Shopaholic 04: Shopaholic & Sister

What’s a round-the-world honeymoon if you can’t buy the odd souvenir to ship back home? Like the twenty silk dressing gowns Becky found in Hong Kong…the hand-carved dining table (and ten chairs) from Sri Lanka…the, um, huge wooden giraffes from Malawi (that her husband Luke expressly forbade her to buy)… Only now Becky and Luke have returned home to London and Luke is furious. Two truckloads of those souvenirs have cluttered up their loft, and the bills for them are outrageous. Luke insists Becky go on a budget. And worse: her beloved best friend Suze has found a new best friend while Becky was away. Becky’s feeling rather blue—when her parents deliver some incredible news. She has a long-lost sister! Becky is thrilled! She’s convinced her sister will be a true soulmate. They’ll go shopping together, have manicures together.…Until she meets Jessica for the first time and gets the shock of her life. Surely Becky Bloomwood’s sister can’t…hate shopping?
Sophie Kinsella is a former financial journalist and the author of the bestselling novels Confessions of a Shopaholic, Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, Shopaholic Ties the Knot, Can You Keep a Secret?, and The Undomestic Goddess. She lives in England, where she is at work on her next book.
From Publishers WeeklyBecky Brandon (née Bloomwood) returns with a vengeance in bestseller Kinsella's fourth Shopaholic novel. Her 10-month globe-trot with hubby Luke was a shopping spree disguised as a honeymoon—heck, Becky will walk across hot coals for an aquamarine necklace (and thereby trick her Sri Lankan yogi into thinking she's achieved enlightenment)—but the problems of the real world (sort of) surface once the happy couple lands back in London. («Luke's penthouse has its own lift right to the front door, which is just so cool!»). Even lovely Luke's patience is supremely tried when those two truckloads of purchases show up. What's worse: Becky's best friend, Suze, has found a new best friend, and her parents have discovered another daughter. Seems Dad had a fling with a train stewardess back in the 1970s—and Jessica was the result. Becky is over the moon, picturing heart-to-heart talks, shopping excursions, sisters' nights out and so forth—so she's totally unprepared for the actual Jessica, a frugal environmentalist who (gasp!) actually hates shopping. Prattling Becky tries to charm her sis, but it doesn't seem to be working; meanwhile, Luke is preoccupied with his job, and then there's that stranger from Milan whom Becky owes for getting her that impossibly perfect Angel bag… what does he want with Luke? Of course everything will work out in the end—and there will be a nice message about the importance of friends and family—but this installment isn't as winning as its predecessors. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From BooklistBecky Bloomwood, shopaholic extraordinaire, is back. She and her new husband, Luke Brandon, have been on a whirlwind ten-month honeymoon that's taken them all around the world, but both are itching to get back to London. When they do return, Becky is disturbed to discover that her best friend has a new good buddy, and Becky's parents are acting strangely. It turns out that they've just learned that her dad fathered a child a few years before he met her mother. Becky is thrilled to learn she has a half-sister, until she meets Jess. Jess is nothing like Becky: her clothes aren't fashionable, she prefers dank caves to shoe stores, and she is incredibly frugal. After an awkward weekend together, the sisters part company on bad terms. To make matters worse, Becky's gotten herself into a pickle with a purchase that could put a strain on her marriage. Like the previous installments, Shopaholic & Sister is hilarious fun for Prada and Gucci aficionados. Kristine HuntleyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved