Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

It has been a long time since I last read a book. In fact, I don't think I have read any book last month!

Anyway, Mini Shopaholic is a comedy novel written by Sophie Kinsella and is the sixth book in the Shopaholic series. Once again, it features the life of Becky Brandon, except that this is the first book in which Becky is a mother.

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Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed in this book. Many things that Becky do are just too stupid and immature! For example, there is part where she secretly eats all her daughter's carrots because she wants the nanny to think that her daughter eats all kinds of vegetables. She also tells the nanny tons of lies about her daughter's achievements just so that she looks good. Furthermore, when the nanny asks her whether there is any 'little problems' with her daughter, she refuses to tell the truth and says that her daughter has no behavioural problems at all. This is incredibly stupid because the sole reason that she has hired a nanny in the first place was because that her daughter had issues with her behaviours! If she isn't willing to admit that her daughter has problems, then how can the nanny help?

And that is nothing compared to the surprise party that she organizes. She just decides to throw a surprise party for her husband (Luke)'s birthday when there is an economic crisis in the country! And the party isn't just a simple party with a few family members and friends attending; it is a big, luxurious party that has over 200 guests! Even more, she wants to organize the whole thing by herself, and she clearly doesn't have a plan in mind when she has made this impulsive decision

Obviously she fails miserably. She doesn't have enough money, and she doesn't have the ability to add so many elements into the party. And things become even worse when she finds out that her husband has an extremely important business meeting on the day of the party. Ha, I thought when I read the part. Doesn't she know that her husband is a extremely busy businessman? Doesn't she know that his schedule is so variable that it is almost impossible to confirm that he will not be busy on a given day? This is what she deserves for making such a stupid and impulsive decision.

And then here comes the most annoying part. Suddenly all these important people just decide to help her. Her mother-in-law is so influential that she can persuade Luke's client to have the meeting some other time. And she also contributes a lot of money to make the party possible. There is also a celebrity who decides to help distract Luke so that Luke will not find out anything about the party and so that the party will remain as a surprise.

Speaking of the surprise element, I absolutely hate how Becky has to make this party a surprise. In order to do so, she makes so many lies and makes Luke's life so miserable during the days before the party. She "accidentally" breaks Luke's cellphone and computer, and she arranges a lot of meaningless stuff for Luke to do just so that Luke will have no chance to access the Internet (apparently this party becomes so famous that it is all over the news). Really, does she have absolutely no idea that all this weariness that she gives to Luke can greatly offset the joy of the surprise party?

Becky is just so stupid and immature that sometimes it makes the book a bit hard to read. The unrealistic plot of the story is also annoying. I really hate how Becky somehow always becomes successful and how miracles just happen all the time when she is in a miserable state. She never suffers from her mistakes and she never learns any lesson from her imbecilic behaviours/decisions.

Phew, that was a long rant. Fortunately the book isn't all bad, otherwise I wouldn't have finished it. Like all the previous books in the Shopaholic series, this book contains many funny moments. And luckily there are quite a lot of them to offset all the annoying moments in the book.