Mini Shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella

Goodreads Summary: Nothing comes between Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood) and her bargains. Neither act of God nor budget crunch can shatter her dreams of wall-to-wall Prada. Every milestone in her well-shopped life (travel, long-lost sister, marriage, pregnancy) inspires new vistas to explore in the name of retail therapy. But now she faces her greatest little challenge yet: Becky’s two-year-old daughter, Minnie.

While motherhood has been everything Becky dreamed it would be—Baby Dior, Little Marc Jacobs, and Dolce & Gabbana for toddlers—adorable Minnie is wreaking havoc everywhere she goes, from Harrods to her own christening. Her favorite word is “MINE!” and her penchant for Balenciaga bags, Chanel sunglasses, and online purchases has no rival under age five.

Becky is at her wits end. On top of this, she and her husband Luke are still living with her parents. Thankfully it appears house buying attempt number four is a go! Until a huge financial crisis causes panic everywhere, and nobody wants to shop—not Becky’s personal shopping clientele, not her friends, nobody. And with Luke in the doldrums, it’s time for Becky to step in—with a party: A surprise birthday party for Luke (on a budget) is the perfect antidote to everyone’s woes. At first.

Will Becky manage to keep the party of the year a surprise? Can she hire jugglers, fire-eaters, and acrobats at a discount? Will enlisting the help of Luke’s unflappable assistant to convince him to have another baby realize her dream of matching pom-poms? Will Minnie find a new outlet for her energetic and spirited nature (perhaps one with sixty percent markdowns)? She is, after all, a chip off the old shopping block. And everyone knows a committed shopper always finds a way.

Why I Read This Book: Next in a series that I have been keeping up with.

Review: To be honest, I found the majority of this book to be rather annoying. I would have classified the first few Shopaholic books as some of my favorite chick lit, so this disappointed me. I used to adore Becky, but her parenting got on my last nerve. Even more so than her, Becky's mother annoyed me in this book. I'm not sure if it's because I innately HATE bratty children, and I could see that Minnie was heading down that road, or if the addition of Minnie just ruined the story a bit. When it got nearer to the end of the book, I began to like it more, with most of it talking about the party rather than the child. Also, Becky's lying habits are getting annoying too, she lies to EVERYONE!! I get it sometimes, like trying to hide a party, but a lot of times its just so... well annoying (maybe I should get a thesaurus for the word 'annoying' for this post!!)
I think the only reason I even enjoyed this book enough to give it 3 stars is because of its predecessors instilling nostalgia, otherwise, it would have been a 2 for sure.

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