Review: Shopaholic to the Rescue by Sophie Kinsella (audio)

Title: Shopaholic to the Rescue

Author: Sophie Kinsella

Series: Shopaholic, #8 

Narrator: Clare Corbett

Published: October 2015, Random House Audio

Length: 9 hours 27 minutes

Source: Personal copy via Audible

Becky Bloomwood
and a hilarious cast of beloved family and friends (plus one enemy!) set
off in a van to find her missing father, last heard from in Las Vegas.

Becky’s
father Graham and her best friend’s husband, Tarquin, have disappeared
from Los Angeles saying simply they have “something to take care of.”

But
Tarquin’s wife Suze who is Becky’s best friend, and Becky’s mother
Jane, are convinced the two men are hiding something and are in
danger—their imaginations run wild. They must track them down!

Hijinks
ensue as husband Luke drives Becky, daughter Minnie, Jane, Suze and
other favorite Kinsella characters across country from LA to Las Vegas
in search of the missing men.

Becky feels deeply guilty about
ignoring her father while he was in LA, in addition Becky feels her
enemy Alicia is threatening her friendship with Suze.

My thoughts: I just love Becky Bloomwood and am so glad she’s back!!! This is just a fun series, and Becky just makes me laugh, plain and simple and sometimes you just need that. 

This book picks up right after the previous book, Shopaholic to the Stars, picks up. Becky decides she must go after her dad and Tarkie and the whole gang comes along for the ride.  It’s a comedy of errors as they rent a RV and head from LA to Las Vegas.  And that’s what I love about this series…it makes me laugh! Becky is a memorable character and I just love her for all the antics she seems to find herself involved in. And she even reaches out to Derek Smeath for advice – I loved that!!! 

All the faces we have grown to love made appearances in this book – Becky, Luke and Minnie, Suze and Tarquin, Becky’s parents Graham and Jane, their neighbor Janice, Luke’s mom Elinor, and even Becky’s arch-enemy Alicia. It seems that all loose ends were tied up – Suze and Tarquin resolved their issue, Graham’s secret came out, the tension between Becky and Suze was resolved and they once again are back to being each other’s 3am friend, and so on. And most importantly, Becky herself has done some maturing – which is so not like her. It’s almost as if things are being wrapped up in a neat little bow because this is the last hurrah for these characters…could that be? Is this our last visit with Becky? Have we reached the end? 

Whether it’s the last Shopaholic book or not, I enjoyed this book. I kept my attention, made me laugh and remember why I love this series. Yes, Becky might have changed a little, but over time, don’t we all? Deep down, I think she’s still the same flawed character we originally fell in love with, who is slowly starting to see things a little differently. Is she completely going to change if the series continues – I don’t think so, but a little change won’t hurt, plus I don’t see her being a girl scout model anytime soon – a huge sale at her favorite store will probably have her back to her old self in no-time!!!





Audio thoughts: I really enjoy listening to this series now…I switched to listening to the books with the last book and loved it! It’s such a fun series to listen to and Clare Corbett is the perfect narrator for this series. She does a great job with the voices and infuses just the right amount of humor into her voice when needed, which with this series is quite often! I do want to see what else she narrates, though, and will be checking that out soon.

Books in this series:

1. Confessions of a Shopaholic
2. Shopaholic Takes Manhattan
3. Shopaholic Ties the Knot
4. Shopaholic & Sister
5. Shopaholic & Baby
6. Mini Shopaholic
7. Shopaholic to the Stars
8. Shopaholic to the Rescue