The Blurb:

 ”Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood) thought motherhood would be a breeze and that having a daughter was a dream come true a shopping friend for life!

But it s trickier than she thought two-year-old Minnie has a quite different approach to shopping. She can create havoc everywhere from Harrods to Harvey Nicks to her own christening. She hires taxis at random, her favourite word is Mine , and she s even started bidding for designer bags on ebay.

On top of everything else, there s a big financial crisis. People are having to Cut Back including all of Becky s personal shopping clients and she and Luke are still living with Becky s Mum and Dad. To cheer everyone up, Becky decides to throw a surprise birthday party on a budget but then things become really complicated.

Who will end up on the naughty step, who will get a gold star and will Becky s secret wishes come true?”

(source: Amazon)

What I thought:

She’s ba-aack! And this time she has a mini-me in tow. My very favourite Calamity-Jane, Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood), is double trouble in this latest giggle-fest as hanging on to her Gucci coat tails is two year old Minnie, who comes complete with her own very finely tuned shopping instincts.

I have been literally chomping at the bit since I found out that this book was coming out. I am a HUGE Sophie Kinsella fan – she is one of my favourite authors, chicklit or otherwise, as every single one of her books (and I’ve read them all) make me laugh out loud and they are the ultimate tonic for me. I knew this book wouldn’t deviate from my expectations and I was right.

 Mini Shopaholic starts, as you might expect, in a shopping mall where young Minnie is wrestling with Becky over a toy pony that she just has to have! Becky is trying to look like the responsible parent in public and tries reasoning with a increasinly loud Minnie. When this doesn’t appear to have any affect, and Becky also realises that the pony is, in fact, gorgeous and Minnie really should have one, she devises a pocket money plan for Minnie whereby she will get 50p per week and as she will be backdating this to the day of her birth, she can afford to buy the pony now! Result!

This is only the beginning and what ensues is a cab-hailing Minnie with instructions to drive to Starbucks, the arrival of a nanny who quits after just one day, a TV personality called Nanny Sue who accompanies Becky and Minnie to a play area (which gets quickly forgotten when the cab pulls up at lights right outside a brand new shopping mall where every visitor gets a gift). In the middle of trying to assure Nanny Sue and the rest of the world that she can cope, Becky is also trying to arrange a surprise birthday party for Luke which just screams disaster from the start, especially while she has to deal with trying to prevent Minnie from bidding for designer shoes on ebay!

I just loved this book. Becky had me in stitches and hiding behind pillows cringing at the mess she gets herself into, in equal measures. If you’ve read the others in the series (and if not, why not?) then you MUST read this one – it’s hillarious, sweet and feel-good and I am already excited that the next book in the series has been nicely lined up at the end of this one (and when you read it and see why at the end, you just know you’re in for a real treat).

Here are my reviews of all the other books in the Shopaholic series and here are my reviews of Kinsella’s stand-alone books.

Have you read any of Sophie Kinsella’s books? What did you think? Are you looking forward to Mini Shopahoic coming out?

(I received my copy of this book for review from Bantam Press – thank you!)