First of all... I'M NOT A CHICKLIT READER!
get that?

OK. *Most* Women love to shop.
I get that.
Why women love to shop and tend to buy something they don't actually need (useless?)
I don't get that.
Well, it's a "girl stuff" I guess and I don't wanna know :D

You see, dear, it is not true that woman was made from man's rib; she was really made from his funny bone. ~James Matthew Barrie~

That's how I felt about Becky's character, in another word; I like her. I know that some reader (girls) really, I mean really really hate her as a shallow person. Why I like her? It's simple, she make me laugh all the time. Especially when she explain (to me) the reason (in an exaggerated way) why she must buy something that she didn't need, so goddamn funny.

***********************************************

Yah, begitulah kelakuan si Becky. Penyakit gila belanjanya tambah parah aja. Tapi tetep lumayan lucu lah ceritanya. Ada kejadian yang bikin ngakak seperti Becky yang kudu ngibul kesana kemari gara2 Luke blom nongol juga di acara kawinan si Tom, terpelanting dari treadmill di gym gara2 sotoy, mabok kebanyakan minum anggur ketika wawancara, rencana ke museum Guggenheim yang gak jadi2 gara2 matanya "belanja" terus ke etalase toko. Akibatnya dia ribut besar dengan Luke, utangnya tambah banyak dan Becky harus menanggung akibatnya (salah sendiri sih). Trus catatan2 surat dari bank, perusahaan penerbangan, hotel yang ada dibuku ini juga bikin ngakak. Eh, Suze ama Tarquin? mwahaha... Duh, terusin ama buku ketiganya gak ya?
trusin? jangan?
trusin? jangan?
*ngitung kancing*

Kmaren2 di berita malam di tipi sempet liat trailer filmnya (buku kesatu). Katanya sih mo bredar bulan februari. Wah gimana nih? nonton? jangan?
nonton? jangan?
nonton? jangan?
*ngitung kancing*
moga-moga aja sodara ato adik gue minta anter nonton filmnya *gak terlalu berminat sih nontonnya* >:)
*Berdo'a dengan khusyuk mohon ampun*

Ya Tuhan, ampunilah hambaMu ini. Karena buku ini hambaMu ini untuk sesaat telah berubah sesat menjadi seorang tukang ngibul nomer wahid tiada tanding didepan seorang cewe imut demi untuk menyelamatkan harga dirinya.

Hehehe.. Gara-gara si Mimin sih...

I started with being annoyed with the main character (probably because I have some shopaholic tendencies myself). When the books changes from focusing on character development to an actual plot line, it changes the whole vibe. The author can tell a good story. So stick this one out if you give it a try.

For my full review, visit me at https://mrsbrownsbooks.wordpress.com/...

Reaching for another Sophie Kinsella book is like grabbing a blanket and snuggling under it: you know it will provide warmth and comfort. And this is exactly how I’ve come to view one of my favourite, go-to authors. I could read Sophie Kinsella all day! This second book in the ‘Shopaholic’ series continues to delight, even more so as it is now the second time I have read it.

For my full review, visit me at https://mrsbrownsbooks.wordpress.com/...

Before anything else, do bear in mind that this review will be quite a long one, okay?
Okay.

Now let me start by letting you all know that I actually loved the first book Confessions of a Shopaholic . I think it was hilarious and Becky’s weakness for shopping (to me, at that time) seems "bearable" and cute, even. And so were her attempts to earn and save money. But I must admit, at some point or another, it became partly annoying – considering how many times she tried to fix her life, but just (again) ended up falling into her bothering cravings

Still, I held no real grudge against it. I enjoyed it and vowed to read the sequel as soon as possible – since I also got really curious + interested particularly in Rebecca and Luke’s relationship.

But…
Shopaholic takes Manhattan was depressing. Why so? I have my list and reasons, don’t you worry.

Number One. It seems as though Becky didn't learn any freaking thing at all.

She’s still in freaking debts, and what makes it worse is that she’s, in fact, a freaking television financial guru. I mean, come on, she's old enough to have at least learned something. Both from her past experiences and from what she's been saying in The Morning Coffee. I could barely stand how unrealistically careless she is or was becoming.


Number Two. She keeps on lying, and that just... ticks me off.

She lies to her best friend... to Kent Garland and Judd Westbrook (in her interview)... to her parents... to Lucy and Tom, (and to the guests in their wedding)... to Janice and Martin…
In fact, she lies to practically everybody .

And she constantly lies to her boyfriend, Luke. I mean, the number of times she has done it was just alarming. Alarming.

And then, there's this one part:

“Stop it!” I cry frustratedly. “Luke, I’m not some stranger! We’re going to live together, for goodness sake!”

me: http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5pqzz...
um... so now you go fuming about how he doesn’t trust you? Good Lord. The hypocrisy....
-
Then I found myself being so annoyed with Rebecca's character that I actually stopped reading at the end of Chapter 10, (page 230 plus or something like that) and I did not dare open the book for a couple of days. However, I felt compelled to finish it anyway, because I hate not finishing a book. *groans*

-
And then again, I found myself being alone in our school campus (when we were dismissed) while I was waiting for my mother. I have this book in my bag, and so... I continued reading it.

-
I'll proceed to #3: I don't understand her most of the time at times.

For instance, when she went to New York:

“My old life seems a million, zillion miles away, like a tiny dot on the horizon. Mum and Dad and Suze… my untidy room in Fulham… EastEnders with a pizza… I mean, let’s face it. That was never really me, was it?”  (page 256)

… Oh. Yeah, I guess so. And that's because you’ve become more big-headed and egocentric...

Number Four. She’s so ambitious to the point where it drives me mad.
Fine, there's nothing wrong with hoping and perhaps a little assuming, but hers were just too…childlike. Sometimes, I wonder if she even uses her head. (ok i appear mean now but it's the truth lol)

“Maybe they want to take me on board as a features consultant. Or train me to become a producer!” (p. 318)

why on earth would they find the need to train you as their producer if they can just simply hire a professional producer somewhere else

“Will they offer my old job back after all? Will they offer me a different job? Maybe they’ll upgrade me! Maybe they’ll give me my own show!” (p. 315) http://media.tumblr.com/28f64288cbd40...

“As I’m opening the envelope, I feel a huge leap of hope. Maybe they’re offering me a new job. Something with a huge salary, enough to pay off my debts straight away. Maybe they’ve sacked Emma and I’m going to take her place as the main presenter!”

what the actual… she actually managed to think of such foolishness after her The Daily World fiasco..(?!)
Rebecca Bloomwood, can you pretty please be a darling and tell us all that that thing didn't really even cross your mind and you're just messing with us all? ...... uhm, no? ok.
But... sack Emma? http://media.tumblr.com/228ab7567d4ea...
what on earth were you thinking..... Do you even believe that they’d just sack people – not to mention, EMMA – just to be replaced by someone whom almost the whole of Britain regard as a… hypocrite and a liar? (again, not to be mean but that’s the truth) Again, good Lord.

Five. She keeps on making promises which were rarely fulfilled.
Promise here, promise there – and none ever made unless she’s at the point of being sentenced to court, or something like that.
She promised to Suze more than a dozen times. She did attempt to keep the promise, I'd give her tha, but you can also see that it was just not enough and that she wasn't really into it. Then, yet again, she lied about it and denies it. Because that's typical Rebecca. Always pissing off, even if she's basically a fictional character.

Another one:

“I’m going to pay off my debts. I don’t know how – but I’m going to do it. I’ll take an extra job waitressing, maybe. Or I’ll get down to it, and finish my self-help book.”

Really. Then how come after you made that sudden life realization of yours, you only came up with 500 pathetic words for your self-help book? That doesn’t even get to make at least half the amount of words this book review of mine contains. And suggesting that they could just “pad out the rest with photographs”?....


Six. It seems like she changes just because she’s determined to prove herself to others more than because she wants to help herself.

“As we walk home, I feel almost high with determination. I’ll show him. I‘ll show that John Gavin. And all of them. The whole world.” (page 303)

She always always always find the need to prove herself to people. How about you get your life mended because you want it to be and because you’re sick of your bad habit and you’re willing to help yourself because you realized you want a better life - rather than mending it just for the sake of proving yourself and something to people who actually do not give a f***. really care.

Seven. And some more lies…

“It’s all going really well, actually. I’ve got great prospects, and the producers really like me… they’re thinking of expanding my slot…”

and those great prospects and so-called producers, sadly, do not exist.
Now tell me, what good would your endless lies bring you? You’re already torn apart and you still manage to think of lies? You've got to have a reward for that. That's multi-tasking! But seriously. A mistake cannot be corrected by another mistake, Ms. Bloomwood.

--------
Okay, so that’s mostly the summary of my “negative” opinions with regards to this book by Sophie Kinsella. Perhaps I may proceed now to "the positive side"....

The Positive Side
Uhm... let me see.
*trying to compose all my positive opinions: http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lf6jz2...*

Uhm,
I really like Luke. And Suze. Those two are actually probably the only reasons why I’m determined to finish this book (aside from me hating not finishing a book).

So that’s it, I suppose...
yay.

Oh, and also, I kind of liked the ending - wherein Rebecca learned to let go and sold all her (precious) things, because that just proves that she was determined to fix her life and hold herself back together after all. See, we can actually learn something from this book haha.

Rating
Honestly, I’d give it a one-star rating on a first-thought basis especially if I were deciding this while reading the most annoying parts of the book, and also since two-stars means “It was okay” and almost more than half of the entire time I was reading it, I felt that it was not at all okay . I know I might sound harsh, but I’m just saying what I felt about this book. I never give a one-star rating, though, and I don’t like to because that seems extra harsh, and, alright, for a few pages I must admit, I was at least entertained and as I had mentioned earlier, I liked the ending – so let me give it a 2 to give it justice (since I obviously cannot give it a 3 because it's as though I would be lying to myself and to everybody.)

(But actually, I was thinking it's more of a 2.5)



Last message would be:
If you didn't like Confessions of a Shopaholic because of the main character's (Rebecca) attitude, then you'd better not read this at all. I believe you'd just end up hating it worse. But if you want a light read, you can go for it though I advise you to not expect too much, and if you find her bearable in Confessions of a Shopaholic , then… good luck with this second book.

This is the sequel of The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic. It's funny, entertaining but somehow highly predictable. I guess that if you read the first book you will know how the second develops and ends. Becky gets in trouble once again for spending a lot of money on clothes. Shocker! You would think that she would have learned her lesson the first time around, but she's an aholic and I guess it's an aholic's natural condition to be unable to resist their aholic temptation, especially when their aholic disease goes untreated and unsupervised. In any case, once again, Becky's sheer determination saves her from going bankrupt and, adamant to settle down for less than she wants, she even manages to kickstart her life again by having a change of career and of location. Oh, and she does get the boyfriend back. Major, major shocker. As I said, highly predictable and I'm starting to lose my compassion for someone who refuses to learn her lessons. I have the rest of the series to read (ahrf, three more shopaholic books on the shelf), but I'm going to leave them for later in the year because for the time being I've run out of compassion for Becky's kerfuffles.

Fun but not very... Slightly above average.

З самого початку книжки мене страшенно дратувала головна героїня, бо, знаючи, чим закінчилася попередня частина, я ніяк не могла зрозуміти, чому вона знову взялася за своє. Звісно, Бекі - шопоголік, але ж одного разу вона вже мало не зруйнувала собі життя своєю нестриманістю, а тепер ніби спеціально взялася довести цю справу до кінця, щоб перетворитися таки на повну банкрутку. До того ж Бекі постійно бреше. Тому й не дивно, що більшу частину "Шопоголіка на Мангетенні" дівчина аж вибішувала мене. Але наприкінці, коли події починають розвиватися вже дещо драматично і Бекі нарешті розуміє, до чого призвела її поведінка, ця героїня зрештою повертає мої симпатії і вже до кінця роману я щиро вболівала за неї.

I'm going on leave in three days time, and there's nothing like these lighthearted, almost over the top Shopaholic books to let my brain know that it's holiday time. I'm not reading these sequentially, so this is actually the oldest in the series I've read, and I must I prefer the newer editions as they don't focus on shopping quite as much. I adore Bridget Jones, and this is the poor man's version - perfect beach reads.

Becky and Luke are a couple now. I honestly didn't care much about the romance in the first book and still didn't really care about it in this. Becky still has a tiny addiction with shopping.

Becky really annoyed me in the first book but I found narration to be enjoyable but this felt a little too flat and parts of the book felt very similar to the first book. Becky hasn't grown up at all.

I wanted to enjoy this as much as I enjoyed the first book but it just didn't happen. I will still read the next book in the series.

2.5 stars

Now a financial advisor on breakfast television Becky Bloomwood still has three serious problems, she loves shopping, she can't stop shopping and she shops to de-stress, and in this the sequel to Confessions of a Shopaholic, she finds herself in New York with lots of credit.. Ye Gads!!! Sometimes, the writing, the genre, and the core story concepts don't matter, al that matters, as in this case is a likeable but fallible character, and entertaining and relatively wide supporting cast. some great comedic scenes and at the heart of it a a fun and feel-good read.

The massive added bonus for me is that yet again this book is primarily a romantic-comedy minus the romantic, more a modern relationships-comedy. I don't know how anyone can read one of these books and not find themselves cheering our Becky as she yet again escape financial ruin... that's not a spoiler, you always knew she would, we're just here for the fun-ride. It's so refreshing to read a super best selling series and grasp exactly why it has sold so well and reached so many people. 7 out of 12.

2021 read

Reread, didn’t laugh quite as much as the first time, but I can’t help feeling warm inside when I read about Rebecca and her messy life.

“Visiting any shop for the first time is exciting. There's always that buzz as you push open the door; that hope; that belief - that this is going to be the shop of all shops, which will bring you everything you ever wanted, at magically low prices.”

I don't think I have given a book only one star before - but I don't think I have ever been so annoyed by a fictional character before either. The previous book was two stars with an unexpectedly strong ending. I read that one with my friend Carolyn and as we both enjoyed the final section, we opted to give this one a chance. Unfortunately, all the growth achieved at the end of the previous book was promptly abandoned and Rebecca continued to conduct her life with a kind of alarming stupidity. I just got to the point where every decision made me furious. I was also able to predict every single development, so there wasn't even any suspense. Carolyn gave it two-stars again and I dropped down to one.

Reading through the more positive reviews of this book, I see that many readers enjoy the escapism this series provides and I appreciate that. I have my own authors and series that I read for the same reason. I would have loved to have found this light, funny and breezy to read but I didn't.

The thing I think the author does best is ending on a note that makes me want to read the next book, despite my hatred of almost every moment that preceded those five or ten concluding pages. If I find the third book at a low price, I may continue the series but if I do my hopes will be rather lower than they were when I started this sequel.

Carolyn and I did have a lot of fun venting about everything we disliked with Carolyn, so the next book could at least provide entertainment in that regard. I saw some reviews mention that the earlier books are the weakest, so perhaps the author ditched some of the more unbelievable moments and made her lead characters a little more interesting.