3.5 AVERAGE


I read this whole series like 10 or more years ago and wanted to revisit. Silly mindless read. I like the characters even through Becky is so silly. Not an amazing book but it is cute.

cute/easy read

I’ve had this book since the movie came out, so probably around 9-10 years and only got around to reading it now. It started off good - a very addictive and light chick-flick that had me laughing at times. But as the book went on, I got more and more annoyed with it.

The writing was easy to understand and not dense which was refreshing. Although I really enjoyed the start to halfway point of the novel, I didn’t enjoy very much after that sadly. I did find Rebecca funny at times and she was definitely a lot smarter than she gave herself credit for. But everything seemed to wrap up rosy at the end - with her friendships, relationship with Luke and the whole debt thing with Derek Smeath, even though he had been sending her warning letters the whole book and she had blown his meetings off time and time again? And then when you think she’s changed and matured at the end, she goes and blows off the next meeting with a silly excuse and he doesn’t get too annoyed at her for it? It really irked me how she kept throwing the letters away and ignoring them, then worried afterwards about her cards being cancelled and people chasing after her, but she still went on to continue blowing off meetings and not paying her bills or getting her finances in check?

Also, she told her parents and friends that Derek was a stalker and never explained the situation properly to anyone. If she had of thought about her actions and explained herself rather than twisting and lying and getting herself into bad situations, things wouldn’t have been so bad. I felt she treated Tarquin, Luke and Suze really horribly as well, twisting things and telling lies about her aunt for sympathy and money? Everything wrapped up so nicely and things started to go her way and she would get carried away with every situation and think she doesn’t know anything about finance but still she managed to be successful with the article and television show.

I don’t know, I could go on for ages about this book but I’ll summarise it now - I didn’t enjoy it after the halfway point, Rebecca was immature, annoying and didn’t think about her actions or their consequences. I felt she treated everyone horribly and then felt bad when things went wrong, everything always went her way in the end and it was one thing after another. I was expecting her to change her ways throughout the book but the last 50 pages or so were the ones where we saw some redemption. But then by the last few pages, there she was again making up excuses about her meeting with Derek. Maybe we would see more character development over the series, but I’m not interested in reading any more books in this series and I will be unhauling this one.

I did enjoy the writing style and would be interested in reading other novels from this author. In this case, I did not enjoy the book and much preferred the movie where we saw some character growth and redemption from Rebecca. These are just my thoughts on the novel - 100% my own opinion!

though the book was ridiculous but the ending was ok! Could barely get through it!

Lately, I'd been thinking about the books I read when I was a kid/teen, and I thought about maybe rereading a couple of them to see if they held up to my love for them. Confessions of a Shopaholic is one of them. My mum read the entire series and I often borrowed books from her because they looked interesting. Now I already knew going into this book that I wouldn't love it, because I have realised in the last ten years that contemporary (and more specifically contemporary romance) just isn't my thing. Still, I wanted to reread this book because I have access to the entire series, and they might be nice to read in between all the 'big' books I usually pick up.

I have to admit this book only got three stars for nostalgia sake if I had read this book for the first time this year I probably would have ended up with maybe a 2 or 2.5 star. I just don't love this book as much as I guess I did years ago. I hated Becky as a main character, she was just so annoying and very judgy over other people. I loved her daydreaming about a better life, though, because I do that all the time, but other than that I just got annoyed by her every time.

I fully understand shopping is a proper addiction and people go bankrupt every day because they just can't stop buying, but Becky just overdid it in my opinion. I mean sure, you can say something about me buying too many books, but at least I buy them with my actual money and don't put it all on a credit card I have no intention of paying off. 

Oh well, at least the book is entertaining and I did also kind of enjoy the movie (might rewatch it soon, just cuz I can). 

Cute. And different enough from the movie to keep it interesting.
adventurous funny inspiring lighthearted relaxing fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Easy read, adorable characters. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Well written. Becky was such a cute character though I kept getting mad at her when she did stupid things. I loved the style, how her bank letters where all mixed in with everything.

Read for my Women Writers class.