Sophie Kinsella Books in Order

Sophie Kinsella - Madeleine Wickham behind the pen name - wrote the modern chick-lit classic: Becky Bloomwood, the financial journalist who cannot stop shopping, debuted in Confessions of a Shopaholic (2000), sold over forty million copies worldwide, and became a film and a nine-novel series. Around Becky ran a parallel career of standalones built on the same engine - one woman, one catastrophic secret, comic escalation, a warm landing. In February 2024 she announced a brain tumor diagnosis; her novel about a writer recovering from brain surgery (October 2024) turned out to be her last book while she lived - she died in December 2025, aged 55, with her final comic novel The Burnout (2023) already on the shelf. This page sequences both careers (2000–2024).

Where to start

Confessions of a Shopaholic (2000), Becky #1 - the door, and the book that defined the genre. Readers who want a standalone instead: Can You Keep a Secret 2003 or My Not So Perfect Life (2017), the late-career best.

Does the reading order matter?

The Shopaholic series runs in strict order, nine novels 2000-2019 - Becky's story is continuous (shopaholic, sister, baby, sister again, Manhattan, minimalism, Christmas, sister's daughter, and the 2019 finale), and its own page here lists every book. The standalones are pick-any-order, one secret each: Can You Keep a Secret (2003), The Undomestic Goddess (2005), Remember Me 2008, Twenties Girl (2009), I've Got Your Number (2012), Wedding Night (2013), My Not So Perfect Life (2017), Surprise Me (2018), I Owe You One (2019), Love Your Life (2020), The Party Crasher (2021), The Burnout (2023). What Does It Feel Like (2024) stands apart - autobiographical fiction about her illness. She also wrote as Madeleine Wickham before 2000 (seven novels, separate shelf) and the Fairy Mom and Me children's line.

Which one is the best?

Confessions of a Shopaholic (2000), the genre-defining debut; Can You Keep a Secret (2003), the best pure standalone; What Does It Feel Like (2024), the one that isn't comedy and matters most.

Related guides

Readers finishing this shelf usually want the map next door: Shopaholic books in order, Abby Jimenez books in order, Emily Henry books in order. Every guide follows the same format — the shelf, the entry point, the honest answer about order.

Make it a project

Pick a session size and let the days accumulate — at the pace our reading speed test measures, most shelves above clear in a few weeks of half-hours. Every guide on the books in order shelf follows this same format, and when a book lands, its 8-question quiz is waiting on the original book quiz.