Review: MINI SHOPAHOLIC by Sophie Kinsella *****

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.
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?

I'm sure you all know how much I love and adore Ms Kinsella's books! As I've said before, she's the only author who has never ever disappointed me, not even in the slightest, and I've read all her books! I've been looking forward to Mini Shopaholic for months and as expected, I absolutely LOVED it - with it, Ms Kinsella just confirmed her status of My Favourite Author EVER!!! Be warned: there will be a lot of gushing in this post, but I just can't help myself, LOL.

Our beloved heroine Becky returns two years after she's given birth to Minnie, who turns out to be quite an energetic and determined little thing, hehehe! She's may not win the Most Well Behaved Daughter award anytime soon, but she's positively adorable, just like her mother!
Just like in the other books, Becky finds herself in a series of unfortunate events that she is determined to solve in her own special way - this time it's to do with Luke's birthday party, Minnie's upbringing, her job etc. As always, she manages to get herself in a million tricky situations, but she always finds the way out. That's what I love love love about Becky - she is such a good person. She may be a bit daft at times (and I mean that in the most endearing way possible), but she always means well and does the best she can. She is just so determined to deal with things her own way and she never gives up. Her way of thinking may be a bit silly, but you cannot help but love her. She's possibly my favourite literary character, just because she can crack me up like no one else in this world!!!

Oh and can we take a moment here and discuss LUKE BRANDON for a moment? Honestly, could this man possibly be any more PERFECT??? I don't think so and yet he keeps improving with every book, making me fall head over heels in love with him again and again! (Don't be jealous, hubby, you know I love you even more & fo' realz! ;) xoxo) He is the epitome of the perfect man and honestly too good to be true - I suppose that's why he's fictional, ha! He's not just perfect per say, but he's also perfect for Becky and I love the relationship they have, it's fantastic! OK, I think I'll stop fangirling over Luke here (even though I could go on all night, heh) and the last thing I'm saying is that he's just soooooo swoonworthy!

Excuse all the gushing (I'm prone to that when I'm discussing Kinsella's books), but I honestly cannot praise this book enough. I loved the plot, which was exciting and hilarious with all the twists & turns. The book was FILLED to the brink with HILARIOUS scenes that honestly had me in tears from laughing so hard!!! One of my favourites was the Eminem thing at Minnie's christening, hahaha! And Becky's bartering and Minnie's pocket money and Becky buying Minnie a dress for her 21st birthday, hahaha! Just thinking about everything that's happened in this book cracks me up - it's UH-MAAAZING STUFF! I was reading it during a particularly exhausting and crazy week and just reading a few pages before sleep made everything so much better - it's escapism at its best and like a little ray of sunshine that brightens up even the worst of days!

I really enjoyed seeing the whole gang again, not just Becky & Luke, but also Suze and Tarkie and Becky's parents and Janice and Danny! The new characters were fab too (Bonnie, Sage etc) and I look forward to seeing more of them in the upcoming books ... I say that with a bit of confidence as the ending of Mini Shopaholic suggests another massive adventure for Becky and I cannot WAIT to read all about it! Ooh, I hope the next book comes out sooooon, I just know it's going to be SO good!

This book couldn't possibly be any better and I tremendously enjoyed every single second of it, but now I'm crushed that it's all over. :( If you're a Shopaholic fan, they you're guaranteed to enjoy this just like the rest of this fantastic series. And if you're not a fan yet, then you absolutely MUST order yourself the whole series RIGHT NOW and read it asap - you'll thank me later. ;) Years ago, I was one of the people who looked down on others who read Shopaholic books - I thought books about shopping were far beneath me, but then I read one Shopaholic book and was immediately converted into not only a Shopaholic fan, but also a massive fan of the chick lit genre as such. So thank you, Ms Kinsella/Wickham, for showing me the light and thank you for writing such FANTASTIC and HILARIOUS books! How do you do it though, Sophie (can I call you that, by the way? Will you be my BFF? Will Becky be my BFF? Please?)? Is it MAGIC? Fairydust? Whatever it is, please don't ever stop and keep the books coming!!! :)

In conclusion: as it turns out, my predictions were correct and this is indeed THE CHICK LIT BOOK OF THE YEAR - it just doesn't get any better than this! Long live the Queen of Wit Lit!

overall rating: + ♥♥♥♥♥ (because it holds a special place in my heart :p)
plot: 5+/5 | writing: 5+/5 | characters: 5+/5 | cover: 4/5

ps: OH and don't forget to watch the third clip of The Queen herself reading an extract from the book - this time it's the visit to the Pound Shop and it's priceless, LOL!

pps: You can read the brilliant first chapter here - just click on the Extract tab & enjoooy!