FUTURE TBR – SOPHIE KINSELLA

It’s so easy to get a reading slump, but it’s hard to get out of one. A number of factors can result in a reading slump. These past few months for me have been emotionally hard for me, and every book I owned was WAY too serious for me to want to even think about reading. I remember one of my book friends, Lindsey, posted a video about the author Sophie Kinsella. She raved about how fun, funny, and silly her books are. I thought these are the kind of books I need to read right now. And they were exactly what I needed.

Sophie Kinsella is a British contemporary author whose actual name is Madeleine Wickham. She is best known for the Shopaholic novel series (also a movie). I have not yet that series, but I do plan to at some point. She has a multitude of standalone books. I read four of them (pictured above) in the span of three weeks. I would have gone through more of them in a lesser time span if I didn’t have three jobs. They are that addictive.

You can tell Kinsella has fun writing these books. Her main characters are usually British women in her mid-to-late twenties. She usually thinks she has her life together, and then something major happens to her to make her hit rock bottom. Kinsella’s characters are intelligent, funny, neurotic, self absorbed, annoying, passionate, frustrating, independent, and relateable. Her main characters are basically all the feelings you have toward your best friend at some point. The women are rarely described as super models. In my head I picture them as average women who are going about their lives. That adds another layer of relateability because these women could be your friends in your own life.

The story lines of her books are nothing extraordinary, but they suck you in because of Kinsella’s writing style. She’s not trying to make you think too hard; she wants to entertain you, and she accomplishes that. I laughed many times while reading these books. There are times you will find yourself saying, “Yeah right. That would never happen.” Some of the situations the girls get themselves in are quite ridiculous, but that also makes for a fun book. If you don’t take the book seriously and get over the suspension of reality, you will have no trouble enjoying these books.

Another thing in the books you will notice is that if the main character would just communicate, pretty much all her problems would be solved, but then there wouldn’t be a story . That sometimes frustrated me. I wanted to scream, “JUST TELL THE TRUTH!!! WHY AREN’T YOU COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY?!?!”

Of course her books contain romance. These are chick lit books, after all. Some of them have American love interests and some stick with the British theme (her books take place in England). I don’t think the books are too heavy on the romance, which is nice. Sometimes the men are treated as an extra burden for the main characters which makes for some fun interactions between the main characters. There are sex scenes in some of the books, but there aren’t many. They aren’t overly graphic, but if you don’t enjoy reading those sorts of things, I think they could be easily skipped over and not change the plot. .

Another way Kinsella adds more dimension to what can be a stale genre, is adding a mystery to be solved. This takes the focus off of the romance, and helps showcase the women more. Sometimes the love interests will help the main character solve the mystery by helping her put some pieces together, but the mysteries aren’t ABOUT him. I enjoyed having that included in the story because it does require you to think a little instead of mindless reading.

I highly recommend Sophie Kinsella – and not just to get out of a reading slump. I plan to read all her books. Her books let me escape reality for a few hours, and I’m grateful for that. I genuinely had a great reading experience with her books, and I will read them if I’m in a reading slump or not.

What are you favorite Sophie Kinsella books and/or character(s)? Leave a comment so we can have a chat!

Happy reading!