The Hero(ine) Takes a Fall

I used to love the Shopaholic books.  Big shock, right?  I have the full series, down to the latest one, MiniShopaholic.  Notice that I wrote used to though.  Because I don't love the books any more.  Maybe it was the 100+ days without shopping.  Maybe it's just about seeing the world differently now.  But regardless of the reason, I can't stand the main character, Rebecca Brandon nee Bloomwood now.

For those of you not familiar with the series or the awful movie based on the books, here's the lowdown.  Rebecca is a young British woman with a fondness for labels.  In each book she seems to get herself in some sort of peril due to her shopping habits or love of drama, and by the end of the book everything is sorted out and everyone's happy again.  It's not rocket science, and quite honestly, I need a little "mind candy" every once in a while when I read.  I don't expect to unlock the secrets of the universe when I read these books, but it would be nice if the main character had some redeeming qualities.  And now, I'm looking for Rebecca's.

How did I miss how vapid, shallow, materialistic and self-involved this girl is in the previous books?  And delusional?  Why did I once find this charming and funny and entertaining?  Right now, in this book alone, she's spent more time worrying about her outfit and the catering for her daughter's "Russian/Japanese fusion" themed christening than what the christening actually means.  And she refuses to see that she's raising a spoiled, willful child whose favorite word is "mine".  My next biggest pet peeve is how incredibly self-involved she is.  Yes, the book is told from her point of view, but come on.  She's making friends with her husband's assistant so she can get a gym installed in her house instead of the wine cellar her husband wants to put in.  Because heaven forbid, she should use one of the eight bedrooms in the new house for a gym.  In case you're wondering about the eight bedrooms, one is for clothes, one is for shoes and one is for make-up.  Then one for her and her husband, one for the daughter and one as a guest bedroom.  The other two bedrooms?  She's actually thinking of having more kids.  For what, more little dolls to dress up as extensions of herself?

I do plan to finish the book.  I did pay for it after all.  But when I'm done, that's it.  I'm checked out of this series for good.  So much so that I'm thinking of taking all my Shopaholic books to Half Price Books and selling them.  There's no place for them in my life anymore.