Loving Shopaholic, Luke Brandon, and Becky Bloom.

Recently I’ve finished reading five of Sophie Kinsella’s Books: The Shopaholic series, and I’m totally in love with Luke Brandon.

All righty, before I go on talking endlessly about Luke, let me first give a brief overview of the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella (sorry for erm… bothering with the intro, I know a lot probably have read it already and have no need for brief “What’s it about” stuffs, but I just feel that it’s nice to have a proper overview. Haha, I’m already starting to type senseless stuffs, so before this goes on any longer, thus wasting space and inserting more blabbers, I’ll go on with the post).

The Shopaholic series consists of five books (I’m not sure if there’s going to be another following (but I’m so hoping that there’ll be another one, I just can’t get enough of Becky and Luke)), namely: Confessions of a Shopaholic, Shopaholic takes Manhattan, Shopaholic Ties Knot, Shopaholic and Sister, and Shopaholic and Baby, all of which are great to read. It follows the life of Rebecca Bloomwood (or Becky, she carries the Brandon name on the third book as she married Luke), 26 and a financial journalist at the start of the story, a certified shopaholic, as she goes through different things: from overspending to avoiding and paying debts, to various problems and catastrophes, to fixing everything up.

I think it is one of the most entertaining materials I’ve ever read. I recall laughing a lot at Becky’s thoughts, her different (and oftentimes, if not all the time funny) excusing to buying the most expensive, and sometimes the most absurd things, her entertaining lies, her brilliant ideas (which saved a lot of characters in the book, not excluding her husband, Luke Brandon), her fashion sense, and most importantly, the way she sorts her problems out, and fixes things back to the way they should be (well, almost).

The series contains a lot of entertaining and funny events, heartwarming moments, great characters and wonderful story—The relationships of the characters are really nice: Like her relationship with her best friend Suze (who I so adore), her parents, her other friends (like Danny-> Haha, love him!), her sister/half-sister Jess, and of course the love of her life, Luke Brandon.

What I love about their love life is that they’re so made for each other. Like for instance Becky’s this shopaholic, she spends a lot, and Luke’s sort of a workaholic. It matches, balances things up.

Aside from that I absolutely love how Luke treats her. He loves her so much, and she loves her back of course. And what’s more is that it’s realistic, like they have some quirks sometimes, and they don’t have an infinite amount of money since Luke sometimes asks Becky to take it easy, not to spend so much on unnecessary stuffs, Luke’s not all perfect as he gets irritated or loses his temper on some occasions… what happens in the book happens in real life situations.

Luke and Becky

In the story, in their wedding’s reception, Luke said that the first time he met Becky was during one of those press conferences, and he noticed her first when she asked why they don’t put colorful covers on checkbooks or something. Ever since that time, he went on inviting her to various conferences, including those irrelevant to Becky’s occupation.

It seems that he’s been fond of her (and eventually fell for her) after that. I suppose Sacha, his girlfriend during that time probably already knew of it, because from what I’ve read (I’m speculating by the way, or simply my imagination gone wild, forgive me if I go too far) Luke bought luggage (where he asked for Becky’s opinion) as gifts for the Sacha girl, but like what Becky said (or thought), Who gives luggage as gifts? Unless he’s expecting her to move out, plus, when Becky asked him (angry at the moment) if he’s telling Sacha that She (Becky) was the one who picked out the items, Luke answered him with “I’m sure she’ll be amused”. Becky thought that Luke was taking her for a joke at that moment, but I think what Luke really meant was that Sacha already knew that he likes Becky, and knowing that the girl Luke likes was the one picking out her gifts, she’ll get really furious.

Anyways, on the second book, Luke was going to open an office in London and when Becky was thinking that Luke is going to leave him, he asks her, telling her that “and I’m hoping that you’ll come with me”. So so sweet. Also, in the second book after everything’s all messed up, Luke’s company’s having a crisis, and the thing about Becky’s debts spread in the papers, when Becky announced that she’s going out of the country on telly, Luke followed her to the airport stepping out of his very important meeting. He bought her a drink and made her some offers hoping that she wouldn’t leave him, then he said, “Ok, I’m lying I don’t just need someone like you, I need you” (I was like ah… sooooo sweeet… I love Luke). But no worries… the two of them still gets together after two months, in New York, where Luke went to Barneys (I totally LOVE that scene).

Well there are a lot of times wherein their love for each other’s shown or tested (but they always get to fix it with the both of them) I’d love to put in more on this part since there are so much MORE but I have e-mail someone and so I’ll probably make this post shorter (than what I really intended. Seriously, if you’re talking Luke and Becky, there’s so much nice things to say).

Luke Brandon

Even if I don’t elaborate, it’s quite clear that Luke Brandon’s a lovable character.

Hmm… well he’s not perfect, he’s no Edward Cullen (I actually love Edward Cullen too, well who doesn’t? -> I even found a discussion in Sophie Kinsella’s blog about who you like best Edward Cullen or Luke Brandon, I believe it was titled Luke Brandon vs. Edward Cullen or something) but probably that’s what makes him so irresistibly charming. He’s not perfect, he makes mistakes, but he’s so sure about his love for Becky, he treats her so well, and even though he gets so furious at times, there was never a time where he showed violence, he just says some bad words (again, realistic), but he never hurt Becky.

All right, I’ve checked the clock, I do have to make the e-mail now, so I’ll post this first and just make a follow up maybe later (hmm… my “later” sometimes takes forever anyways)… I love Shopaholic, I love Becky Bloom and I love and I mean LOVE Luke Brandon.

Now I have a new goal, it’s even more realistic than the first one:

1. Go to Forks, become Bella Swan, marry Edward Cullen, become a vampire.

And now I’m finally accepting the fact that I’ll never be a vampire, so here’s my new goal (NOTE: I’ve accepted the fact, but I’m not giving up on it… haha!):

2. Go to London, become Becky Bloom (I could perhaps minus the debt), marry Luke Brandon and have a happy life with him.

I’ll stop here… ~ja ne!