"Shopaholic to the Stars" by Sophie Kinsella

It is finally happening, Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood) is moving to Los Angeles!  Becky and Minnie are joining Luke who is managing the career of famous young actress Sage Seymour.  But is Hollywood ready for Becky?

Becky arrives in LA convinced that she will become Sage’s personal stylist and then her career will blow up to include every A-list celebrity.  But when she arrives, things don’t work out the way she plans.  She quickly realizes that the only places that will hire her are retail stores and so in order to achieve her dream, she takes a job as the stylist of Sage’s archrival.  But this development doesn’t sit well with Luke, and when his ex-girlfriend enters the picture, their Hollywood dream is thrown upside down.  Will they survive Los Angeles or will they hightail it back to England?

Shopaholic to the Stars, by Sophie Kinsella, is the seventh book in the Shopaholic series, the adventure-filled stories of the loveable Becky Bloomwood.

Now I know that by the seventh book a series can start to feel stale (many times this happens well before the seventh book.)  And I know that the last few books of the Shopaholic series have divided readers, many loving them just as much as the first and many feeling that Becky has transformed into a character that is hard to like and somewhat annoying.  But while I feel that the last few books weren’t as fantastic as the first, this book took me back to the beginning of the series and made me fall in love with Becky the way I did then.

Los Angeles is the perfect setting for a character like Becky and I think Kinsella did a great thing by taking Becky out of her comfort zone and the locations we’ve seen her through the last few books.  The new setting definitely made the series feel fresh again and brought a new dynamic to it.  I found myself laughing more during this one than I had in the last few books as well.  The land of spiritual retreats, paparazzi, and reality television definitely put Becky back in my good books.  

The only thing I didn’t like so much about this book was the storyline that was given to her father.  I’m not going to ruin the book for anyone by discussing it here but it felt out of place and every time attention turned to it in the book, I felt let down.  I would have preferred to see Becky’s story play out continuously.  And the ending that leaves the story dangling, I could have done without that as well.  

All in all, I enjoyed this book.  I had hoped that this series would never disappoint me and unfortunately after the last couple of books it was going that way for me.  Which was upsetting because Kinsella’s standalone books during this time have been so wonderful.  But this book makes me want to continue reading the series.  If you haven’t already given up on the series and are still sitting on the fence, I recommend continuing with this book.  The opinion is divided on it but my opinion is that it is an enjoyable read and who doesn’t love visiting an old friend.  Sometimes they change, sometimes we don’t like their decisions, but it’s always nice to know what they are up to.

I received a copy of this book courtesy of Random House of Canada.  The opinions expressed above are my own.