I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

Goodreads Summary: I’ve lost it. :( The only thing in the world I wasn’t supposed to lose. My engagement ring. It’s been in Magnus’s family for three generations. And now the very same day his parents are coming, I’ve lost it. The very same day! Do not hyperventilate, Poppy. Stay positive :) !!
 
Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry her ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her “happily ever after” begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring in a hotel fire drill but in the panic that follows, her phone is stolen. As she paces shakily around the lobby, she spots an abandoned phone in a trash can. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number for the hotel to contact her when they find her ring. Perfect!
 
Well, perfect except that the phone’s owner, businessman Sam Roxton, doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back and doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading his messages and wading into his personal life.
 
What ensues is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly upend each other’s lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls, and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents . . . she soon realizes that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life
Why I Read This Book: I pretty much read all of Sophie Kinsella's books (or at least buy them, as I still have a few to read!) and I got this one as an ebook. Tragedy stuck while I was reading this though, because I stepped on, and broke, my ereader while I was reading this one! Writing this review reminds me of that awful time :*(

Review: Initially when I started this book, I was like, oh god, another self centered, whiny, panicky, heroine who has trouble remembering anything, and never tells the truth (I'm looking at you, Becky Bloomwood!). I used to like the Shopaholic books a lot, but the last one got on my last nerve. I was a little disappointed. But, as I persevered, I did really start to enjoy the book, the story ended up really growing on me. It is a very cute book, and Kinsella's excellent and adorable writing style sucked me in! I do hope that this is a stand alone book. I loved it just the way it was, and Poppy doesn't need a sequel!

Rating:

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.

Rating:

Shopaholic Series and "Cheap Chick-Lit"

The Shopaholic books by Sophie Kinsella are another series of novels which I have read all of (most of them more than once). They are great stories. I fancied myself a 'shopaholic' until I met Becky Bloomwood, then I realized I wasn't even close! These books are very entertaining. The series consists of 6 books (Confessions of a Shopaholic, Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, Shopaholic Ties the Knot, Shopaholic & Sister, Shopaholic & Baby, and finally Mini Shopaholic) the last of which I have yet to read. I'm choosing to write about them now, even without having read the latest installment as they highlight my love for chick-lit books. These are the first quintessential chick-lit books I read. I may have stumbled on some before, but didn't fully recognize them as such, therefore they didn't count.

Oh how I envied all that shopping, and Isla Fisher's gorgeous red hair

The entire series is a good read for a lazy day. Although embedded with some decent financial advice here and there, it's nothing more than a story. One which I have always liked. The movie version left a lot to be desired, which is why I assume we haven't be subjected to several sequels, however I would recommend the books to all my girlfriends (although I can't think of one who hasn't already read them). They are comfort reads which leave you literally laughing out loud at the ridiculous justifications to buy more stuff! That being said, its risky business to give the impression to so many readers that eventually you will figure out how to pay for it all with no real battle wounds, just a hilarious story to tell!

In my days as a university student, I didn't have a whole lot of money to buy books that didn't have titles such as "Organizational Behaviour" or "Intermediate Accounting" so I frequently visited the 'sale' table at Chapters and other book stores. $4.99 books were my BFF, and still now I feel compelled to browse it when I go in. Now I don't buy many books at all, since I have an e-reader. I have moved so many times that although books normally offer me comfort, their physical size and weight are such a burden. That being said, some of my most enjoyable reads have come from these inexpensive book tables. A notable find was Knocked Up by Rebecca Eckler. She describes 'The Fear' with such accuracy I leave my self thinking - I know EXACTLY how you feel!! (Not so much about the knocked up part, but every other aspect of The Fear!)

Oh heyyy, I used to be super fab and fit and drank with my friends
 all the time, but now I'm fat and all that other stuff that comes with being preggo

I like to think of books like this as "Beach Books" as I always imagine that I am on a fabulous vacation with nothing better to do than lay on the beach and read about the amusing lives of the various heroines in my "cheap chick-lit" collection. (Note: do not discount a book because it was on the "cheap" table, beause you have no idea what its going to be like) So, to bring this post back full circle and call it a review. GO BUY THIS BOOK NOW! You will pee yourself with laughter (if not, I assume you have no soul).

Also, since you will devour this book in mere minutes because of it fabulousness, I have included a few other of my cheap chick-lit finds for your amusement.