22 February, 2010

Book Review #2 'Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella'

"Lara Lington has always had an overactive imagination, but suddenly that imagination seems to be in overdrive. Normal professional twenty-something young women don't get visited by ghosts. Or do they? When the spirit of Lara's great-aunt Sadie mysteriously appears, she has one request: Lara must find a missing necklace that had been in Sadie's possession for more than seventy-five years, because Sadie cannot rest without it. Lara and Sadie make a hilarious sparring duo, and at first it seems like they have nothing in common. But as the mission to find Sadie's necklace leads to intrigue and a new romance for Lara, these very different "twenties" girls learn some surprising truths from and about each other." - synopsis by Lexi's Little Whims

After the challenge of reading Lost I decided to go for an easy read in the form of chick lit, specifically chick lit from one of my favourite authors, Sophie Kinsella. I only recently discovered Sophie Kinsella but having completed Twenties Girl I have read all books under her own name (she previously wrote under the alias Madeline Wickham). I adore Sophie Kinsella's style of writing for chick lit, as soon as I start her books I'm hooked and have to keep reading, I remember reading the whole of Shopaholic and Sister in less than a day. Her prose is easy and interesting and I find myself quickly submersed into the world of her characters. Twenties Girl was no different, infact it was one of her bests in my opinion.

The protagonist, Lara Lington, is entertaining and believable in my opinion. The way she handles the crisis' in her life definitely reflect the way I and many of my friends have behaved in the past and that is one of the reasons I love Kinsella's novels. Her leading ladies always have character traits that can be picked out of women you know in real life, maybe even yourself. In the beginning Lara's life is in pieces, her business is failing, she was just dumped but slowly throughout the novel she puts it back together with the help of her dead aunt's ghost and her friends. Of course we can't all have a friendly ghost to help us out but none the less the novel brings hope to women who like Lara are clinging onto a fantasy, trust me, I've been there myself.

Not only was the protagonist an interesting point of view to read from, but the supporting characters in her life were fun. Her great aunt Sadie's twentythree year old spirit was the epitome of a twenties girl, I adored her and how her story played out. I have a huge soft spot for the twenties as a decade and if I could live in any point in the twentieth century, the twenties would of been it and I would of been a party girl much like Sadie. The beau in Lara's life, Ed, reminded me much of Mr Big in Sex and the City, he appeared all business but of course he turned out to be an interesting many levels man. Lara's family were entertaining, although her situation wasn't something I could identify with, her uncle and cousin and even her parents to an extent were the types of characters I could imagine which I always feel is an important aspect of a good book!


The plot itself was fun and tied up nicely at the end, I even shed a few tears. Unlike with some of Kinsella's other novels I didn't feel that I was missing out on something, Twenties Girl sits nicely in a single novel which I was glad of (her other novels have me desperate for sequels!) I laughed out loud at some points too as some of the arguements that Lara would have out loud, in public with Sadie were so vivid I could even imagine them! The description in the book was definitely Kinsella at her best.


Would Recommend For: Chick Lit/Rom Com lovers, Sophie Kinsella fans.
If You Like This Try: Shopaholic Series, Remember Me? The Undomestic Goddess, Can You Keep a Secret? (all by Sophie Kinsella), A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff, Elegance by Kathleen Tessaro
Rating: 9/10

3 comments:

  1. Lots of people have said this is a good book. I have the undomesticated godess i might try read that and then maybe try get this :)

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  2. I LOVED this book so much. Great review!

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