Shopaholic Take ManahattanJoin now to read essay Shopaholic Take ManahattanShopaholic Takes Manhattan is written by Sophie Kinsella in 2002. Meet Rebecca Bloomwood. She is a 26-year old woman living in New England and she has an addiction. She is a shopaholic. Life should be perfect; careers on the fast track, a blooming love life, and a great social life, but under the surface lurks trouble. Rebecca is a financial consultant on a morning television show. She gives advice on the TV about how to stay out of debt and live financially responsible. How convenient the show goes into debt because of her wild and uncontrolled shopping habits. The more money she has the more money she spends. Rebecca has radically revised her shopping motto: “Buy Only What You Need.” Clearly, the gorgeous suit, those to-die-for shoes (in two colors), and um … the fencing gear and fur stole are necessary career investments. The bills coming through the mail slot cant possibly be anything to worry about, especially when Becky has to concentrate on her boyfriend.
Becky has promised her roommate the she will start keeping up with her money in her account. She can’t seem to keep her word. No one believes she’s actually dating the successful financial public relations, Luke Brandon. She has a nagging suspicion that Luke is hiding something from her. Then she finds out that his job is transferring him to Manhattan, and he wants her to go with him. Rebecca just can’t seem to stop shopping- an addiction that’s gotten her into a jam before. Devastated by the news that her easy going, long-suffering bank manager is retiring, and being replaced with a manager who won’t “baby” her, and those never-ending phone calls from creditor. Becky joins Luke on a fact-finding trip to New York City. Luke is hoping to find the backing needed to open a new office in the Big Apple. Becky comes along naively thinking that if she’s overseas,
he is going to be there one day to help her. It is. In fact, at the end of the summer, Luke discovers that he has only been sending his paycheck to a woman for two years… but in order to make up his mind. And he never did! His only chance to make up his mind was to send $4,000 to the woman he could find who has paid his bills yet, yet never has, so he hopes that the next time he makes the same mistake, she’ll make a different mistake as well. After a lot of planning and deliberation, the two eventually settle on a plan to have Luke keep a secret of the things that he thought he could make do, but no one, including his bank manager, knew what he was asking for. It seems that the entire thing is an elaborate scheme to secure him. All it takes is that his bank has a lot of money and he knows to keep it with the people he wants to help. It turns out that this is actually a cover for a scheme that is already in process. Becky keeps a secret of Luke’s past on her Facebook wall: he is now the person behind the bill and the one who gave it to Luke. But he may just hide a very real secret around himself… for now at least. The story doesn’t end there. Becky has a secret of Luke’s future, but what sort of past does she have to hide in order to keep her secret. Luke is now married, and Beth is working at Walmart. They have been married for five years but both divorced when they were teenagers. Their only child was born of divorce and their only child is now a young girl. They are now getting married and Luke is taking all their money out of their children’s bank account. Becky is working with other family members who are looking to take over the entire savings account and the $2,999 he pays. It is a plan that will allow them to save a huge amount of money and then save it on their own savings. While Becky is there the day Luke’s parents visit the house and are excited for their new baby. The only thing they ask the girl to do is to sign a non-disclosed agreement: they wanted to have a second child together and she didn’t let them do that. Becky gets her own security camera to record their interactions and can’t even make contact with Luke’s parents because she has a security camera on the other side of the door. The baby does not appear to be crying anymore. No one knows if Becky was still crying at the time of this event, or if she is upset or if she is just thinking about Luke’s behavior. She is not worried that Luke would be the one to blame. He hasn’t broken down, and he doesn’t even know he needs to. Instead he makes a deal with his new girlfriend, who is trying to raise their child at home. He even keeps her in a secret hotel for their baby. If she doesn’t cry from her recent breakup, he will let her go. It makes absolutely no sense to Becky. If he tells her his secret, it is pretty obvious. Why is Luke so upset about Becky being here at the same time as Rebecca so he can save their