Kinsella, S: I Owe You One

It happens not often that there are so many despicable characters in one book! Here you find them galore: Jake, Nicole, Ryan, Uncle Ned... It made me cringe every time when they were selfish, ignorant and/or outright mean to Fixie. Now, she on the other hand is a real gem, and I couldn't believe that she and Jake and Nicole were really brought up by the same parents and then turned out so very differently. Fixie has to fix everything, she can't help it, it's her flaw. (That's how she introduces herself, and I always had to think of Fix-it Felix from the Disney movie "Wreck it, Ralph!") I think her biggest 'flaw' is that she is such a pushover. She is too kind-hearted, too well-mannered, too anxious and sometimes even too naive to have her say! But, to be fair, she has reasonable explanations why she behaves that way (it still made me cringe as well).

The Farr family runs a shop for household goods in London, and with Mum out of the way the three siblings each has their own idea about the future of the shop. The reader senses right from the start: it has to get worse before it gets better. The only question is: how worse, and how can they save it then? That they will do it is propably no great spoiler, after all this is a Kinsella book!

I did like reading about Fixie, about her troubles in the shop and also her troubles with the men in her life, even though sometimes I really only wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her awake. But she comes to it all by herself, and finally sees sense.
The transformation of some characters is a bit overdone (Jake!!), but overall it's a good turn-out. Some of the supporting characters were either really amiable (Leila, Hannah, Morag) or funny (Greg, Stacey).
And I really loved the ending with Fixie and Seb in Café Allegro! Soo sweet!
The writing style of Sophia Kinsella is impeccable once again, it is so easy and pleasant to read.