Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista by Amy Silver: Review

Chick Lit comes in all forms and covers all scenarios; weddings, career change, holidays as well as the recession. Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista is the story of Cassie Cavanagh who works as a PA in the City for an investment bank. While her job may not be the most fulfilling in the world, she enjoys the perks that comes with it. With a handsome boyfriend who showers her with fancy gifts such as Jimmy Choo shoes, a flatshare in a trendy part of South London and all the luxurIes she can think - life is pretty good for Cassie.  However her life begins to unravel when she is made redundant and on top of that her wonderful boyfriend dumps her for another woman. With life on the dole, Cassie soon finds out that funemployment is far from fun and she has to learn how to live on a budget. This means goodbye to all her little perks such as coffee from Starbucks, trips to her posh gym, manicure, pedicures and massages and membership to Shoreditch House and back to basics. Unfortunately, frugal is not a word that Cassie is familiar with but she soon learns to embrace it and learns a lot about herself in the process.

When I first came across this book I obviously thought of The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. The book is as funny as its counterpart and also has a really engaging protanganist but while Becky Bloomwood in Shopaholic led a bit of a fairytale, Cassie's story is a bit more true to life. For a start she does not just land a glam TV job with hardly any effort. We see Cassie apply for job after job and undertake the most mundane tasks in order to meet her rent as well as taking on a temp job where she is treated like shit. Tenacity is the word that can be used to describe Cassie and I would compare her Karyn Bosnak, a lady who exercised grit and determination in order to get out of debt. Cassie's best mates, Ali and Jude offer her a dose of reality as they help to get her back on track with her life. Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista is a warm tale and a great read as well as a fantastic debut by Amy Silver and I am really looking forward to her second book, All I Want for Christmas. There are rumours that Amy Silver is writing a follow up to Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista and it would certainly be interesting to see what the anti Becky Bloomwood gets up to next.