Every week, I always pop into WH Smith to see the latest books that have been released and also the half price bargains of the week. Although I have a massively full bookshelf which I can't seem to stop from growing, I was pleased to see that they had the new Carmen Reid book on half price ... Read review
Annie Valentine is one ambitious lady but does she know when to stop? Uber-busy Annie ... more
Valentine - mum to two demanding children and personal shopper in a swanky London fashion store - is now intent on setting up a business of her own. She has ambition...
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Uber-busy Annie Valentine - mum to two demanding children and personal shopper in a swanky ... more
London fashion store - is now intent on setting up a shoe and handbag empire of her own, and she'll do anything to get there. But what about her adorable new man?
Advantages: Good story, more likeable than the first Disadvantages: Annie's still annoying!
Every week, I always pop into WH Smith to see the latest books that have been released and also the half price bargains of the week. Although I have a massively full bookshelf which I can't seem to stop from growing, I was pleased to see that they had the new Carmen Reid book on half price offer this week, and although I wasn't all that keen on the prequel to this book, I thought it was worth £3.49 and decided to buy it and give Ms Reid another read! ... ...Carmen Reid's bestseller, The Personal Shopper. We return to the character of Annie Valentine who is where we left her at the end of the pevious book. She's loved up with Ed, a handsome teacher, and her 2 children Lana and Owen. Annie's job as personal shopper is still going well, but Annie is determined to branch out on her own, even though Ed isn't too keen. But even so, Annie sets about creating her own business, involving a small family holiday ... more
Every week, I always pop into WH Smith to see the latest books that have been released and also the half price bargains of the week. Although I have a massively full bookshelf which I can't seem to stop from growing, I was pleased to see that they had the new Carmen Reid book on half price offer this week, and although I wasn't all that keen on the prequel to this book, I thought it was worth £3.49 and decided to buy it and give Ms Reid another read!
This book is a sequel to Carmen Reid's bestseller, The Personal Shopper. We return to the character of Annie Valentine who is where we left her at the end of the pevious book. She's loved up with Ed, a handsome teacher, and her 2 children Lana and Owen. Annie's job as personal shopper is still going well, but Annie is determined to branch out on her own, even though Ed isn't too keen. But even so, Annie sets about creating her own business, involving a small family holiday to Italy, a rather suave Italian business-men and family fights galore. Can Annie make it work, and will she and Ed survive the turbulent times?
You might be thinking why am I reading this book if I didn't like the prequel, but I must say, I'm not one to write someone off after just one book, so I did want to give Carmen Reid another try...and of course, this being a bargain helped! Anyway, I will straight away that I really did enjoy this one a lot more than the first one, I just felt it read a lot more pleasantly, the characters were nicer and it was just a much better read in my opinion. I feel that the main reason for this was because the main character of Annie was a lot funnier and much more likeable in this book than the last. I liked how her relationship with Ed had mellowed her out a bit, and therefore the story between these two was believable and a really nice love story to read.
It is almost as if Reid has taken the characters from the previous novel, taken a good look at them, given them a shake and created this book about them. Annie's children feature quite heavily in this book, and she has given a great view of a 16 year old stroppy teenage girl and a shy musically gifted 10 year old lad. Again though, I found Annie's attitude to parenting a tad annoying and a bit lacklustre, although the way she has developed Ed, Lana and Owen's relationship is well done, and a credit to step-parenting in novels. As well as this family, Annie's sister Dinah and daughter Billie are in this book much more and are again nice enough characters.
My favourite bit of the book was definitely the section set in Italy, which I would say is the middle third of the book. What is supposed to be a nice family getaway quickly turns mad courtesy of Annie, but it keeps you wanting to turn the pages because of the twists and turns and you as the reader can see exactly what Annie is getting herself into, yet she seems blissfully unaware. Despite being able to see what is going to happen, it was still enjoyable because Annie was hilarious and so naive that you couldn't help but like her and want to find out how she was going to deal with everything. Descriptions of Italy and its countryside were well done, leaving you wanting to be there basking in the sun drinking Italian coffee!
For me, this book was a great improvement on its predecessor and left me feeling sad as I turned the last few pages. If you enjoyed The Personal Shopper, you will definitely like this one so I'd definitely get hold of a copy! Annie is as mad as ever, but it works within the story as everything else seems so relatively calm, it just reads well and almost seems right. The relationship between Ed and Annie is much more detailed and realistic, and I really did love the character of Ed. The mother and children bond is also explored more and Carmen Reid has really approached this in a good way. Shopping as ever is very prevalent in the book, with lots of designer names being dropped, descriptions of gorgeous clothes, accessories and Annie's love of this really comes across. It was a great book to read and I thoroughly enjoyed it, I'm glad I did give Carmen another Reid!
ISBN: 978-0552154833. Published in June 2008 by Corgi Books. The paperback contains 400 pages and is available on Amazon for £3.86 plus postage. For more information on the author, and her other novels with include The Personal Shopper, Did The Earth Move? and Three In A Bed, visit her website www.carmenreid.com.
Advantages: Main character Annie is a bit annoying Disadvantages: Disappointed when it finished
...gave me this book - Late Night Shopping - which according to said friend was "my Cup of tea". I skimmed the blurb on the back of the book and thought it sounded okay, but as I was in the middle of reading a book already I put it to one side and sort of forgot about it for a while..Oops. We were going away in the October half term break for a few days so thought what a good opportunity to take this book with me and get stuck into it.. The story~ Now ... ...Annie's sister Dinah and Annie's late husband's best friend Connor. Dinah at first seemed a low key character, but she features quite heavily throughout the Italy chapter and then the rest of the book, I found myself liking her, slightly more than Annie. She is the younger of the two and not quite as confident as Annie, but with a flair for daring to wear whatever clothes she likes and pulling it off - something which Annie admits she couldn't do. ...
supersonic75 19.11.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Late Night Shopping - Carmen Reid
Advantages: Very readable Disadvantages: I think I preferred the first book a little bit
After reading the first book in this two book series 'The Personal Shopper' I went on to read this quite quickly. I bought them both together from Amazon so was very pleased to say I liked the first book. The second book didn't let me down either. ~The story~ The books together follow personal shopper Annie Valentine on her search for a man and happiness. After the happy ending of the first book you wonder where the second will pick up, in true chick ... ...her new boyfriend Ed met at Annie's sons school where Ed is a music teacher they slowly got together and moved in together. The second books picks up when they have being living together for a year. However Annie has a dream, she wants to set up her own fashion retail business, ok so she doesn't have the money to put forward, surely Ed doesn't need to know all the details? Does he? Annie remortages the house, spends money on an Italian holiday and ...
chantelly 26.03.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Late Night Shopping - Carmen Reid
Advantages: Improved characters Disadvantages: Not the best in the category
...was a little selfish. In Late Night Shopping though, she is still head-strong and ambitious, but she seems to have more awareness of those around her. Annie has had her rough edges softened and she is much more fun to read about. Reid has made her someone that you can empathise with a little more, which had a significant impact on my enjoyment of this book. It isn't only Annie's character that improves in this book, as other characters have a more ... ...a doormat in Late Night Shopping and both her children are feistier, which makes for family-feuds a-plenty. Many of Annie's former clients are also back in this book - giving plenty of fun and frolics. Overall, I found Late Night Shopping to be much more readable and more fun than its predecessor and would recommend that you give this a go if you weren't too sure about the first one. Reid isn't the best in her class by any stretch of the imagination, ...
dkm1981 20.11.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Late Night Shopping - Carmen Reid
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Advantages: Readable, great characters Disadvantages: Makes you want to go and spend a fortune on clothes!
For some reason I have never come across CarmenReid before, I don't know why. I suppose I read the authors I liked and didn't stray far from them. Now I have read all my favourites offerings and have been looking around for other authors. I was spending a voucher on Amazon and the pink cover caught my eye. I found that CarmenReid has written quite a few books and she looked right up my street so I bought this book and its sequel 'LateNightShopping' hoping that I liked the first!
~CarmenReid~
CarmenReid has written nine novels two of which are aimed at teenagers and the others for grown ups (urgh I suppose thats me then!) She has a lovely website www.carmenreid.com which I love looking at since I am very nosy and like to know as much about the author as I do about the book! Carmen lives in Glasgow with her husband and two ...
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