Reviewed by Trashi reader, Stella
Shoe Addicts Anonymous is the story of four women who are brought together by their love of shoes. Lorna, deep in debt starts a shoe swap group as a way of being able to have new shoes without paying for them; Helene is the wife of an ambitious politician dissatisfied with her choices in life; Sandra, an overweight telephone sex-line operator with self-esteem issues that have plunged her into agoraphobia; Jocelyn, a nanny for the family from hell who doesn't know a Jimmy Choo from a Manolo Blahnik (neither do I) but who needs to get out of the house she works in on Tuesday evenings.
They form a new friendship based on their common interest but which extends past that and reaches further than they imagined, changing their lives for ever.
This is the type of chick lit book that chick lit detractors really love to hate. It's pink and it has shoes on the cover. Well to them I simply put my fingers in my ear and sing, "la la la la la!" loudly because I loved it.
I know it's fairly formulaic and predictable - I could spot the love story before the author had probably even written it, but I still got a thrill from the first kiss - but the characters were lovely and endearing enough in their strengths and weaknesses to balance that out.
The story moved swiftly along with a couple of teeny plot twists, one I picked from the beginning, the other which made me gasp out loud. Probably my only complaint is that there were a couple of loose ends left untied, but I read this book in one sitting on a sunny afternoon on the balcony and it was the perfect accompaniment to the day.
Rating: 4/5
Like this? Try The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
