Mini Shopaholic By Sophie Kinsella Book Review
“You won’t let me buy any clothes. Now you won’t let me buy a road map, either!
I need to spend some money or I’m going to go crazy!”
About
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
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Synopsis
Becky Brandon thinks that having a daughter is a dream come true: a shopping friend for life! But two-year-old Minnie has a quite different approach to shopping. The toddler creates havoc everywhere she goes, from Harrods to her own christening. On top of everything else, Becky and Luke are still living with her parents (the deal on house #4 has fallen through), when suddenly there’s a huge nationwide financial crisis.
With people having to cut back, Becky decides to throw a surprise party for Luke to cheer everyone up. But when costs start to spiral out of control, she must decide whether to accept help from an unexpected source—and therefore run the risk of hurting the person she loves. Will Becky be able to pull off the celebration of the year? Will she and Luke ever find a home of their own? Will Minnie ever learn to behave? And . . . most important . . . will Becky’s secret wishes ever come true?
Review
Spoilers Contained Below
To the Shopaholics—-mini and tall,
There are not enough words to reiterate the love I have for Becky Bloomwood (neé Brandon). There literally isn’t a character that I haven’t related to so much and laughed so hard from.
Becky as a shopper is hilarious, but Becky as a mother is a whole different story and it was just as fun. When I first started to write this blog post, what really stood out to me was how this book was called Mini Shopaholic and the daughter’s name is Minnie. Get it? 😉 I don’t know if the naming was intentional or not, but I thought it was very clever.
Minnie is going through her terrible twos of tantrums and doing mischievous things like buying 16 huge jackets from Becky’s computer that was left open. She even got banned from the mall many times and during her Christening she stole all the women’s purses and emptied them out. Luke thinks that Minnie is wild and needs more discipline and he’s not wrong, but I don’t think he understands that Minnie is just a kid and is going through things so he needs to cut her some slack.
Then it brings up this whole conversation if Minnie is spoiled, which I just want to say, she is not. I think that to some degree, maybe she might be, but I think it’s because Becky spoils her. But I mean, what parent doesn’t spoil their first child because they want the best for them? It’s a natural parent instinct. Becky really buys Minnie all the high designer expensive things and doesn’t get less for Minnie, which is kind of pricey as you ask me, but I guess if you got the money to buy Chanel and Dolce Gabbana for you kid, then by all means, keep the economy going. But I don’t know about you, but as a kid I wore Gymboree or something from Gap or Walmart 😂. It’s funny though how Minnie knew what a Visa card was or how she knew all these name brands too. I also thought it was hilarious that Becky started this whole pocket money thing as an excuse to teach Minnie how to save/manage money, but really she used Minnie’s pocket money to buy her things for future purposes. I thought the whole idea was smart because kids like using coins to get simple things like candy and the stickers from those machines, not really a leather purse or a rocking horse. And the pocket money does start teaching the kid about money, but the fact that Becky would spend Minnie’s pocket money as an investment was utterly BECKY! And she wonders why she’s in debt? Her daughter was in debt too! I loved it when Nanny Sue came along and told Becky that if Minnie was investing her pocket money, she would have paid it off by 2103!
That really put things in perspective for Becky. Becky even bought that one dress she liked in her size for Minnie to wear in the future and she even created this whole idea in her head that Minnie will thank her down the line for getting her that dress at the time. She might, she might not, but we all know that Becky bought that dress for her.
But I have to give Becky some credit because in this book, she really restricted herself and cut back on the shopping. The economy had a scare, so many people had to make cutbacks, even Becky’s mom and dad who argued about no longer buying the best coffee or jams. Upon hearing about the idea to cut back to save money during these fragile times, Luke told Becky that she had to wear all her clothes in her closet three times before she could buy something new. Becky promised him that because he gave up his present to himself of a new car when they finally fell out of the deal with nasty Accords. If there’s one thing Becky does as good as shopping, I think it’s keeping a promise.
Becky would shop online, but she would never buy anything and whenever she went to the stores, she never purchased one thing directly for her. But she would purchase things for Minnie and as with the dress, purchase things for Minnie that were indirectly for her. It was a smart idea, but still, Becky was shopping. I also loved how at the Look (the shop she works at) since everyone wasn’t shopping anymore either, she created this secret shopping thing for wives like her to shop in, well, secret. It’s such a clever idea if you think about it, to buy something and have it shipped in a box that says paper or tampons on it because no husband’s going to be boring enough to open a box full of paper or a box full of tampons 😂. I also really loved how when Becky got fired for doing the secret shopping thing without her bosses permission, that all her customers went to the store to return what they bought as a boycott unless they hired Becky back. That’s how you know you have loyal customers! Becky’s true calling was being a personal shopper in all honesty because no one does shopping better than her.
Along with this whole Becky trying to curb her shopping, she and Luke are also trying to figure out ways to make Minnie more behaved and less spoiled. So they hired this nanny, much to the offense of Becky’s mom who thinks nannies are unnecessary. Becky’s over the moon to have a nanny though so that Minnie can have top of the notch care with someone and so she can be ahead of her age. The nanny who came apparently was supposed to teach Minnie Mandarin, which I guess, there’s nothing wrong with teaching a two-year-old Mandarin if that child’s Chinese. Really, they didn’t need to force all these things on Minnie, she’s just a kid. But I loved how Becky put on this whole show for the nanny in making out things were a-okay and how Minnie was an angel who loved vegetables and who wrote poetry. Gosh, the only type of poetry I probably did at two years old was rhyming dog with log or something like that. I can’t believe the nanny actually bought it when Becky told her all those ridiculous poems that came straight out of a greeting card or something. No way a two-year-old is that introspective. If they are, that’s pretty impressive. The funniest part with the nanny was when Becky went shopping at the pound store with her mom, Jess, and Janice, and then they came home to the flustered nanny. Poor girl, I felt terrible for her because here she was thinking Minnie was an intelligent angel and now she’s not. I wanted to give that nanny a hug. But I also completely cracked up when the nanny was like, “I was trying to feed Minnie carrots,” and then when she wasn’t looking, Becky took a carrot and shoved it into her mouth. Then when the nanny went to go help Becky with her shopping bags and came back into the kitchen, Becky was turned around, Chipmunk cheeks and all full of carrots. And I was LAUGHING! Then Becky turned around and the nanny saw that she was eating the carrots for Minnie and she confronted Becky about it, who says she was just helping Minnie and then two carrots fell out of her mouth 😂 What a mother!
Then there was the Nanny Sue from the television who’s kind of like this nanny show I used to watch on Lifetime. Becky called her Nazi Sue 😂 because apparently she came to your house, made you confess your feelings, and then you break down in tears and then promise to change and all that. Becky was also scared that Nanny Sue would whisk away Minnie to some boot camp for behavioral issues. Do they really take two-year-olds away from their parents to a boot camp? I don’t think that’s very legal or safe and no one in their right mind would do that to their kid. A dog, maybe, a living, breathing two-year-old child, heck to the no!
Becky put on a show for her too and feigned being this perfect, homely, sophisticated mother-daughter relationship where they go on walks and point at the squirrels or the trees. Or how they dressed in fancy clothing. That Nanny was not buying it whatsoever because I wasn’t. Then they drove past this mall, which was obviously testing Becky’s willpower because there was a sale and they were giving away free things, so Becky, of course, went down and got the free things. She didn’t buy anything directly for herself, but she did buy that dress I was talking about earlier for her. Then later Nanny Sue came back and was like Minnie’s a good kid and is normal for her age, but she did notice something weird about Becky. Apparently she reordered the whole day and how Becky’s hands were shaking when she saw the shops and how she might have an addiction. Really? 🙀 That’s sarcasm by the way. Then Nanny Sue recommended that Becky go to this adult boot camp for her addiction, which sounds more reasonable for an adult, but what surprised me the most was how Becky was going to do it
Above all of this, there were the secret meetings with Elinor at the Ritz. Elinor came back into their lives after going to Becky’s workplace one day and claiming she wanted to see her granddaughter, which I thought was nice because at least she cared and had a heart somewhere in her witch body. I don’t completely like Elinor because of how lowly she spoke of Luke’s stepmom, Annabel, or how rude she was to Becky, but in this book, there was just a vulnerability and honest part of her that made you see her as a person and not cold. She seemed scared whenever Minnie was there like she wanted to make the best impressions of herself to Minnie and to not let her down after she let so many people in her life down already. I also thought it was funny how she had teas and sandwiches in fancy cups and plates set out for Minnie like a two-year-old can be trusted with those types of things. What was surprising was the level of responsiveness that Minnie had to Elinor and how she listened to her even though she didn’t really know her. Throughout the whole book, Minnie is seen as this little raging tornado of a kid, but whenever she was with Elinor there was a part of Minnie that seemed calm and interested in the high class things Elinor was doing like the teas, the sandwiches, the shopping, and the puzzles. The puzzles were interesting because Minnie liked them so much. But I think maybe Minnie softened Elinor and Elinor tamed Minnie and it’s such a cute relationship that I hope can build up with time.
Elinor also had such a huge role to play with the other thing going on in this book—–because gosh knows a lot happens in this book.
The surprise party for Luke’s birthday.
It first comes to light as an idea to have Minnie’s Christening instead after people ran out after the first one when the banks went down and can I say the first Christening was beyond funny with how everyone was dragging the whole thing out because Luke wasn’t there yet and they all gave these speeches and how Danny sang Eminem. The Priest was getting mad but it was funny. Minnie got baptized on that day though because the Priest came back and finished it, but Becky still wanted to throw a surprise party for Luke because he never celebrates, let alone remembers his birthday.
So it becomes this whole secret endeavor that gets dragged on in the best possible way. There were the secret meetings with his secretary, Bonnie, who is such a star if you ask me how she became friends with Becky and how she helped Becky re-arrange meetings and keep everything under wraps. I also liked how we see Bonnie as a real person who wants friends and not just a side character in this book. Then there was the meeting where Becky was near Luke’s office and he thought she was shopping or being suspicious and she came up with the utterly most RIDICULOUS excuse that she was getting botox in her face and her chest and I right about cackled! But what was soooo sweet was how Luke was like Becky. You don’t need to change a thing about who you are and he gave this whole loving speech that he loves her the way she is and it was very cute and reassuring even if Becky really wasn’t getting botox.
Part of planning this party was being on a budget and that meant bartering—-something she took up from Jess. So she barters for this tent from a girl whose dad actually sells the tents and a fire breather and juggler who weren’t actually fire breathers or jugglers, but teens who just happened to watch a video online and pretended to know how. I mean, they were smart about it. And Becky was so sweet to them in letting them keep her things, but that just meant she had less extravagance for her party.
The dad of the girl who said she would trade Becky a purse for a tent came through and gave her a ratty tent with holes in it, which made Becky go ballistic because she couldn’t have people coming to a high class party to stand under a tent with holes in it. Then she tried buying these cheap party favors from the pound store and all these different things and I felt for Becky because she was trying to do such a nice thing for her husband, but it just seemed like the odds were against her.
Heck, even the day itself was complicated with the whole there being a meeting with this important person in Paris thing. And I was like DARN, cut Becky a break.
But you know who was her saving grace?
Elinor.
Which just made me have such a newfound respect for that woman in how she helped Becky with the venue, the food, the decor, the planning, moving the Paris meeting up, and the financial aspect of the whole party. Like she did so much and she didn’t get any credit for it and in some ways, that’s odd for Elinor, but it was just so selfless. I think that even though she was never the best mother to Luke or mother in law to Becky, part of her did care so much about them because she wouldn’t have done any of those things if she didn’t care. But it also begs the question if she did those things out of regret or pity or trying to make amends for all the times she was a bad mother. Who knows? But it just proved that there was a good bone in her body.
At the party, I found it so sad when she was locked in that room and she was just looking at people enjoying themselves and how Suze had a car ready to take Elinor home. Elinor stayed and saw that Luke liked it and only then did she leave because she felt like her job was done. Becky wanted to tell everyone, especially Luke that she was the one who helped her A LOT with everything, but Becky knew that wasn’t her secret to tell. I liked how Becky respected Elinor’s confidence in not saying anything, but it just broke my heart because Luke was sooooo happy and said he knew Becky had helped. Luke thought it was Tarquin and Suze who helped Becky—-which they did—-but it was his mom. If only he knew how much his mom really loved him 😿.
The whole party went off with such a bang and such a countdown. Like literally each day that it got closer to Luke’s birthday, the more anxious and on guard Becky was about everything. And then the email went out to everyone about it being Luke’s birthday and everything and GOSH, I felt so bad for Becky because she was so close. But you know Becky, she would not go down without a fight. So she blocked the internet from Luke!
I MEAN WHAT A TROOOPER 👏🏼!
I found it completely hilarious when she said she needed to borrow Luke’s phone and then she broke it so he wouldn’t check his emails or how his computer broke down or something, so Bonnie and Becky gave him a fake computer that didn’t go onto his email or the internet. I loved how Bonnie also had fake random emails go to his email to keep him busy. Then Becky tried to lure him in with “making a second child” so that Luke would be distracted enough not to check his emails. Which kind of brings me to the topic of how Luke didn’t want to try for a second child because Minnie was so rowdy but also because he didn’t know if he could love his next child as much as the first. I get that that’s a hard thing to think about as a parent and I just wanted to hug Luke and tell him that he would and it’s okay. But back to how Becky even called a friend to fake a crisis in the mountains where Luke would go to comfort him. SOOOOO FUNNY 😂!
I also loved how the famous person called Becky and was like, “I can help keep him distracted on set.” I mean, what a star (literally). But that whole day was so chaotic with Becky making sure Luke stayed with Saylor (I think is the celebrities name) and while setting everything up. And Becky was so close to having everything right until Luke took off to go to a hotel where he wanted to meet Becky and Minnie and celebrate his birthday. Of all birthdays he wanted to celebrate, he had to celebrate this one? Becky and the family helped stall him more and she had to improvise because he wanted to do some “fun” things, and on any other day, Becky would have, but she had a surprise waiting at home.
Becky cracked me up though with her excuses of how they needed to “do it” fast because that’s how you make a boy and Minnie would love a brother. What bologna, but funny. I was just surprised Luke sort of believed Becky.
But whaBut what completely sucked was when they were on the way back to the house when this person on the street talked to Luke and was like, “Well, hope you had a nice celebration or something,” and I was slapping my forehead on the table! NO NO NO NO NO!
Becky had come too far just to let one man ruin her surprise! I felt utterly terrible because then Luke knew and I was like UGGGGGHHHH!
After all the secrets and the lies, it wasn’t even a surprise anymore. But Becky made the most of the situation because Luke knew about the party, but he didn’t know what the party would entail. I thought it was cute he tried to fake surprise at the party and how everything was put together all nicely. But what really got me was when Becky surprised us.
I mean, I truly did not see that one coming.
She had a party bus that drove Luke and all the guests to Suze and Tarquin’s house where the party was really at. Everything was decorated like a doll house and everyone wore costumes and everything to remind Luke of the dollhouse that Annabel gave Luke when he was younger. My heart really melted because that just showed so much thought and care into the party. I was not expecting to be moved to tears but I was. I loved how everything worked out for Becky and Luke and how they were going to go to Los Angeles now.
Imagine the shopping that Becky could do there 😳
I think it’s quite good that they go to Los Angeles too because they don’t really have a house in London after all their deals fell through. They really have the roughest luck when it comes to buying houses. Like what are the chances that all the offers were bad or that the house they wanted was owned already by someone else. I felt bad for Becky too because her mom and dad seemed so eager to have her out the house, so Becky felt the need to lie to them and tell them they were moving out sooner than they thought. So they moved out two weeks later and the parents are all proud and crying. They even gave Becky this one painting that Becky would stare at all the time and the mom said she would give it to Becky once she had her own house. It hurt Becky to lie to her mom and accept that painting, but I think part of her was hurt too that her mom wanted her gone in the first place.
It made it worse when they followed her to her new house after telling them not to. They were going to rent a space, but again, that fell through, so the mover guy was sooooo nice and would drive around in circles and try to lose the parents for Becky. I also thought it was funny how they made up how the mover needed to have his lunch and so they stopped at a cafe nearby and ate slowly and for so long as Luke sorted out everything. The parents were getting irritated because how could the mover just eat and how could Becky just forget her address. It was just such an awkward and funny situation.
Eventually, Becky did tell her mom and they had a row, but they worked it out. I feel like in this book, the mom and Becky really had a rough patch with Becky getting outside help with a nanny and keeping secrets such as renting. I think from Becky’s perspective she just felt bad because she was supposed to be an independent grown woman and she didn’t want to seem like she needed help or that she couldn’t own a house, so she lied and kept secrets. She just wanted to make her mom proud. But Becky is such a good person even if her spending intentions aren’t always the best.
I also loved how Janice and Jess got along because that was a long time coming. It was so Jess and Tom of them to come back from Chile, engaged with a ring, and married without having the least bit of enthusiasm. Like couldn’t they understand what exciting news being married is and how the family would want to be included or know about it. I like that they married on their terms, but gosh, at least jump for joy when you see everyone and say you’re married.
Janice is truly the neighbor you love, but want them to go away at the same time.
I likedher most of the time. I didn’t like how she kept trying to push Jess into having a baby with the whole fertile tea or the taking the condoms in the drawer thing. It’s Jess’s body and their decision and I think it wasn’t Janice’s place to impose like that. But I liked how she came around to Tom and Jess adopting once she saw the pictures of the child. It was sweet.
I liked how good everything was, from the laughter to the surprise birthday party. Maybe a surprise baby is on the way too 😉.
If you read this book, what was your favorite or least favorite part? What part made you laugh until you cried? And has someone ever threw you a surprise party before and how did that go? Let me know as I love hearing from you all 💕
I hope you have a beautiful, wonderful, and bright day whenever and wherever you’re reading this.
And as always, with love,
Rating
4.56 Full Bloom Flowers
Characters: I will always love everyone in the Shopaholic series because there’s such a diverse array of personalities—-all of them larger than life. But I really enjoyed the story arc of Elinor and seeing Bonnie.
Plot: Not as intriguing as a plot as the other Shopaholic books, but I loved it just the same. A simpler plot, if you will that’s fun and lighthearted.
Writing: So easy to fall into and follow along on the rollercoaster of ups and downs Becky experiences.
Humor: Becky Bloomwood never fails to put a smile on my face