to ignore.

She tries cutting back. But none of her efforts succeeds. Becky's only consolation is to buy herself something ... just a little something....

Finally a story arises that Becky actually cares about, and her front-page article catalyzes a chain of events that will transform her life—and the lives of those around her—forever.

Shopaholic was a fun book to listen to. The book was read by Emily Gray, and she did a wonderful job. I loved listening to her accent, and her expression while reading this book. I swear, it MADE the book for me!

I really enjoyed the letters at the beginning of the chapters from the banks, credit card companies. I found it humorous and true-to-life that while she was receiving debt and overdraft notifications she's also receiving notifications of "double points" opportunities and loan offers. While done in a humorous light, it really does show why and how people accumulate so much debt in these days, and also sheds some light as to why the economy (in America, can't speak for anywhere else) is declining at such a rapid rate. We live in a day and age where we believe we are entitled to everything we want, without paying no mind to how much it cost or how we go about getting it.

Becky has so many antics for getting past her bills, for finding ways to get out of debt - including everyone's dream; winning the lottery. Her materialism is funny and annoying at the same time; e.g. HOW MUCH FACE CREAM DOES ONE NEED?? Or cappuccino for that matter. I loved it when she got a part-time job at a boutique and then tried to hide a clearance item from a customer. The only complaint I have is about the whole thing is the happily-ever-after. Becky does not seem to truly learn from her mistakes, she just lands herself some additional freelance work that she does use to pay off her debt, but also enables her to continue shopping as she always does. It's a fun "dream come true" ending, but I sort of feel that, with the popularity of the book, more good might have been done if she got the guy (which she did) AND was beginning to learn to budget the money she already had. We all can't be so awesome that we land multiple jobs and start earning six figures in one day. Life just isn't that good.

But then again...I don't read books for real life. I read them for the fun. So strike that. The book was great! I'm excited about getting to see the movie, which I think can be just as good or possibly better than the book. There are not many books that I will say that about, but this is completely doable. This book can be done without missing any details quite easily. And watching the antics on screen will make it that much better. I'm hoping maybe I can convince y hubby to take me to see it for Valentines Day!