Shopaholic & Baby

December 18, 2006
Hail the return of Kinsella's airhead heroine, Becky Bloomwood, now married, pregnant and working as the head personal shopper for a brand-new London boutique. In this latest installment of the Shopaholic franchise (Shopaholic Ties the Knot
; Shopaholic Takes Manhattan
; etc.), the commercially insatiable Bex shops for two in every upscale baby shop and catalogue in London, snags a celebrity ob/gyn and leverages a pair of the moment's "most coveted" boots to negotiate a home purchase. Complicating an otherwise uneventful pregnancy, Becky suspects her husband, PR biz-wiz Luke Brandon, is having an affair with her hot doc (who also happens to be Luke's ex-girlfriend), so she hires a gumshoe with predictable madcap results. For chick lit lovers with babies of their own, or for those who covet one, Kinsella mines a rich vein by tweaking 21st-century glossy mag obsessions: from sonograms to the hottest baby strollers to tricked-out birthing rooms. Kinsella's ode to baby blues is both sly and slapstick—and for now, at least, Becky is more lovably Lucille Ball than annoyingly Paris Hilton.

January 1, 2007
Kinsella's follow-up to " Shopaholic & Sister"(2004) finds the irrepressible Becky expecting her first child with her dashing husband, Luke. Naturally, there's shopping to be done: Becky is determined that her child will be as stylish as a baby can be. That includes having the best obstetrician, so when Becky learns about Venetia Carter, who caters to models and movie stars, she's determined to get herself into Venetia's practice. She succeeds, only to discover to her dismay that the stunning Venetia dated Luke in college and may still be carrying a torch for him. Becky will go to any length to keep her husband, whether it be intercepting text messages from Venetia in Latin or hiring a private detective to trail Luke and learn whether or not he has actually been unfaithful to her, rendering marriage over before it has really begun. Through it all, Becky never loses her spark, making this fifth entry in the Shopaholic series every bit as delightful and hilarious as its predecessors.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)