Customer Reviews

She'll Take it

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As the author of "Something for Nothing: Shoplifting Addiction and Recovery" I was eager to read Mary Carter's book about a shoplifting addict/kleptomaniac. While our books are certainly different, I enjoyed the story and found that Ms. Carter's heroine's "secret life" of angst rang true with the many people who also suffer from this baffling behavioral disorder. I know many more people shoplift than we think and this book may help readers get a glimpse into this behavior as well as into themselves. The feelings and themes in the book are universal.

This book is incredibly addictive!!!! It gave me the same feeling I get when I watch Sex & The City or eat chocolate, I just wanted more at the end! Loved it!!!!!

I wanted this nutty, funny and vulnerable character to stop stealing, but I also couldn't help relishing it every time she did. I loved this character and rooted for her all the way. Didn't want it to end.

I have a confession to make, I am a thief! Every chance I get I steal a moment to read Mary Carters book "She'll Take It!". Twenty minutes hear, forty-five minutes there, (if I am really lucky and don't get caught) an hour here. I can't help myself, I have to read this book! I wish I could just sit down and finish the whole thing in one sitting - its a page turner! Its rare I laugh out loud from a book, but I constantly found myself doing so at every cafe', every bus ride, every morning before the kids get up. Whenever (and wherever) I can find a quiet moment to steal, I take it!

Melanie Zeitgar is a completely real and likable character. The book made me feel like I was eavesdropping on a handful of girlfriends in some outta the way cafe' in New York City. It felt like a real life version of "Sex and the City" (where people actually worry about their next paycheck). On top of that you get to do something that has eluded single men everywhere for ages - you get a rare look into the mind of a real women and hear how she thinks! The f/x network would have a goldmine of good programming if they green lit this authors property!

I would like to say that I wanted to give it 3.5 stars. There were parts I just liked & parts that I laughed that I loved the book. I just couldn't give the book anymore than 4 stars. I was going to give 3 stars, but I am going to give benefit of the doubt on this book.
I probably wouldn't reread this book, as I have on other books that I have read throughout the years.

Melanie is a young, aspiring actress that deals with her stress by shoplifting. She knows that it's wrong, but she just can't resist the "warm-all-over-feeling" that she gets when she takes just "a little something" home after a bad day. Although this is a serious problem, I enjoyed the way that Mary Carter tackles this sensitive topic by mixing humor with the crimes. She doesn't make it okay to be a thief and we get to see how Melanie is negatively affected by her chosen hobby.

Despite the grand larceny angle, this was a "gumdrop" of chick-lit - sweet and delicious! She reminded me a little of Becky in Confessions of a Shopaholic, one of the reviews on the back of this book even compares her to Becky, but it's a totally different story and although it was funny, there was a deeper message behind the story of her kleptomania and Mary Carter was gifted in the way she gave out clues that all was not always right in Melanie's world.

There's even a little Emma Corrigan of Can You Keep a Secret? In this plot line, as Melanie, like Emma, finds a burgeoning attraction to her boss, but this story stands alone as a very special kind of chick lit story - I have to applaud Carter's creativity in choosing this controversial storyline and giving readers a peek into the many reasons why someone would steal. It's not just greed or lack of money - this shoplifter gains something greater than the object itself and while Melanie admits that it's wrong, she just can't seem to stop helping herself - to other people's stuff!

Mary Carter is a gifted story-teller and keeps things exciting as we get to watch Melanie as she almost gets caught many times and we're like, "yeah, right" each time she swears she'll never steal again. So, in the end, does Melanie get caught and get sent to "the big house" to pay for her crimes? Does her boss find out that she's "criminal-minded"? It's fun being "on the run" with Melanie to see if she thinks it's worth it in the end and to find the answer to the age-old question..."does crime pay?"

A rather unconventional heroine is Melanie but that makes her all the more interesting and fun. Serious issues slink through this book but the author treats them with sensitive humor. I found myself often laughing out loud while reading this novel. Well done Ms. Carter.

After every binge, Melanie Zeitgar vows never again. However, the cycle repeats itself whenever something goes wrong. So the wannabe actress fails to get a part that auditioned for, she steals from some store; she breaks up with a boyfriend, she shoplifts; visits from mom; monster thievery; her vibrator has no battery, "stealaholic" at work. Melanie is a kleptomaniac having an urge to purloin stuff whenever she perceives something has gone wrong in her life.

Currently she is binging on chocolate and shoplifting as her squeeze, Ray the musician, has failed to call her. However, as she rationalizes his failure to communicate by wondering if her beloved might have been in an accident, she meets a hunk whose heart she must steal as he has purloined hers, but the problem is he is also the guy who could send her to jail for robbery.

Though Melanie is an interesting character, she is also unlikable and consequently will not gains reader sympathy for her kleptomania. Still her thieving reactions to anything she deems negative makes her a fascinating protagonist especially how often afterward she vows not to steal again. The chick lit format allows some extra insight into her personality, but the underlying deep rooted psychological causes of her kleptomania are revealed in the latter half of the tale after the audience's opinion on the protagonist is cemented.

Harriet Klausner

I picked up this book after reading a review on the back by an author who states "move over shopaholic". Being an avid reader of Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series, this caught my attention. I just finished it and was extremely disappointed in this poor attempt to capture the witty style Kinsella has mastered. The problem was, the author chose a dark context. The main character launches into narratives fantasizing about her own demise and clearly has developed her habit due to severe emotional trauma. This is not the light, witty read I expected in the least. Also, the author uses several lines directly from the TV series Friends (needless to say, credit was not given to the writers on Friends) including a female character responding to a male character's feminine antics with a cutesy "You're pretty." -just as Rachel said to Ross when he emerged from Emma's bassinet with a bow on his head. Very unoriginal. This could have been an interesting plot for a story, but it was poorly written, used "borrowed" material and really should not be considered in the same genre as Kinsella. If you want to read humerous "chick lit" about shopping, this is not it.