Christmas Shopaholic may be the best Christmas book I’ve read in a long time.
It might also be the best book in Sophie Kinsella‘s Shopaholic series I’ve read in a long time.
On both counts, nothing could have surprised me more.
Every December, I take a break from my more “serious reads” to indulge in a little Christmas reading — light, fluffy stories filled with messages of seasonal hope and love, a glowing tree and festive decorations, the drinking of cocoa and baking of cookies, and, quite frequently, a whirlwind holiday romance culminating in an impossibly too-soon engagement.
I love these books for their holiday magic and sparkle, but sometimes I crave more mental stimulation and plot variation than what the Hallmark Channel can give me.
Which is why I was so delightfully charmed by Christmas Shopaholic. Although the story is centered around Christmas, Kinsella doesn’t hit you over the head with the holiday. Christmas Shopaholic isn’t a saccharine morsel of a novel, though you will want to devour it as quickly as possible. There’s the usual stress about Christmas shopping and Christmas day hosting, to which we can all relate, but there’s plenty of non-Christmas plot lines in there, too.
This newest installment in the Shopaholic series stars our girl Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood), a loveably ditzy but well-meaning woman who has a slight (okay, huge) shopping addiction that, amazingly and repeatedly, is funded by her very rich (and very understanding) husband, Luke. Becky also has a knack for getting herself into some unusual and awkward social situations, which she then must twist her way out of, much to the amusement of everyone around her.
This Christmas, things in Becky’s world are changing: her reliably boring parents decide to ditch cozy village life and become hipsters in east London; an old boyfriend shows up with his new girlfriend, and they may or may not want to engage Becky and Luke in “multiplayer sex”; Becky’s half-sister Jess (I love her) — whose militant dedication to sustainability, veganism, and eco-friendly living is the complete antithesis to everything Becky holds dear — seemingly refuses to get into the holiday spirit; and, the biggest stress of all — Becky has to host Christmas Day at HER house.
I cracked open Christmas Shopaholic while sitting in a chic Italian cafe, waiting for my phone to be fixed down the street, and I kept drawing disapproving looks from the other chic-er than I patrons because I was barking with laughter every few paragraphs.
Despite the zany antics and uncontrollable urges to spend oodles of money, Becky’s big, thumping heart and need to help everyone comes through big time, which really brings home the “Christmas” part of Christmas Shopaholic. There obviously has to be some amount of schmaltz in a Christmas book, and Kinsella weaves it in in the most beautiful way.
Bravo, Kinsella. Leave it to you to make me want to start gifting “a word” to friends and family from now on. My heart melted and my eyes welled up. I don’t think I’ve ever read a scene that more truly encompasses what the Christmas spirit is all about.
I’m getting all choked up again just thinking about “gifting a word,” so I’m going to go now and leave you with this: if you want a feel-good, hysterically funny, easy-going but still meaningful holiday read this season, pick up Christmas Shopaholic and lose yourself in the best Christmas book there is.
Oh! And don’t forget to check back in for my book-inspired recipe: Cinnamon Roll Cake!
