Shopaholic

A series of chick-lit novels written by British author Sophie Kinsella, Shopaholic stars Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood), a (predictably enough) shopaholic. T he first book starts out with Becky smack-dab in the middle of her addiction, living in a flat with her best friend Suze in London. Every book focuses on Becky's struggles in life, which she manages to survive with flying colors (or, more specifically, talent she doesn't realize and a lot of luck).

The series is quite funny and written in absorbing first-person prose, though it suffers from unrealism and Moral Dissonance. Despite that, it is a big seller in the chick-lit department. A movie based on the first book was released in February 2009, retitled Confessions of a Shopaholic and set in New York City.

The characters:

• Becky Brandon, a former financial journalist turned personal shopper (which basically comes out to fashion consultant for normal people)
• Suze Cleath-Stuart, Becky's artistic best friend and former flatmate
• Luke Brandon, the creator of the PR company Brandon Communications; later Becky's boyfriend and husband
• Graham and Jane Bloomwood, Becky's caring but quarrelsome parents
• Jess, Becky's frugal, long-lost sister who's more than just 'careful' with her money
• Tarquin Cleath-Stuart, Suze's distant cousin and later husband who used to have a crush on Becky
• Tom Webster, Becky's next-door neighbor who doesn't seem to have much luck with romance

In order, the series is as follows:

• The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic (UK)/Confessions of a Shopaholic (North America)
• Shopaholic Abroad (UK)/Shopaholic Takes Manhattan (North America)
• Shopaholic Ties the Knot
• Shopaholic & Sister
• Shopaholic & Baby
• Mini Shopaholic

Tropes used in Shopaholic include:

• Adaptation Distillation: The Movie is pretty good.
• All Women Love Shoes: Becky and Suze fall into this. Jess doesn't, however.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Mrs Bloomwood. When Luke finally asks Becky to marry him, Becky's mother shouts 'YES!' for her, at the top of her voice.
  • Their next-door neighbour Janice is also this to her son, Tom. After he gets married to Becky's half sister Jess, Janice goes out of her way to secure herself a grandchild. To the point of hiding their contraceptives and trying to trick Jess into taking pre-natal vitamins.
• Biggus Dickus: Supposedly, Tarquin is quite generous in this area.
• City Mouse: Becky is this when she returns from New York to live back at home with her parents in a quiet English village.
• Darker and Edgier: Shopaholic and Baby is notably more serious than the previous books, and shows Becky growing up and actually learning from her previous mistakes.
• Genius Ditz: Becky comes across like this, she's actually pretty smart when she puts her mind to it.
• Flanderization: YMMV, but Becky in the film is flanderized to a happy go lucky airhead who doesn't have the depth or worries of Becky from the novels.
  • Luke also suffers in the movie. He no longer challenges or grounds Becky's more eccentric aspects of her personality, and instead lets her walk all over him.
• Friends Rent Control: Averted. Becky falls behind with the rent when she's living with Suze, who often has to pay it for her.
• Ice Queen: Elinor, Luke's birth mother is this.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Becomes this gradually as she warms up to Becky.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every book has the word "shopaholic" in the title.
• Jerkass Has a Point: The 'evil' debt collector in the second book, John Gavin, actually has a point when he gives the reason for denying Becky an extended overdraft.

John Gavin: "This is Becky Bloomwood who has had her overdraft limit extended six times in the last year. And who each time
has failed to keep within those limits. This is Becky Bloomwood who has consistently lied, who has consistently avoided meetings, who has treated bank staff with little or no respect, and who seems to think we're all here solely to fund her appetite for shoes. I've looked at your file, Miss Bloomwood. I know the picture."

• Karma Houdini: Becky, over and over again
• Kissing Cousins: Suze and Tarquin, though they're distant cousins.
  • Suze does comment that one benefit of marrying him is that she doesn't have to change her last name.
• Mistaken for Gay: Jane and Janice, when they accompany Becky to her birthing class in Shopaholic and Baby.
• Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Becky's parents don't believe her when she says she's dating Luke, the head of a big PR company.
• Pair the Spares: Tom and Jess. Tom has had a crush on Becky ever since they were children, and ends up marrying her half sister instead.
• Photographic Memory: Luke is said to have one of these. We never see if he actually does--chances are Becky's just exaggerating.
• Retail Therapy: Becky winds up in massive debt because she uses spending to cope with negative emotions, and the debt leads to more negative emotions and more spending.
• Rich Bitch: If her fashion sense is anything to go by, Alicia.
  • Venetia Carter.
• Running Gag: Becky daydreams leading her to thinking that she'll be known as 'The Girl in [insert clothing item here]'
  • Played with in Shopaholic Ties The Knot; she instead thinks that she'll be known as 'The Girl Who Changed Elinor Sherman'
• Scrapbook Story: The trope is taken partway: Chapters begin with letters and other documents.
• Status Quo Is God: In each book, we see Becky learning a heartwarming Aesop about love, family and not spending too much etc...only to find that she reverts back to her shopaholic ways in the next one. However, there are some changes and continuity nods--Becky learns thriftiness in one book and in the next is still seen doing a few things thriftily.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Despite not being a TV character, Becky somehow manages to wear different clothes every single day. Indeed, it's a wonder how it all fits in Suze's wardrobe in the first two books.
  • In The Movie, as well as the second book, it does not fit in the wardrobe until Becky vacuum-packs it all, and even then it falls out when the closet door is opened.