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Shopaholic to the Rescue book coverShopaholic Hits the Restart Button – Is Becky Coming Back?

Author: Sophie Kinsella

Still experiencing the fallout from her ruined Hollywood career and strained family relations, Becky Brandon’s hapless adventures in Wild West America continue in a tour of apologizes, forced secrets, and shopping shame in Shopaholic to the Rescue. The former Shopaholic turned temporary diva is back to being a wife and mother, realizing that everything is in a shambles right now because of her retreat from reality into the high life. Our normally spirited spender is down and out, torn between an angry mother and ex-best-friend turned frenemy. Her father is missing, touring the West secretly to “put something right” and Suze’s mealy husband, Tarkie, is on the run with him – and also sort of part of a cult now. With rumors and speculation flying, it’s hard to get agreement, but everyone believes that Becky’s self-absorption during her Hollywood stint is the central cause of all the chaos. She was asleep at the wheel when her father needed her most and she introduced Tarkie to the charismatic extortionist, Brandon, after all.

Now Becky’s stuck with an RV load full of fuming family and friends, driving across California, searching for her father and Tarkie, trying to unravel her dad’s secret past and the real reason behind Suze’s marital strife. Along the way, hijinks, hapless plans, convoluted logic, and weirdness in the West pervade, making this more serious, emotional Shopaholic adventure still kitschy and cute in that “Oh Becky, you didn’t” way that we love. Did I mention that Suze’s new bestie and Becky’s sworn enemy, Alicia Bitch-Long-Legs, is now Little Miss Zen and along for the ride. Only Becky knows better than to buy her rival’s sudden sense of tranquility. There’s a hook buried under all of this emotional backstabbing, if only Suze will listen!

Transitioning from the former hokyness of Shopaholic to the StarsKinsella still hasn’t fully re-captured the former glory days of the series with Shopaholic to the Rescue. The first few Shopaholics, up until Becky has Minnie, are focused on real life problems that we can all relate to – annoying jobs, bad habits, sticky finances, best friend fiascos, and relationship drama – the later part of the series has disappeared off into a bubble of fictional soap-opera people’s lives. Everyone has too much money, too much time, and too many exotic adventures. Work is no longer a necessity and the convoluted situations our cast of lovable characters finds themselves in are . . . well . . . only something that could happen in a book. That being said, Kinsella has started to hear her fans whining voices and Becky has been brought back to a more realistic level.

In some ways, Shopaholic to the Rescue is the definite bummer of the series, a figurative reset where we undo all the Hollywood drama and try to get back to the feelings and good intentions of the characters which initially captivated us. For that reason, we’re dealing with a lot of guilt, spun off in a somewhat funny way – Becky has lost all interest in shopping and her now concerned family are trying to coax her back to the beautiful world of merchandise. It’s all self-forgiveness, making amends, and moving on. The emotional satisfaction of seeing the characters get back together promises readers that good books and further Becky adventures are to come.

That being said, while the emotional roller-coaster may leave us with some satisfying resolutions and tie up all the loose knots from Shopaholic’s downright stupid trip to America, the book still has issues. Ultimately, it’s all baby steps – Kinsella is coming back and we can feel the series transitioning back to a place where it can hit the restart button, but there are glitches, pitfalls, and some left-over, annoying Hollywood characters (aka Danny). Also, Kinsella does seem to cave to some overwhelming LA love in a touristy I’ve-watched-The-Hangover-but-never-been sort of way.

First: the dad’s quest and the big cliff-hanger from Shopaholic to the Stars is, predictably, an epic disappointment. The supposedly sordid, life altering secret is anti-climatic, the entire impetus unbelievable, and the resolution happily-ever-after as expected. Even in Shopaholic to the Stars, Becky’s dad’s dilemma was uninteresting to me, as were the multiple Becky’s. The set-up is so obvious, as is the fact that the author is toying with us, expecting us to forget that this is a comedy and nothing is as bad as it seems. Beyond that, the story, when revealed, is simply uninspiring and it’s hard to get an emotional hold on it and to become involved with the unnecessarily complicated addition of a pretty large cast of barely introduced characters from the past. Did I mention it’s also completely not believable?

What’s most unbelievable, however, and gets readers a little riled is the Suze and Tarkie side-story. Suze’s betrayal of Becky with her sudden, intense friendship with Alyssa Bitch-Long-Legs is explained only through a larger betrayal which is out-of-character. It does make for some jaw dropping and some righteous reader resentment (we hate Suze for her treatment of Becky and are totally into the my-bestie-ditched me vibe, mostly because this is one of the rare moments where the drama becomes relatable again). The reveal of all the why behind it and the Tarkie and Suze fallout, however, is a step too far. There weren’t grounds laid for this particular strife and the seriousness of the offense deflates a lot of the fun in the series and, admittedly, our respect and understanding for a long-term character.

Becky’s general depression and malaise is mostly relatable and humanizing, yet as the novel whirs towards a shaky conclusion, her sudden side-story, one-sentence confession leaves readers stunned and looking up on Google to see if we missed a book in-between. Becky’s dissatisfaction isn’t just from letting her family down, but from a big unfulfilled desire that WAS NEVER MENTIONED BEFORE. Or, you know, even hinted at or built up in any way whatsoever.

Nevertheless, readers have fun, and stand by the series “warts and all” as it were. Enough of the original verve and emotion is still potently depicted in Shopaholic to the Rescue so that even though we shake our heads and huff “oh, really” we still somewhat buy into what the characters are feeling and experiencing. Our desire to see them reunited despite the over-done drama says something about Kinsella’s ability to keep beloved characters vivid and catch readers up in a story – even one that isn’t her best. There are laughs and funny moments along the way, breathless escapes and the expected silliness mixed along with some sadness and redemption. Not my favorite Shopaholic but certainly better than the previous two. My hopes have been raised again. Proceed Kinsella, proceed.

– Frances Carden

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Frances Carden
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