Book Review: Shoe Addicts Anonymous

Book: Shoe Addicts Anonymous (Shoe Addict book #1) by Beth Harbison

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

Shoe Addicts Anonymous felt like I was reading a modern day fairy tale with the four women in the story having really awful lives but near the end everything turns out great for them.

This interconnecting story centers around four women living in Washington, D.C., their messed up lives and shoes. First, is Lorna Rafferty who is in extreme debt but she still can't stop buying designer shoes. She is a true shoe addict and all the hours she works as a waitress isn't putting a dent in her bills if she won't stop shopping.

Second is Helene Zaharis, a wife of a politician who is living a life of privilege and luxury but her life is anything but great. Her husband is mean, controlling and adulterous. Helen's living a life she doesn't know how to get out of. The only way she deals with the stress of trying to be the perfect politician's wife is by shoe shopping.

Third is Sandra Vanderslice who suffers from an extreme fear or anxiety of leaving her apartment. She's also suffers from low self-esteem and is trying to get in shape and lose weight. To make a living, she works as a phone sex operator which thanks to her numerous callers earns her a good amount of money which she also uses to buy designer shoes.

Fourth is Jocelyn Bowen a live in nanny who works for a demanding and demeaning family. She was only hired on to take care of the two little boys but their mother seems to think that a nanny means housekeeper as well. Jocelyn has allowed her employers to take advantage of her time by making outrageous demands that she feels obligated to do. She would quit but the mother keeps threatening to sue so she's stuck for now. Out of the four she was the only one who was not a true shoe addict.

These four women meet after Lorna who was trying to get a handle on her shoe addiction puts an ad on-line at a Craigslist like site advertising a group called Shoe Addicts Anonymous. The group would meet every Tuesday and exchange shoes.

Helene saw the ad after having one of her worse days ever, she had been caught shoplifting a pair of expensive shoes after her husband cut off her credit cards but thanks to her husband's high profile she didn't get arrested. Helene had saw the ad before she had to attend yet another boring party hosted by one of husband's politician friends. Going to the party added another problem for her, a photographer was trying to extort money from her and if she didn't pay, he was going to publish the photos of her shoplifting ordeal.

Sandra on the advice of her therapist suggested she find ways to get out of her home, so she decided to attend the meeting to not only meet new friends and deal with her anxiety.

Jocelyn started attending the meetings only as a way to get out the house because the family was becoming unbearable.

As the women meet up and start to become friends, they eventually begin sorting out their problems and figure out ways to fix them. I enjoyed this very much it was funny but also had a little bit of drama as these women try to take charge of their messy and out of control lives.

I thought the writing was solid and the story and characters kept me interested all the way to the last page.