Just how many women are like Rebecca? (The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella)

Member Name: sewbizzie

Product:	The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella
Date:	02/07/09 (110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great fun story, excellent characters, very easy to read

Disadvantages: I was unable to put it down!

After seeing a lot of trailers for the Shopaholic film and reading a few reviews on the books I decided that before I see the film I would give the books a go. This being the one I started with.

The book is about Rebecca Bloomwood, she is a financial journalist and does not like her job. Rebecca has a passion for shopping, not just for clothes but for anything. She enjoys the buzz she gets when buying things, unfortunately her bank balance does not like it. Rebecca is in debt and has the bank chasing her. She has constantly ignored and lied to the bank and when she gets letters saying payment is due on her visa and store cards she ignores them or hides them.

Rebecca is not happy at work and decided she needs to take action over her life. After talking to her Dad she decided that she has to either cut back or make more money. Rebecca goes with the cut back option but this does not go well. Also her work life is not going well as she feels people see her as a joke. It is Rebecca's flat mate who comes up with the suggestion that she tries the other option of Making more money, but just how?

Will Rebecca be able to avoid the bank any longer and will she get out of debt and finally earn some respect from the people in the world of work?

I have only briefly touched upon the story as there is a lot more which happens but I just don't want to spoil any of it for you.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found that I could not put it down, it did in fact read it in just 2 days as it had me hooked! I thought that Sophie Kinsella did a great job of introducing Rebecca to us and I liked the style in which she wrote the book. It felt as if I was Rebecca's best friend and she was confiding all her secrets and problems with me, this was a nice change instead of being a third party in the book and just reading a story Sophie managed to write it as if Rebecca was talking to me.

The story was very good and I can imagine there are quite a few people who are going through the same problem with being in debt and not being able to get out it or to stop shopping, she really has touched on a good subject which as it is about shopping will interest quite a few women. I have to say that I do like shopping for treats but thankfully I am no where near as bad a Rebecca!

The book was very easy to read and did think Sophie managed to keep it very light hearted throughout which made for even better reading. I am pleased that he story was not just centred around Rebecca's shopping habits and it did also include work and her love life as this did give the story some much needed depth and showed us just why Rebecca would go shopping.

I enjoyed all of the characters and think that they were all introduced in a great way and I like how they all played a role in Rebecca's spending habits and how she dealt with things. I don't have a particular favourite as they were all good in their parts and all bought something different to the story.

This book is part of a few in the Shopaholic series which has been written by Sophie Kinsella and now there is even a Shopaholic film. The book was published by Black Swan and the paper back version has a retail price of £7.99. I did not pay this price and I did get three of the Shopaholic books for just £4 from my sons pre-school which I felt was a bargain.

I am definitely going to recommend this book as it is a fun book which I was unable to put down and I am so looking forward to reading the other two books which I have.

Summary: Rebecca cannot stop shopping but is in debt, just what can she do?