Lucy: Tom's girlfriend from the first novel and later fiancée in Shopaholic Ties The Knot. She dumps him at the beginning of Shopaholic and Sister and does not appear again. I reach gaily into the envelope, but my fingers don’t quite pull out the bill. They remain clutched around it while my mind is seized – as it is every month – by my secret dream. And let’s face it we’ve all been there with the credit card bills which we tend to ignore as soon as that excited feeling hits us upon first entering a store.

Sophie Kinsella has sold over 40 million copies of her books in more than 60 countries, and she has been translated into over 40 languages. I reread The Shopaholic series every couple of years and I always like it. It's a sweet harmless little book that I can read with my brain turned off. And that's not a bad thing.

Details on The Series

Visiting her parents in Surrey, to whom she would never confess her money problems, they advise her to buy an apartment. As she replies she is not rich enough , their common-sense answer is that she has to choose between save or make more money. The film omits the Webster family who are good friends of the Bloomwoods, as well as Martin and Janice's son, Tom, and his then fiancée, Lucy.

It reminds of humans I know, who choose to lead the most dramatic, self indulged, objectified, diva lifestyle. Where they are the most important and beautiful person on the planet, and you'll regret being not trying to be their best friend (a.k.a. letting them use you) when they are Famous and rich one day. I think this book glamorize this attitude, and not matter how you dress that up, there is nothing glamorous about that. Despite having seen the film (I don't like to read after seeing it, I prefer to read it first and then see the film), but nothing had prepared me for this. Honestly, is this kind of stuff supposed to be funny? I have a great sense of humor, and usually find many things funny that I probably shouldn't, but this wasn't funny to me. I find idiotic people like Rebecca Bloomwood's type to be frustrating and annoying, not funny. Plus, did I mention that she gives me a bad name? Sophie’s latest novel, Surprise Me, published in February 2018, presents a humorous yet moving portrait of a marriage—its intricacies, comforts, and complications. Surprise Me reveals that hidden layers in a close relationship are often yet to be discovered.Half way into the book I felt really sad because I know that there is so many people who this is their reality. This shallow mindset or consumption of caffeine, sugar, shopping, "fashion"..... the constant carve of distraction and never learning to deal. It just seemed to glorify being shallow and reinforce that if and when you are you should keep on being so because: If there is a male equivalent to women’s mindless and completely uncool pursuit of name-brand (read: expensive) fashion, it would be a dude with a mullet peeling out in a Trans Am in the parking lot of a strip club blaring a Ted Nugent anthem. Maybe that previous sentence doesn't make much sense, but it was fun to write and the imagery is worth a lot more than a thousand words. I suppose that what I'm trying to say to female compulsive shoppers and the mullet guy is just stop, please. It's for your own good. This book made me physically ill. I felt like I was in more peril reading this book than anyone on a toxic waste clean-up crew. I’d wager that this book is the hands-down favorite in every nail parlor in America. Whenever I hear women talking about Prada et al, I imagine that they are studying up to go on The Price is Right. She talks as if shopping for luggage is somehow a satisfying and rewarding way for two adults who aren't brain-dead to spend an afternoon. It's creepy. In the novel, Suze and Tarquin are cousins who gradually date and eventually marry. In the film, they're unrelated and are actually lovers. It's likely that Tarquin took Suze's last name in marriage as a form of respect to her family, rather than have her take his own. This is what I do, by the way. I’m a journalist on a financial magazine. I’m paid to tell other people how to organize their money.

The Shopaholic series always puts me in a good mood. Really all of Sophie Kinsella's books put me in a good mood. They are just so light, fluffy and fun. Sophie Kinsella's writing is like ice cream on hot July day. Rebecca is a shopaholic, finds stratagems to evade creditors, doesn't pay attention to anything, honestly I don't know how she manages to get away with work. The main charter was English so I didn't relate the stores that she was bragging about shopping at and it didn't have the SAME"sex in the city" LUSTFUL MATERIALISTIC effect on me . So, her prideful continuous description of these clothes she "owned" and was in debt for became ridiculous. And her constant shopping while in debt, actually started to physically stress me out. When I discovered that there was no Aha! moment for her, and no growth or anything in her character, and that somewhere down the line she marries The Guy, I decided to stop reading for good. The Guy seems intelligent and rational, so why he would hitch himself to a financial disaster in Prada heels is beyond me. In 2014 she published a Young Adult novel Finding Audrey about a teenage girl with social anxiety and her madcap family, and in January 2018, Sophie published her first illustrated book for young readers about the charming adventures of a mother-daughter fairy duo, Mummy Fairy and Me (also published as Fairy Mom and Me).

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Five solid stars for one of my favorite novels by a favorite author, Sophie Kinsella. I read this around the time of original publication; sometime in 2000, and that started my auto-buy of the subsequent books that continue this series.