Review: Shopaholic Ties the Knot by Sohpie Kinsella

Shopaholic Ties the Knot
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Published: July 1, 2002
Genre: chick lit
Paperback: 406 pages
Source: borrowed from the library

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Synopsis (from GoodReads): Life has been good for Becky Bloomwood: She's become the best personal shopper at Barneys, she and her successful entrepreneurial boyfriend, Luke, are living happily in Manhattan's West Village, and her new next-door neighbor is a fashion designer!. But with her best friend, Suze, engaged, how can Becky fail to notice her own ring finger is bare? Not that she's been thinking of marriage (or diamonds) or anything...
The Luke proposes! Bridal registries dance in Becky's head. Problem is, two other people are planning her wedding: Becky's overjoyed mother has been waiting forever to host a backyard wedding, with the bride resplendent in Mum's frilly old gown. While Luke's high-society mother insisting on a glamorous, all-expensed-paid affair at the Plaza. Both weddings for the same day. And Becky can't seem to turn down either one. Can everyone's favorite shopaholic tie the knot before everything unravels?

My Thoughts: This is the third book in the Shopaholic series and the more I read of this series, the more I love it. In this book, we follow Becky as she attends her best friend, Suze's, wedding. At the wedding, Luke proposes to Becky and what ensues is hilariousness. Becky's mother starts planning an English wedding while Luke's mother starts planning a grand wedding at the Plaza hotel. Both happen to fall on the same day. Two weddings on two different continents. Obviously, we see Becky in her element of trying to rationalize everything in her life while avoiding her problems. By the end of the novel, Becky finds the perfect solution that pleases Luke's mother and her own while not being involved in a huge lawsuit.

The characters are becoming very familiar in this series and it's nice to see them all mature over time. Suze's wedding to Tarquin is cute and we see the two of them start a family together. It's also nice to see more of Luke, especially on a personal level. He seemed very uptight in the first two books, but Kinsella shows him in a different light in this book. And of course, there is Becky. Her growth from one novel to the next is great because it isn't huge but it's noticable enough to continually engage you in the series. The only fault I could find with this book was the reappearance of Alicia Billington, a former employee of Luke's. I thought it was a bit of a stretch to continue to use her in the story. I look forward to reading more of Becky's adventure but am sad to see this series end!