Christmas Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Synopsis

“Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood) adores Christmas. It’s always the same – Mum and Dad hosting, carols playing, Mum pretending she made the Christmas pudding, and the next-door neighbours coming round for sherry in their terrible festive jumpers. And now it’s even easier with online bargain-shopping sites – if you spend enough you even get free delivery. Sorted!

But this year looks set to be different. Unable to resist the draw of craft beer and smashed avocado, Becky’s parents are moving to ultra-trendy Shoreditch and have asked Becky if she’ll host Christmas this year. What could possibly go wrong? With sister Jess demanding a vegan turkey, husband Luke determined that he just wants aftershave again, and little Minnie insisting on a very specific picnic hamper – surely Becky can manage all this, as well as the surprise appearance of an old boyfriend and his pushy new girlfriend, whose motives are far from clear . . .Will chaos ensue, or will Becky manage to bring comfort and joy to Christmas?”

-Synopsis from Goodreads

Review

I was as excited, thrilled, really, as anyone to see that a new Shopaholic book would be coming out late last year. This is a series I have loved for years, as you can tell by the photo above – I now own every book in the series!

This book was classic Shopaholic, and classic Kinsella writing. If you are a fan either of hers or of this series, you will definitely enjoy this book. However, with that being said, and I really hate admitting this, but it wasn’t my favorite book of the series. I really was in love with books 1-5 and after that I don’t know what happened.

There was a lot that I loved about this book, and a lot that frankly left me scratching my head. A few spoilers, below…

Here’s what I loved: the Christmas Style Fair that Becky and Janice went to, the classic Becky-and-Jess butting heads over eco-friendly lifestyles, the Jane and Graham antics, not to mention the sweetness of Becky, Luke, and Minnie as a little family unit.

But there were some parts of the book that felt a little out of place and slightly unnecessary. Yes, I am talking about Becky’s ex-boyfriend Craig Curton, and the London Billiards Club. Both of those could have been taken out and the story would have been fine, not to mention about a hundred pages shorter! Shopaholic fans don’t need the threat of an old boyfriend, or the chase of the perfect gift for Luke that badly to be drawn into reading the book, everything classic Shopaholic was already there! Yes, both of these story lines allowed for some classic Becky Bloomwood stunts and antics, but they just didn’t really serve a purpose.

That aside, there were some really sweet moments in this book. My favorite was definitely when Becky was dressing Minnie up in the Denny and George scarves for the nativity play. We get such a sweet full circle moment with her telling Minnie about how she and Luke met. At this point, I thought surely that was a sign that this would be the final Shopaholic book. Then we reach the final page, and well I won’t give away this big of a spoiler but I seriously doubt after reading that that this will be the final book now.

In all, I liked this book and I’m giving it four stars on Goodreads, but it was just a little too long for me.