I Owe You One : Book Review

I bet Sophie Kinsella can write bestselling chick-lits even in sleep. This is not one of her best works, but I am unabashedly biased when it comes to her. You can’t read Sophie Kinsella and not feel nice by the end. I won’t say reading I Owe You One was one heck of an experience, but it wasn’t disappointing. The book had all the usual Kinsella elements to make it uplifting and feel-good.

I Owe You One is essentially not only romance. Fixie, the heroine, is twenty-seven years old, works in her Mum’s store, and is still living sort of an emotionally chaotic life. She is nice and kind and even goofy like most of the other Kinsella heroines. She is a typical good person (who appears like a loser just because she is always the opposite of ruthless, at all times) who also has the OCD to fix things/lives of people she loves. It’s kind of interesting to see the range of bonds she shares with her family and friends and how she deals with all of the different people in her life.

There’s a meet-cute. Sebastian is the love of her life who she keeps “running into”, till finally (ALL OF A SUDDEN) they start dating.  Although, Seb is a do-gooder and so is Fixie, so I always got good vibes from their love story. It was all cute, every time they met each other, and how they were nice to each other. BUT, Seb seems a bit flaky. I couldn’t understand his relationship with Briony. It’s off one moment, then it’s on. Just doesn’t make sense. On one hand, you are saying Seb and Fixie are mature and sensible, and on the other, there’s so much inconsistency going on esp. when they fight. Having said all this, I still liked their story and believed in them(two semi-toxic people finally making it in the end). Emotions were palpable but the technicalities about the plot and characters were haywire.

Now let’s talk about the other characters esp. her siblings. Their portrayal and character arc are flakier than Seb’s. One moment they are a nightmare and then just like that, after one intervention, they straighten out themselves and their lives. I wish changing yourself and others was this easy.

Although the story is good, Fixie is likable and her journey from being an unassured girl with baggage to being assertive and forward-looking is no doubt fun to read. But the book is lacking consistency and is not well thought out when it comes to characters. I hate to say this but Seb is my least favorite Kinsella hero of all time. I don’t like him and don’t find him reliable.  Now that I think about it, Fixie can do better?

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Happy Reading. Chao!

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