After dragging herself out of a massive debt in 'Confessions Of A Shopaholic', the first book in Sophie Kinsella's highly succesfful series, things are really looking up for the protagonist 'Becky Bloomwood'. She has landed herself a job as a financial expert for popular daytime TV show, 'Morning Coffee' and is happily ensconced with Luke who runs a highly successful and prominent PR company.

However, she has not quite managed to curb her shopaholic ways. The prospect of moving to New York with Luke so that he can expand his business allows her to bury her head in the sand even further. Once there, she falls deeply into the mire of frivilous, destructive spending with all the glamorous surroundings and highly accessible designerwear. However, with more at stake, she has even more to lose this time around.....

If you have read 'Confessions of A Shopaholic', you will now what to expect with this. It is in essence a light, frothy but well written read. It is also in parts, very funny.

Written in the first person, we get an undiluted insight in Becky's mind and motivation, particularly when she goes shopping. Far-fetched it is yes but as a former semi-shopaholic myself (back in the days of disposable income!!), she is surprisingly easy to empathise with. I too have justified frivilous spending with the absurd reasons that Becky has.

Yes, it is largely predictable - there are no dramatic twists here, but they are written in such an engaging way that it is almost impossible not to get sucked in by it. And in essence I suppose that it is a fairytale of sorts, although some people might find the subject matter a little hard to swallow in an era of recession.

Kinsella is never going to win a Booker, and this really is not going to stimulate you mentally or educate you but within the chicklit genre she is one of the leaders. She does not feel as though she has to dabble with the 'dark side' like Marian Keyes, but is not the worse for that. This book is an example of how she can develop engaging but flawed characters but still have even a casual reader generate some interest in them and the storyline.

She is also one of the funniest writers in the genre, there is a set-piece within this book which revolves around a string of humiliations that Becky has to undergo at the wedding of a family friend, which is very entertaining. In between chapters, Kinsella punctuates them with copies of correspondence that Becky has received from her bank and various companies that she has bought from/will be buying from which are very entertaining.

Ultimately, as novels go, this is perfectly fine. You should find that you whip through it quite quickly - this is not a story where all the subtleties need to be picked up, and whilst you might not remember much of it in a months time, you will still have a good time with it.

Although it is not essential, I would probably recommend that you read 'Confessions..." first. Although, in this book there are lots of allusions to events of the first book throughout the story - there is much more background given to the secondary characters in this. It also explains her relationship with her bank manager in particular to fuller effect.