Shopaholic Takes Manhattan

Coming soon!

The Undomestic Goddess.

After seeing the cover and reading the jacket of The Undomestic Goddess, by Sophie Kinsella in an airport bookstore, I was intrigued. So much so, that when I arrived in Kansas City, MO, I went out and bought it. (Three months ago.) When I finished Confessions of a Shopaholic last week, I pulled out the next Sophie Kinsella title on my list and started reading. Once I got past the first page, I couldn't put it down.

When Samantha Sweeting makes a £50 million mistake working for high-powered corporate law firm Carter Spink, she runs away from it all and finds herself in the middle of the English countryside. Dazed, tired, and hungry, Samantha finds herself on the doorstep of Trish and Eddie Geiger. When Trish mistakes Samantha for a housekeeper applying for a job and considers not hiring her, the competitor in Samantha comes out and she vies for the position, extravagantly padding her “resume” as a housekeeper. It is only when she is hired and wakes up the next morning that Samantha realizes exactly what she’s gotten herself into. Over the course of the next month with the Geigers, though, Samantha learns to cook, clean, and most importantly, to relax. She gains a new family and falls in love. But when she discovers that she has been swindled at Carter Spink, she becomes determined to clear her bad name. After uncovering a scandal that rocks the company, Samantha is offered a full partnership – the partnership she’s dreamed about since she was a child. But now she’s forced to choose: Will it be partnership in London, or the quiet life in Ebury that she has grown accustomed to?

Much more enthralling than Confessions, I found The Undomestic Goddess to be genuinely charming and funny. The story is truly heart warming and well played out with not a moment of downtime. The characters are realistic and easy to get to know. Kinsella has done it again with a protagonist that most (if not all) women can easily relate to under one pretense or another. The Undomestic Goddess provides a well-thought, well-written, touching account of what can happen when you take a chance and jump into something new.

Confessions of a Shopaholic.

I want to start by saying that I was somewhat skeptical of this book before I started reading, partially because it has been pretty hyped up over the years and partially because British humor tends to be a little on the dry side. But, since I’ve been on a chick-lit kick here lately and Jen Landcaster, whom I absolutely adore, praised Sophie Kinsella, I thought I’d go ahead and give it a shot.

Let me say, Kinsella is extremely detail oriented and engaging in her tale of financial journalist, Rebecca Bloomwood’s unhealthy spending habits. Set in modern-day London, the story's protagonist, Rebecca Bloomwood, is stuck in a boring and seemingly dead-end job working for the British financial journal Successful Saving. Her off-beat parents and their neighbors believe her to be an extremely savvy financial goddess. Her friends and co-workers believe her to be financially set and sophisticated. Her creditors believe her to be irresponsible and flaky. Confessions of a Shopaholic cronicles Bloomwood's journey from the lowest points in her life to one of the highest. Just when Rebecca is considering giving up her career in journalism, she finds a story that she is passionate about. When her story appears in a somwhat shifty tabloid publication (think National Enquirer), she finds a new career and manages to find herself and love along the way.

The fact that the novel is written in first person allows Kinsella to focus on the inner-workings of Rebecca's mind. For example, Bloomwood justifies some of her spending as "a treat" that she deserves as a result of good behavior or a job well done. I thoroughly enjoyed Rebecca's shopping escapades and catching a glimpse her rationale. Letters from creditors and bankers detailing outlandish excuses from Mrs. Bloomwood add humor and a sense of just how much debt Rebecca has racked up through mostly frivolous purchases that would be otherwise left to the imagination. Amazingly enough, there is never a lull in the story. Kinsella keeps us engaged with Rebecca's web of "white lies", get rich quick schemes, and a mildy scandalous love triangle.

Charming and witty, Confessions of a Shopaholic is a definite must-read for anyone who's picked the cashmere blend turtleneck shell despite the gaping hole in her (or his) bank account.