Shopaholic Takes Manhattan (Shopaholic Series #2) » (Reprint)

With her winning, witty series of Shopaholic books, British author Sophie Kinsella (real name: Madeline Wickham) has created nothing less than a phenomenon. As Entertainment Weekly puts it, "[Kinsella] gives chick-lit lovers a reason to stay home from the mall."

This expensive, glossy world is where I've been headed all along. Limos and flowers; waxed eyebrows and designer clothes from Barneys. These are my people; this is where I'm meant to be.

Publishers Weekly

The world is a different place since Helen Fielding triumphed on both sides of the Atlantic, but the torrent of benignly self-indulgent Bridget Jones's Diary knockoffs has not subsided. In this sequel to Kinsella's bestselling Confessions of a Shopaholic, Becky Bloomwood, a personal finance "expert" with her own TV show, is more of a financial mess than ever: she can't stop shopping, even though she can't afford anything. She's even assigned her flatmate, Suze, to monitor her spending, but to no avail: Becky is full of cute rationalizations, like "Foreign money doesn't count, so you can spend as much as you like," and can't stop herself from sneaking into posh boutiques. Her work-obsessed boyfriend, Luke, runs a financial PR agency, and when he gets the green light to open an office in New York City, he brings Becky along. Upon her arrival in the Big Apple, she euphorically discovers Barney's, Saks, Sephora and sample sales but when wind of her shopping excesses gets back to the British press, she loses both her relationship and her TV job. Becky manages to save the day in predictably winning fashion, with plenty of comic moments along the way. Sure, it's tongue-in-cheek and all in good fun but will the barrage of shopping hijinks be enough to hold readers this time around? Kinsella creates some winning characters, but the credit card and shopping bag action is wearing dangerously thin. (Feb. 5) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.