Shopaholic No More

BEST known as the name behind the Shopaholic series, Sophie Kinsella is the undisputed queen of the “likeable but shallow” heroine. She conjures up tale after tale where the nice, funny girl you wouldn’t mind having a cosmo with encounters some huge dilemma and somehow comes out of it all smiling. Latest read Remember Me? isn’t all that different – but it does it rather well.

Imagine your last memory being of a night out with the girls, where your hair was a mess, you had dodgy teeth, your loser boyfriend had stood you up and everything is, in a word, crap. Rather than waking to a hangover, you wake up to a world where you’re married to a millionaire, you have a Hollywood smile, designer gear and you just happen to be a big name in business too.

Sound like fun? It’s exactly what happens to Lexi Smart in Remember Me? Lexi wakes up from a car accident with amnesia. Three years of her life are forgotten, and they just happen to have been the most life-changing three years of her life. Rich husband, great new look, a fantastic job, a trendy loft-style apartment – Lexi’s really made it. Or has she?

What at first seems like a dream turns out to be a nightmare, with a husband she finds difficult to live with, a man who claims to be her lover that she can’t remember, friends who won’t even speak to her, her mother behaving strangely and a job in jeopardy. It’s her mission to get her memory back, sort her life out, and shed the super-bitch persona she seems to have developed in the forgotten years.

The colourful cast of characters are the highlight of the book. In the leading role, Lexi is incredibly likeable. She voices all those shallow thoughts we wish we didn’t have – her delight at waking to a rich husband, owning a Mercedes and Chanel make up, for instance, is pretty understandable. As is her horror on learning that Brad and Jen are no more. She’s like one of the girls, someone you can relate to.

Comedy is not just left to Lexi, however.