astridandlouise's Reviews (665)

okay. before i began to read this book i thought to myself in all honestly this book has to be based on some part on me, because i love shopping. i buy things i don't necessarily need but love all the same; i want them (and over this end part of the year being a jobless bum living overseas, i've probably spent a little more than i should have not thinking it though very clearly - aka goodbye savings!) and i'm not in any excessive amount of debt (it's nothing at all that i don't have a clear, grasp hold of. i'm very good at keeping track of my finances.).

but once i really started getting into this book, i realised this book is absolutely nothing like me or could ever be based on me at all. this character literally has no self control and lies her way out of every single situation (to people she loves) and my interpretation suggests she doesn't feel an inch of remorse. i am not like this, nor could i ever be like this. even aware of her out of control debt, she stills spends money on things she doesn't need, trying to justify it to herself (even though there's no way anyone could justify the kind of purchase she makes - she's nuts.) literally ignoring letter upon letter from the bank throwing them away or putting them in a drawer, just pretending that they don't exist. i don't know how anyone could ever be like this. if i ever got even one letter from the bank, i'd shit my pants - i know personally i wouldn't spend another unnecessary cent until everything i owed had been paid. i just cannot fathom anyone who could be like this. anyone. it's crazy.

that being said, i did read this book within a 24hr time period. i just cannot help myself. i am a chick-lit lover, no matter how much i ever try to deny it. it's so easy and i usually find it hard to stop reading so i hardly ever put a book down once i start.
i want to change, but i can't. i am who i am, and i love a terrible chick-lit read more often than not. sigh. send me to chick-lit anonymous if it must be done.
i don't think you can really hate a book if once you finish it you instantly download the next one in the series. yep. i'm that sad...

on to book two....

see previous reviews for other books in the series.... they're all the same.



i cannot get over the dreamworld a few of these characters live in. anyone would think they're the sun and everything revolves around them. it's ridiculous!! (but i can't stop reading...)

truly the most irritating and dumbest main character ever invented in literary history!! (not that i'd call this literature...)

i wanted to hug her sister halfway through the book after she lost her shit at her. i was so happy! haha..

same old, same old.

i can't fathom anyone this loopy becoming a parent. it would be like a crystal meth addict becoming a mum, except it's a compulsive, lying shopaholic becoming a mother - she'll give her kid such great life lessons.... not!

frustrating (yet cannot stop reading. i hate myself.

this book was completely worth it for the last 60 pages...
it completely wasn't what i thought it was going to be!.

i love that the fourth langdon book went back to europe. none of this boring american history stuff for me. back to a great langdon adventure..

didn't like it as much as angels and demons but i had to give a five because it had so much historic references paired with evolving scientific advances towards the end i couldn't not give brown a pat on the back for some very good work.

Incredibly easy book to read which I breezed through in a day. I'm overly empathetic so struggled through a few of these pages but the story was quite interesting.

However it seemed disjointed. Told through two protagonists Herta and Ernst illustrating their marriage though individual narratives which didn't seem to mesh together as one story cohesively. I found the first half of the book (Herta) to be colourful and descriptive and the last third of the book (Ernst) to be quite tedious and stale.

To top it off there was a handful of monologues from a dead baby Panda woven throughout that didn't seem to belong at all. It interrupted the flow of the story and was quite overbearing.