Shopaholic On Honeymoon

 

A Honeymoon with a Side of Shopping and a Little Bit of Letdown

As a fan of Becky Bloomwood, I couldn't wait to dive into her next adventure.  After the wedding, Shopaholic on Honeymoon picks up right where the last book left off.  Becky and Luke are now married and start jetsetting around the world for their yearlong honeymoon.  I was hoping this would be exactly the kind of escapism I was looking for but to be honest it wasn't.  

What I love most about this series is how relatable, and yet completely over-the-top, Becky is.  The central conflict of the story is that even on her idyllic, once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon, Becky just can't shake her shopping addiction. She's desperate to be the perfect, responsible wife for Luke, but the lure of designer deals and hidden shopping gems is just too strong.  As Becky and Luke travel Europe Becky can't stop shopping.  Her addiction to shopping is so out of control that she can't even go sightseeing or go to a museum that Luke wants to visit.  I can't wrap my mind around the fact that you are travelling around the world and can't stop for one moment to go and visit the beautiful places and learn the culture you are in.  It is one thing when you are single and do as you please, but Becky is married now and needs to consider Lukes feelings.   Her marriage in my opinion is getting off to a rocky start.

A honeymoon isn't about shopping.  It's about spending time alone with the person you're married too and connecting with them on a deeper lever.  When my husband and I were in Charleston for our honeymoon we were surrounded by great shopping, restaurants, and activities, but we weren't as interested in those things as much as we were interested in resting and spending quiet moments with each other.  

The best vacations my husband and I have ever taken together are the ones where we are in a cabin surrounded by nature.  The quiet surrounding us.  Maybe it's me.  Maybe as a person since I've been married and have had a baby I have grown and these books no longer relate to me.  I do hope that Sophie Kinsella's next book Shopaholic and Sister will be better written and more relatable then this one.

I found myself in conflict and sadness by Becky's inner monologue. Her attempts to hide her shopping bags, her increasingly complicated lies to Luke. This is not how a marriage is supposed to work.  This book was written to be funny, cute, and charming but it fell flat.  This book is not cute or funny it takes away from the excitement of the first few days of your life, officially being married to your best friend. The book takes us from a luxurious resort to a completely unexpected destination, and each location provides new temptations for Becky. It's a great example of how her personality creates chaos wherever she goes.

One of the moments of beauty for me was watching Becky and Luke navigate their new life together. Their relationship is tested by Becky's secret-keeping, but you can feel their genuine love and how much they care for each other.

Overall, if you're a fan of Sophie Kinsella's work and the Shopaholic series, this book could be skipped.  You may enjoy it and find Becky's antics funny and charming or like me who when they started reading the series was young, but now being older see the book in a different way.