By Sophie Kinsella. #6 of The Shopaholic Series. Grade B+

 

The last book in the Shopaholic Series, Mini Shopaholic is no different from from the previous books of this Series. The book focuses on Rebecca Becky Bloomwood, Luke Brandon and their two year old daughter, Minnie.

The world’s favourite economically challenged heroine is back… with a small friend in tow…

Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood) thought motherhood would be a breeze and that having a daughter was a dream come true a shopping friend for life! But it’s trickier than she thought as two-year-old Minnie has a quite different approach to shopping.

Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

She can create havoc everywhere from Harrods to Harvey Nicks to her own christening. She hires taxis at random, her favourite word is Mine, and she’s even started bidding for designer bags on eBay.

On top of everything else, there s a big financial crisis. People are having to Cut Back including all of Becky’s personal shopping clients and she and Luke are still living with Becky’s Mum and Dad. To cheer everyone up, Becky decides to throw a surprise birthday party on a budget but then things become really complicated.

Who will end up on the naughty step, who will get a gold star and will Becky’s secret wishes come true?

 

Long time fans of the series will have no problem picking up this story where it was left off in the last book. Becky is still the same, incapable of handling Minnie, or her shop-aholism. Mini Shopaholic is basically in the same format as the other books in the series: Becky using every excuse in the book to keep shopping and up to her elbows in secrets, and fighting to keep those secrets from coming out, but of course everything goes horribly wrong.

 

Unfortunately, motherhood has not made her more economical, as a result of which Minnie herself has become a lot more materialistic than other two year olds. Her favourite word is ‘mine’. During the initial chapters of this book, Minnie is introduced as a little girl with behavioral issues. She’s banned from four Christmas grottos as a result of her naughty behaviour. Also, she keeps demanding for something or the other when in malls with her mother, usually shouting “Miiine! Miiine Dolly/Horse/Stuff!” Though Becky cannot manage her first child, she wants another, so that she has another opportunity to shop. Predictably, Luke is very doubtful about it.

 

He’s had a stressful year, and Becky plans a surprise party to cheer him up. A grand party which she wants to organize it on her own without anybody’s help, and apparently without any money, because she’s bankrupt. That’s when she is helped by Elinor, Luke’s mother who abandoned him when he was small and had a major falling out when his stepmother, Annabel, died. Elinor wants it to be an unconditional gift, and doesn’t plan on Luke knowing she was involved.

 

Becky is a conflicting character. While her scatterbrain personality and inability to walk by a store without making a purchase is an endearing trait, and makes for a hilarious screwball comedy, sometimes Kinsella overdoes it and you end up being irritated instead. Maybe I am over-analyzing chick-lit, but for once I’d like her to not lie, and think of the consequences of her actions. It was okay to be that way you’re in your early twenties, but her character is stunted and has shown absolutely no growth in the time she has married, had a baby, and entered her thirties.

 

My irritation did ease somewhat when she tries to cut back, and tries really hard to stick to the promise she made Luke, and the book gradually ended with a smile on my face.