Confessions of a Shopaholic - Book Review

You'll laugh at her. You'll feel sorry for her. You'll even get angry at her. But by the end of the book, you'll fall in love with Rebecca (Becky) Bloomwood.

She narrates her story. She's a shopaholic (as if we don’t know from the title), "up to her eye balls in debt" - in her words, but she can’t stop shopping. And her shopping has to be designer stuff every time.

She shares a London apartment with her friend Suze. She doesn't pay her rent on time. Suze is always understanding. Never demanding money, paying council tax for both of them, etc etc. In short, a real friend in need. Its not like Becky is taking advantage of her. She writes IOUs to Suze all the time. Becky does feel bad. But she can’t stop shopping.

She ignores all the letters and calls from her bank manager (she's over her over draft limit). She bins, throws and stows the letters from other credit card companies. She actually forgets her debt when she does that and wishes that her debt clears itself.

You might think she's jobless. That's where you are wrong. She's a financial journalist telling people how to manage their money.

To pay off her debt, she tries to follow a self-help book, tries to cut back and even tries to make more money by taking up another job. Everything ends in disaster.

In between all this, she meets a guy called Luke. He's anything but like her. He is a high flying entrepreneur, who takes Becky luggage shopping to Harrods. Before you draw any conclusions, it was for his girl friend and he wanted Becky’s opinion. He breaks up with his girl friend. Or rather, she dumps him. As they say, opposites attract. That's what happens at the end of the book. They both fall in love.

A movie (with the same title) was based on the book. I had seen the movie way before I read the book. But the book is far better and totally different. Apart from the fact that Becky is a shopaholic, in debt, lives with Suze and falls in love with Luke, the incidents are totally different.

By the end of the book, I loved Becky so much that I bought the whole series.

I've even started reading the second book in the series - Shopaholic Abroad. I am already loving it (only read 60 odd pages till now).