Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

‘You haven’t seen the movie?’ the Rom-Com fanatic boyfriend asked.

‘Nope, I was busy.’ The action movie fan replied. (Yes, that’s me.)

And then I continued reading the chick lit (lit, by the way, is a French word for ‘read‘).

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella is a piece of literature you won’t find on the ultimate list of important books adults must read before they die. But I guarantee that it’s massively entertaining.

If you’ve not read it yet, I’m dying to tell you why you should.

But first, the standard summary

Rebecca ‘Becca’ Bloomwood is a financial journalist behind the column ‘Successful Saving’ yet at heart, she longs to be writing for Vogue magazine – critiquing fashion and beauty items and commenting on people’s sartorial decisions. To an outsider, she seems to have the most coveted lifestyle, social circle, and outfits but Becca is in trouble: she can no longer afford to keep her desired living standards. To make matters worse, she turns to retail therapy to deal with her frustrations, eventually racking up astronomical debts. Her only hope seems to reside on marrying a millionaire who can support the luxurious lifestyle she’s dreaming of and pay off her humongous debt. The story ends with Becca finding her true passion and getting out of debt without having a prince to pay for it, a far better version of the fairy tale, Cinderella.

Read it on Amazon.

My Thoughts

You see, I’ve never felt this close to a character. Not that I’m having a huge debt or something. But somehow I can relate to Rebecca’s troubles, her boredom with a dead-end career, and her biggest dreams.

I love how honest, exuberant, and humorous Becca can be.  I feel like I’ve been her best friend the whole time I was reading the book. She’s a delightful story-teller so you can’t help turning the page to find out what’s she’s up to next.

I would skip Becca’s credit card letters if I were her, too. They were utterly unbearable to look at. To be sure, Becca is a rational, perceptive person who just happens to love the finest things she unfortunately couldn’t afford with her meager salary. It’s a story many women will be able to relate to: if you work hard, you have the right to reward yourself with expensive handbags, shoes, clothes, etc. You even convince yourself these are worthy investments although you know deep inside, you are drowning in debt.

You see Becca trying to fix her mistakes. She’s smart enough to listen and put into action her father’s financial advice: either ‘Cut Back’ or ‘Make More Money’. She tried all her might to apply this wisdom, even religiously following a well-known financial book, only to fail miserably. It’s as if the world conspires against her efforts to get out of debt.

Sophie Kinsella knows how little determination shopaholics have to succeed for their own salvation. So she gave Becca a problem to solve for the benefit of someone else she cares about. While Becca was trying to help the people she cared for, the solution to her own problem became more obvious. With wit, will and sweat, she fought for someone’s sake and almost magically, like good karma, she figured out how to pay off her debts. The handsome, rich boyfriend was just the cherry on the cake.

Reading the book won’t grant you a scholarship to a famous post-grad school but it sure can warn you about the real dangers of mounting debts. If you are there already, this book offers hope and humor even to the hopeless shopaholics.