Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista

by Amy Silver

[Leah]

Cassie Cavanagh has a great job, a great boyfriend and earns enough money to keep her in shiny new shoes and fabulous clothes. What Cassie doesn’t reckon on is being sacked from her job due to the recession. Not only that but her boyfriend dumps her for an older woman. Cassie also seems to be spiralling into debt and is forced to listen to flatmate Jude’s advice on money. Can Cassie claw her way out of the recession and stop spending money?

When I first heart about Confessions Of A Reluctant Recessionista I couldn’t wait to read it. I thought it sounded fab. So when I finally got around to picking it up I was incredibly pleased. I was sucked right into Cassie’s world and I enjoyed the book immensely.

As the world is currently going through a recession there’s bound to be a bunch of chick lit books tackling that angle. We’ve had the Shopaholic side from Sophie Kinsella and now we have Amy Silver writing about being a shopaholic in a recession-affected world. This is the first book I’ve read that’s dealt with the recession and time will tell if they’re all the same. For what it’s worth I thought Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista was fabulous. Of course, you might be thinking, “Why on Earth do I want to read about something that’s currently happening, something that’s always in the news; I want a light-hearted read” but believe me, this is light-hearted. I loved the fact it was set in the world we’re in now. Truth is, wouldn’t a book be less believable if we’re reading of a total shopaholic when we’re all struggling at the moment?

As I mentioned I was easily sucked into Cassie’s world and it’s easy to see why she spends so much money. Truth is, Cassie doesn’t know any other way. She’s always had her well-paid job as a PA to fund all of her spending habits so it comes as a complete surprise once she’s out of a job and thus broke. Cassie tries a number of ways to make money. Most notably by walking dogs. Cassie being a dog walker had me laughing out loud. I have two dogs and struggle sometimes to control them so I could imagine what it would be like to have 5 or so to walk at the same time. I like that after Cassie got over the shock of being out of a job and out of a boyfriend she eventually pulled herself together to try and find herself new employment. I also loved how Cassie’s flatmate Jude helped her to try and cut down on her spending; it wasn’t always completely logical but Jude had her heart in the right place. I loved both Cassie and Jude and found them incredibly likeable. They seemed polar opposites to each other; Cassie being a spendaholic and Jude being a bit hippy-like yet I found their friendship totally believable.

There are other characters in the novel. A favourite of mine being Ali, Cassie’s best friend. She seemed a bit mysterious and offish with Cassie for a while but all was revealed eventually. I can’t say that I saw Ali’s surprise coming. I also quite liked Cassie’s family, they too had her best interests at heart. I thought Jake, Jude and Cassie’s friend, was quite sweet and a world away from Dan, Cassie’s ex. It surprised me that Dan didn’t make a reappearance near the end of the book; that’s generally a staple of a chick-lit novel, the ex coming back for a re-appearance! Huge kudos to Amy for not going down that route. I was pleased to see the back of Dan I have to say.

The book is very in the “now” not only with the recession but with Cassie and Jude having Sky Plus, each chapter starting with a Facebook update (Cassie Cavanagh loves her louboutins, for example) and it seemed very modern which I enjoyed. It’s nice when authors can weave things like that into a book to make it more up to date. The book is told entirely in the first person, which was absolutely right for this novel. We didn’t need anybody else’s perspectives; Cassie was more than enough! Amy Silver wrote quite a bit about what it’s like to work in the City (as a PA in Cassie’s case and as a dealer in Ali’s case) but it was easy enough to understand and even I enjoyed learning about it.

I have to admit that the ending was pretty open. I sincerly hope that means Amy Silver is working on a sequel. Cassie Cavanagh could become the anti-Becky Bloomwood and I’d happily read more of Cassie’s adventures. She’s just so incredibly likeable and it’s difficult to dislike her even when she was ignoring Jude’s advice. Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista truly is a great read and I wholly recommend it, it’s definitely one of the best debuts around.