Product Description

Meet Rebecca Bloomwood. She's a journalist. She spends her working life telling others how to manage their money. She spends her leisure time ...shopping. Retail therapy is the answer to all her problems. She knows she should stop, but she can't. She tries Cutting Back, she tries Making More Money. But neither seems to work. The stories she concocts become more and more fantastic as she tries to untangle her increasingly dire financial difficulties. Her only comfort is to buy herself something - just a little something...Can Becky ever escape from this dream world, find true love, and regain the use of her Switch card? "The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic"...the perfect pick me up for when it's all hanging in the (bank) balance.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30699 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
On the face of it, Rebecca Bloomwood has it all. Confident, single and happily living in des-res Fulham with her best friend Suze, she's a financial journalist who spends her days writing articles advising other people on the importance of budgeting and prudent investing. Her private life is a different story though; Rebecca manages her own finances in a way that would make most of her readers' hair curl--for Rebecca is a woman on a mission--she just can't stop spending.

I look up and I'm in front of Octagon. My favourite shop in the whole world. Three floors of clothes, accessories, furnishing, gifts, coffee shops, juice bars and a florist which makes you want to fill your entire home with flowers. I've got my purse with me. Just something small, to cheer me up. A T-shirt or something. Or even some bubble bath. I won't spend much. I'll just go in and... I'm already pushing my way through the doors. Oh God, the relief. The warmth, the light. This is where I belong. This is my natural habitat.

As the plot unfolds, Rebecca finds increasingly bizarre and often highly comical ways to ignore her ever-growing debts and mounting pile of unpaid Visa bills and red bank statements. Got a bill you can't pay? No problem. Just take it out for a walk and deposit it in the nearest skip whilst no-one is looking. Need to justify that £120 velvet scarf? Don't worry! It was a snip at half price in the sale, so what initially looks like a splurge is actually an example of canny discount shopping. Rebecca's disastrous love life mirrors her finances. And her career seems to be taking a turn for the worse, too. That is, until she finds a financial story that really sparks her journalistic interest, and begins to spar with handsome and successful financial PR millionaire Luke Brandon. Witty, light-hearted and often hilarious, The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic is the ideal read for anyone who has ever found themselves mentally justifying rash purchases in their heads, or buying just one more pair of black trousers because they are so different from the other eight pairs in their wardrobe. --Emily Lowson

From the Publisher
When the going gets tough – the tough go shopping…

From the Back Cover
Meet Rebecca Bloomwood.

She's a journalist. She spends her working life telling others how to manage their money. She spends her leisure time…shopping.

Retail therapy is the answer to all her problems. She knows she should stop, but she can't. She tries Cutting Back, she tries Making More Money. But neither seems to work. The stories she concocts become more and more fantastic as she tries to untangle her increasingly dire financial difficulties. Her only comfort is to buy herself something - just a little something...

Can Becky ever escape from this dream world, find true love, and regain the use of her Switch card?

The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic...

The perfect pick me up for when it's all hanging in the (bank) balance.

RC 943
£14.

Abridged by Carolanne Lyme
Produced by Alexa Moore
(P) Corgi Audiobooks 2006

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Customer Reviews

Well written!
I ordered this book mainly because it's part of a whole series of shopaholic books, and they all had such good reviews.
I didn't expect too much. My expectations became even lower after seeing the enormous font that was used. Which kind of makes it look like a teen book.
When I started reading however, I was pleasantly surprised. The book is written so well, it's very entertaining.
Even though it's not a very deep book, (and I know, Chicklits are never really deep, but this one is quite superficial) the author makes you want to know more and more. I personally can't identify with her as a shopaholic, (not that I don't enjoy shopping, but Rebecca has really made an art out of finding reasons to buy things) but I think the same rules apply to all kinds of addictions. The excuses are absolutely ridiculous, and absolutely hilarious. In most books, when characters do crazy things like hide a pair of pants from a costumer, from the clothes shop where they just started work, would have been mortifying, but the way the book was written, you can't help but laugh.
I finished the book in about a day, I just couldn't put it down.
The end makes it very clear there is going to be more books in this series. If there wouldn't have been more, I would have found the end a bit abrupt.

All in all, I'd like to give the book 3,5 stars, but unfortunatly as that's not possible, I'll make it 3, cause 4 is just a little bit too much..

Hilarious
This book really is one of the funniest reads I have come across. Becky Bloomwoods character is extremely likeable and the story just pulls you in from the beginning. As a fellow spender, I could totally relate to some of the situations she gets herself in to! On the whole, a brilliant original girly book and I recommend it to everyone!

Amazing!
This is the first shopaholic book I have read and, after several indepth novels, it was such a great light relief! It is funny and relatable and just perfect for those moments when your brain isn't quite tuned in and you just need to relax! Although not completely alike- anybody who has read and loved Bridget Jones would definitley enjoy this!