Kinsella Never Disappoints!
In "Twenties Girl" by Sophie Kinsella, Lara is visited by the eccentric ghost of her late grandaunt Sadie who appears to be stuck in the 20s and is desperatly looking for a lost pearl necklace. Along their quest, Sadie falls in love with the perfect man - which turns out to be a problem since nobody aside from Lara can see her.
This is your typical Sophie Kinsella novel with witty protagonists, a cheesy love story and a side plot full of intrigues. Still, I was a bit disappointed with this one because I didn't really care for any of the characters. Lara is a 27-year-old headhunter who doesn't have her life together at all and is probably one of the most secondhand-embarassing characters I have ever read about. The way she clings to her ex-boyfriend and just doesn't want to see the obvious is actually quite painful. She reminds me a bit of Louisa Clark from "Me Before You", about whom I said basically the same thing. They're identical characters, except Louisa isn't THAT stupid.
Sadie on the other hand is refreshing and figuratively a breeze of fresh air, and one of rational thinking. Even though she appears to be the naive and stupid one, she's actually the only person in this novel who uses their head. The whole desperately-wanting-to-fall-in-love thing is just a way to hide what a truly wise and intelligent character she is, perfect, considering the fact that she's the ghost of a 105-year-old woman. I loved the little things about her, how she just wanted to spend some time dancing and looking pretty while being all about her - unlike Lara, who's constantly trying to please the men around her.
The love interest Ed didn't get me at all. I have no idea what's so attractive about that dude and I didn't care. To me he's exactly like Lara thought when she first met him: Boring, boring, boring. Also the fact that Sadie basically had to use mind control to even get him near Lara just makes the whole romance thing ridiculous and exactly as romantic as her relationship to Josh, the ex-boyfriend. Did I not get the point or was the whole reason for them falling in love the "truly caring about each other" part that she lacked with Josh? Yeah, he babbled on about a little voice inside his head and all, but this just doesn't do it for me. Ed is a boring, boring businessman that had better stayed in his conference room. (Character 3/5)
I'm a sucker for everything paranormal so I was thrilled to find out that Kinsella wrote a chick-lit novel with a ghost in it. The execution didn't turn out half as great as I thought it would, because there is no explanation as to why Sadie is able to exist as a ghost in the first place. Yes, the whole looking-for-the-necklace thing is a nice hook, but how and why?! Maybe I'm too demanding of a romantic comedy novel, but this bugs me a lot. Also why the everloving hell can Lara see her and nobody else can? Especially because they never consciously met or had any connection to each other aside from family relations. I would have rather had the protagonist be her cousin Diamanté (the hell kinda name is that, come on, Kinsella!) so the whole necklace plot at least had some relation to the main character. Like this it feels a bit random.
In general the novel is way too long for the little plot it has. Yes, it's Kinsella so I devoured it in two days but no other author would have been able to get away with this. The whole headhunting sideplot is unnecessary and Natalie, the best friend, is as well. I understand how Kinsella wants to use her as a metaphor for Lara finally breaking free and taking charge of her own life, but eh. I didn't care about the whole headhunting business and honestly, it's true how every single one of her clients kept saying she's unprofessional. Like I said, immature, naive and pretty stupid character. (Plot 2/5)
However, I did enjoy this. Yes, it's not the real deal, Kinsella does better usually, but even at her worst she's better than 80% of the chick-lit that's on the market right now. I loved Sadie, I loved to hate Lara and even though the conclusion is obvious, obvious, obvious to no end, I wanted to read it myself and never thought even once about quitting. The writing is on point and it's probably the reason for me not wanting to give up on this. (Writing 4/5)
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Overall: Do I Recommend?
I'm a Kinsella fangirl. Don't take advice from me. If you've never read anything by her, I suggest you start with "Remember Me?", which is my all-time favourite of hers