Book Review: The Secret Shopper Unwrapped by Kate Harrison

Emily, Sandie and Grazia are back! The Secret Shopping angels are still shopping, but this time they've got the Christmas season to contend with. Emily is happily living with Will and her son Freddie in their shop, but with the recession times are tough and Emily isn't sure the shop can survive, never mind her relationship with Will.

Sandie is now running her own Secret Shopping business and living with boyfriend Tom but there's something nagging Sandie in the back of her mind and soon that something is about to become crystal clear.

Finally, widow Grazia has decided its time to move on with her life and to get herself a man but is convinced her age is holding her back. With the season of goodwill and joy upon them, will the 3 women get their happy endings?

I first read Kate Harrison's first book with these character, The Secret Shopper's Revenge, last year when it was first released and I loved it. The characters were great, it showed a good side of an industry we are all involved in one way or another but it was just a really good read as well. When I found out that Kate was writing another Secret Shopping book I was delighted, and luckily for me the publishers Orion sent me a copy to review for this site, and I started it almost the moment it dropped through my letterbox! The official cover is gorgeously festive with its red and silver ribbons and stars, and it certainly is the perfect book to read in the run up to Christmas (which has apparently already started in Tesco and Sainsburys!).

The book picks up a while after the original book, but with the same 3 women leading our story. Emily is again the most prominent of the three, but this was great for me as she is my favourite character of the books! Emily has found love with the lovely Will, who is just the nicest man in the world! Their storyline is so lovely, it makes you feel all warm but things do come back to earth with a bump for Emily in this book. Still, Harrison manages to keep the essence of Emily while slowly changing her and I enjoyed her development. Sandie is much more likeable in this book as she struggles with her own dilemmas, and I found her much nicer! She appears quite a bit in this book and is the opposite of Emily, but it works and the friendship between the women is genuine and a joy to read.

One story I really enjoyed in this book was Grazia. She has decided to start dating again, and I think the way Harrison has approached this in the book is touching and very realistic. I found the story very uplifting and sweet to read, and I really warmed to Grazia because of it. There is a new character in this book as well which I felt added a new dimension to the book, and her name is Kelly. She's a young girl who ends up working for Sandie and I think her story was very good and tied in well with the more mature women in the book. I felt very sorry for Kelly, but I think Harrison has done a good thing by including her story in the book, and it also shows us the development of Sandie from the first book and how things change.  I liked the addition of a new character, and felt she worked perfectly in the book.

There's plenty of mentions of Christmas throughout the book, and I very much enjoyed these. There is little paragraphs counting down to Christmas at the start of each chapter and these were often funny as they were written as guidelines for stores at Christmastime! There were some laugh out loud moments in the book, such as Emily visiting Santa's Grotto with Freddie in tow on a SS mission, and other things with Emily, but I felt the Christmas spirit was very alive in this book and Kate Harrison has captured the essence of what Christmas is really about to people, as well as the more commercialised side of it as well, and they both blend well to create a well balanced and enjoyable book!

I can imagine this would be a wonderful book to sit and read in the cold December months when your Christmas tree is up, your fire is on and you're all cosy in your house as it is one of those books you will want to sit and devour in the cold evenings. The characters are fantastically written, they're realistic and they are character you can grow to love and care about. Their journeys in this book are all very different, but they all come together to help each other through the good and bad, and thats what you want to read about - something to make you smile. I enjoyed every page of this with its subtle twists and turns along the way to keep you wanting more, and I found it so easy to slip back in with Emily, Sandie and Grazia again, probably because of the easy to read writing style and excellent plot. If you enjoyed The Secret Shopper's Revenge, you'll love this second outing with the secret shoppers, but if you haven't, pick this up anyway as a brilliant read! Oh, and luckily for us... Kate Harrison has hinted to me that she is writing a 3rd Secret Shopper book, hurrah! Highly recommended, a brilliant read.

Rating: 5/5

Thank you to the publishers Orion for sending me a copy to review!

Book Review: The Secret Shopper's Revenge by Kate Harrison

3 women - each hell-bent on revenge against the shopping industry. Emily is a single mum who has been dumped by her husband and is stuck in London with baby Freddie, and trying to upkeep her lifestyle with a tiny budget. She's struggling so when a mystery shopping job opportunity arises, she grabs it with both hands.

Sandie was a Store Manager of a huge department store but when things go terribly for her and she's sacked, she feels lost and abandoned by the industry that she's given her life to, and decides to join Shopping Angels to try to trip up her bosses.

Finally, the leader of the pack is Grazia, an Italian widow who has her own financial worries courtesy of her deceased artist husband. She sees something in the two young women that she likes and employs them as Shopping Angels - will the Angels get their revenge on the shopping world, or is it one mission too far?

This was my first Kate Harrison novel, and I'm not ashamed to say I chose it in the shop because of its gorgeous blue and pink cover which really jumped out at me from the shelf! The plot based around mystery shopping really intrigued me, and I think Harrison has really created a funny yet compelling book here. There is something here for everyone - a single mum, a career girl and a (rather older) widow so the spectrum of characters is quite wide and keeps your attention for the near-400 pages of the book.

The book is told in the first person by 3 different narrators which change from chapter to chapter. Each of the women; Emily, Sandie and Grazia, each take turns at telling us their part of the story. We're given plenty of back story so we can begin to like the women and feel empathy for them because of the terrible things that have happened to them. Out of the three, I could relate mostly to Emily because I've been there when you've got a screaming baby in a pushchair and the assistants are giving you snotty looks even though there's nothing you can do about it! Emily is the comic relief in the book and Harrison writes her dilemmas in an amusing way but I bet most mothers will have experienced several of Emily's problems!

I did initially wonder how far a book based around mystery shopping could go, but thats actually only one small part of this book. It really chooses to focus on the lives of the women and how they begin to build themselves up again despite the bad situations they each find themselves in, and creating new friendships in the least likely of places. I didn't like Grazia at the start and wondered how she fitted into the story but as her character became revealed bit by bit, you begin to understand her and by the end I couldn't imagine the book without her, she was fab! Sandie was another growing character, and one I liked far more at the end that I did towards the start.

I really enjoyed reading Kate Harrison's descriptions of the department store when Sandie used to work. I could imagine in my head the lovely sections, from the lush lingerie to the glorious Christmas displays, and she has a real knack for making the scenes jump off the pages straight into your head! You can also pretty much guarantee that you've met at least one of the awful sales assistants in the book, and I wonder how many of these horrible characters were based on Kate's own experiences of snotty shop people! The scenes with Emily, while funny, are cringing and its beggars belief how shop assistants think they can treat customers in that way!

For me, this book was a wonderful read and one I could totally lose myself in. The three lead women are all likeable, especially Emily, and I think any reader of this book will be able to relate to at least one of the Angels in some ay or another. It's an uplifting book because it shows 3 women being triumphant against the odds, and reading their journey was very fun, and the comedy elements balanaced out their low points, and kept it fresh and moving at a very readable pace. I loved it, and I can't wait for the sequel, The Secret Shopper Unwrapped which is due out in October 2009!

Rating: 5/5

You can read our interview with the author Kate Harrison here: Kate Harrison's interview for Chick Lit Reviews