I needed a comfort read the way you can need comfort food (actually I needed a comfort read AND comfort food, but I digress) so I decided to go backwards and pick one of the Shopaholic books I hadn't read yet.

Reading them out of order made me realize how terribly formulaic those books are: Becky overspends, Becky does something stupid, Becky hides that stupid action from Luke, Luke finds out, Becky promises to change for the better. The end.

But I don't care because I still like Sophie Kinsella's writing, she's fun, Becky is fun even when she is pathetic and it cheered me up the way I wanted it to do.

You need to read those for what they are, pure fluff with no hidden depth, and then you can totally enjoy them (if it's your cup of tea, of course).