my thoughts on: I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

Bantam Press, 2012

click here to read the synopsis

I've literally just finished reading this book a few minutes ago and all I have to say about it right now is: 

WHY can't my life be a Sophie Kinsella novel!??? 

Just, why not??

And from looking on Goodreads I just realised this is the first SK novel I have read since last year! Why has it taken me this long? I have a small pile of SK novels on my bookshelves sitting there unread. 

Oh my gosh. I just loved this story SO SO MUCH. (the extra intensifier is warranted, I swear!)

Sophie Kinsella is the royal queen of chick lit. Or if not, she should be. Her books are the only books I ever read from this genre, bar the Moriarty sisters. Her writing style is immaculate - not in the sense that it's clean and tidy but that it is (in my eyes) flawless and just perfect. She is simply an awesome storyteller. You know how comedians tell their funny stories and they have a gift for making a possibly mediocre anecdote absolutely hilarious? This is the same thing here with Sophie Kinsella. Except in my opinion the artistic medium of literature is on a level up a few notches from stand up comedy. Now that I've explained how funny SK's writing is, I need to mention how much I love her actual English. The vocabulary is so clever, I find myself looking up words I want to incorporate into my own daily vocab - it all just enhances the already clever prose. There's a phrase that Poppy says once which I found so funny that I dog-eared the page so that I could go back to it and use it for myself sometime : "I don't see why I need to answer. Two can play at selective deafness." 

And oh, I just caught myself heaving a big sigh, sad the book's over. Hmmm. 

I love Poppy. She's kind of a push over but still lovable all the same. When Sam was confronting her about how she doesn't like to confront people or things, he sort of struck a tender chord with Poppy and as she nearly broke down in that restaurant I had to tear my eyes away from the page because I was almost-breaking-down right with her! This book made me laugh so very much, but it made me weep too. At least once I found myself crying and laughing at the same time. And I was practically SOBBING at the part where Poppy sends him the picture text message of her in her wedding dress just about to walk down the aisle, and then Sam replies with a flurry of SMS's saying No, No no no no no, sad-face emoticon, etc. 

I just adore Sam and Poppy's relationship, especially the strange circumstance in which it was born. What's more is they both help each other grow as a person, and change each other for the better. It was like watching a beautiful flower bloom, except not as slow and boring (I mean, who has the time or willpower to stand in their garden watching their plants grow? Not me, is what I'm saying). 

I can't say I was entirely enamoured of all the characters in the book, but seriously, it doesn't even matter when the story and the writing is top notch, and I had Poppy and Sam and some other good characters to cling on to.

All in all, this book is amazing. Its only very tiny minor fault would be that the events and circumstances are often quite unrealistic, and a more critical reader might read parts and think 'Well, a normal person would do this or that and then they wouldn't be in such strife, blah blah blah.' But I don't really care about stuff like that too much because come on, this is a work of fiction. 

Deal with it. 

I love Queen Sophie Kinsella and she will never disappoint me.