6 Sophie Kinsella books for your feel-good shelf

Sophie Kinsella, who has died at 55, had a rare gift: creating characters who could trip over their own shoelaces, fall face-first into chaos, and still charm you into rooting for them. Her heroines knew how to turn every chaos-ridden moment into a masterpiece.

While Confessions of a Shopaholic may forever be her signature masterpiece — complete with its 2009 film adaptation starring Isla Fisher — it’s only one sparkly gem in a dazzling career.

Across more than two decades, Sophie Kinsella wrote over 30 novels, including a whole collection published under her real name, Madeleine Wickham. Here are five novels that kept readers laughing — and feeling extremely seen for nearly three decades.

Becky’s got a serious case of bridal FOMO after watching her best friend Suze glide down the aisle.

So when Luke finally proposes, it should be the fairytale moment of her dreams. Instead? She’s caught in the crossfire of two determined mothers — each hell-bent on planning their version of the perfect wedding. Cue the dress fittings, meltdowns, and a full-blown matrimonial circus.

Wickham became “Sophie Kinsella,” and the world gained Becky Bloomwood — the woman who put the “iconic” in “economically questionable decisions.”

Becky is a financial journalist who spends like she’s personally responsible for stimulating the global economy. Her fantasies are legendary — like a kindly stranger magically paying her terrifying credit card bill while she politely covers the cost of their cat food.

The hit 2009 film Confessions of a Shopaholic brought her lovable chaos to the screen, starring Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy.

Kinsella specialized in getting her characters into maximum trouble, and Emma Corrigan is Exhibit A. She has a respectable job, a devastatingly handsome boyfriend, and the general composure of a caffeinated squirrel.

Emma’s life is a highlight reel of tiny disasters — unbuttoned blouses, soda mishaps, and the occasional inconvenient truth spilling out at the worst possible moment. Her secrets range from petty office mischief to deeply relatable quirks like holding back laughter at, well… intimate moments: “just normal, everyday little secrets.”

The book was adapted into a 2019 movie starring Alexandra Daddario and Tyler Hoechlin.

Samantha Sweeting is a high-flying London lawyer who snaps one day, hops on a train, and ends up working as a housekeeper — despite having the domestic skill set of a damp paperclip.

“I had so much fun charting Samantha’s comedy disasters in the kitchen, her battles with the ironing board, her gradual slowing down and relaxing and finding love,” Kinsella wrote.

It’s the ultimate “maybe work-life balance does matter” story — but with more burnt soufflés.

Meet Lara Lington: 27, recently dumped, professionally stressed, and suddenly being haunted by her fabulous flapper-girl great aunt Sadie. Ghost Sadie sends her on a mission to recover a missing necklace — because why wouldn’t your twenties include a supernatural scavenger hunt?

Lara’s also juggling parental pressure, work chaos, and the fact that she lies so often she’s basically running a one-woman improv troupe. “Seven lies,” she notes of one chat with her parents. “Not including all the ones about Mum’s outfit.”

In I’ve Got Your Number, Poppy Wyatt believes her life is perfectly on track as she plans to marry her fiancé, Magnus. But after a string of mishaps – including a lost engagement ring and an accidentally stolen phone – she becomes entangled with a businessman named Sam, in a story so funny it reportedly had Jojo Moyes “giddy with laughter.”