A ‘chick lit’ is now completely in. This is a novel for ladies between the ages of 20 and 30 that always deals with women’s issues. This can be about shopping, men and so on. Also ‘Shopaholic! says yes from Sophie Kinsella deals with these topics. Rebecca Bloomwood lives in New York with her boyfriend Luke and is very happy. She can shop all day long and she also earns money with it. After all, she is allowed to choose clothes for her customers. Everything goes well for the young couple until Luke proposes marriage to Becky. Both mother and mother-in-law want to get involved in the party, which leads to hectic scenes.
The writer
Sophie Kinsella was born Madeleine Wickham in 1969. Initially she studied music, but she gave up after a year. Then she studied political science, philosophy and economics and apparently that suited her a lot better. After her school career, she chose a job as a teacher and financial journalist. However, in 1994 she wrote her first novel, which forced her to give up her job after a while. In the first years she published her books under her own name, later she chose the pseudonym Sophie Kinsella. With the Shopaholic series she was very successful in England and far beyond.
The story
Rebecca Bloomwood is invited to the wedding of her best friend Suze and there she herself is proposed to by her boyfriend Luke. Becky immediately says yes, but does not yet know what adventure she has embarked on. The young couple have lived in New York for a while, but their home base is England. Becky’s mum assumes that her daughter wants to get married in her native village. However, this is without the mother-in-law Elinor. Luke’s mother has many connections in the American business world and wants to overwhelm these people – along with the bridal couple. Elinor works with a wedding planner to arrange a grand party where she becomes the centerpiece instead of her son becoming a daughter-in-law. Becky knows she has to disappoint one of them, but she has a hard time deciding between authenticity or luxury.
The characters
- Rebecca Bloomwood or Becky for the Friends is addicted to shopping. She spends a lot of money on all kinds of trinkets and is not always fully aware of how much capital she throws through windows and doors every month. However, Becky loves Luke unconditionally and wants to be with him for the rest of their lives.
- Luke works very hard and after a while comes across himself. After all, he suffered a trauma in his youth that has still not been processed. His mother Elinor ran away and left his father and Luke. He was later very well taken care of by his father and stepmother Annabelle, but the loss of his mother left a gaping wound. Luke even discovers that Elinor actually didn’t want to see him at all anymore because his father’s letters invariably left them unanswered
- Elinor is a tough business aunt who deals with corpses. She left her family to settle in America and leads a luxurious, but lonely life there. Her son came to visit her in childhood, but she pretended not to see him. She likes to keep tight control and tries to do this when it comes to the marriage of her son.
- Suze is Rebecca’s best friend and is married to Tarquin. Together they have a son, Ernie. Suze knows that Rebecca sometimes displays irresponsible behavior, so the quiet Suze always tries to keep her friend on the right path. She tries to convince Rebecca to cancel one of the two planned weddings
- Robby is the wedding planner that Elinor hired. She makes Rebecca make all of her dreams come true. After all, Robby not only provides a beautiful wedding cake, elegant invitations and a world-famous string orchestra. She even flies a fairytale forest so that Rebecca can get married in style. However, when the bride wants to cancel the party, Robby shows that there is no way to mess with her. The marriage cannot be canceled or it will cost Becky and Luke a fortune.
- Danny is Rebecca’s best friend and lives in the same apartment building as Becky and Luke’s. He is a fashion designer, but finds it difficult to find a job. That is why he is engaged in designing clothes for Becky. For example, she wears one of his creations at Suze’s wedding party and also proposes Danny to design a wedding dress. Becky cannot refuse this, but she is not reassured.
- Michael is Luke’s best friend. Luke has always found a source of support in him and they are therefore two hands on one stomach. However, at a party they have a disagreement and a while later Michael ends up in hospital. A heart attack was the verdict. Luke is completely upset about that and realizes he has to make it up very quickly.
Details of the book
- Original Title: Shopaholic Ties The Knot
- Translated from English
- Translated by: G. Wolfswinkel
- Released in 2003
- Publisher: The House of Books
- Cover design: Marlies Visser
- Number of pages: 350
- ISBN10: 9044307584
- ISBN13: 9789044307580