Mini-Shopaholic

It takes a special breed of reader to get into Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series. I started reading these years ago when they first came out. At the time, I am not ashamed to admit I was WAY into chick lit. Chick lit is not for everyone. It's not for eye-rollers and hoity-toity types and people who are into detailed plots, that's for sure. You have to know that the story is most certainly going to wrap up nicely in the end and be totally okay with that. All that being said, I feel it's necessary to re-visit my chick lit reading roots from time to time. I haven't been all that taken with anything I've been reading lately so I was hoping the 6th installment of this series would pull me out of my rut.

In Mini Shopaholic, Becky Bloomwood's two-year old daughter Minnie is somewhat of a terror. Becky, being Becky, often gives into her tantrums and reasons with her spending ways despite England -- and the rest of the world -- being in the midst of a financial crisis. Becky and her husband Luke are on the brink of buying a new home and moving out of her parent's house to start their lives on their own as a little family. All of that is temporarily placed on hold when the bank crashes and Luke's marketing firm becomes exceedingly busy in the putting out fires department. Also, Becky somehow manages to spark up a relationship with Luke's mother, whom he hasn't spoken to in years.

As Becky is not supposed to be shopping, this is probably not a great time for her to plan a large surprise birthday party for Luke but she does it anyway. As usual, she gets herself into many pickles along the way and her friends are there to bail her out all the while trying to hide the surprise party from Luke and trying to whip Minnie into shape.

Typical Shopaholic but a relatively entertaining read all the same. It's been a number of years since I read the last one so I kind of forgot the cast of characters and Becky's ways. It all came back to me though. If you've never read any of the others, don't start here. Best to go back to the very beginning with Confessions of a Shopaholic. This one gave me a few chuckles but it was just so so.

Rating: * *

This is sad. I've only read 9 books so far this year. I will certainly not be making my way to 50 any time soon and I REALLY need to find one to re-ignite my reading spark.