Book Review: Kept by Elle Field

I received a copy of Kept by Elle Field in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
‘Did she really just say that? I am fifteen again, except the reality is I am experiencing full parental horror, aged twenty-five. I want to die.’

Life hasn’t quite worked out how Arielle Lockley imagined it would. Becoming the next Coco Chanel was always her childhood dream, but she’s spent the past four years living a dizzying whirl of glitzy parties, luxurious holidays and daily shopping sprees – all paid for by boyfriend Piers – and not doing anything to make her Coco dreams happen.

When the recession hits, it’s not just the economy that takes a tumble and Arielle finds herself living back with her parents, on bad terms with Piers, and having a CV that’s as welcome as a pair of knock-off Jimmy Choos. And maybe it’s the location, but she’s also finding unwelcome thoughts of her childhood sweetheart are popping into her head…

What’s a girl to do? Can Arielle figure out what it is she now wants to do with her life and move on, or will she be doomed to spend the rest of her life dwelling over her worst mistakes, stuck listening to her parents’ embarrassing dinner table talk each night?
Review:
This might be a bit of a strange review, because I was kind of all over the place with this book. There were moments I loved, parts I disliked, areas where I was scratching my head, and then scenarios that made me laugh out loud. The bottom line – I enjoyed this book. Arielle was a funny character, someone who I thought of as unique and spirited. It was a little hard to really stand behind her when she did nothing but seemingly mooch off her boyfriend for four years, but I could see how Piers wasn’t doing much to help that situation. Sometimes the romance between her childhood sweetheart tripped me up. I don’t like to give anything away in my reviews, but the ending was where I was scratching my head. Sometimes I disliked too that everything was quite easy for her. I know we see her penniless and homeless for a few pages, but really, she was quite fine throughout the book. And even in the end when she wanted to do something on her own, an opportunity just fell into her lap. I liked that she ran with the opportunity and really worked hard at it, but still – she didn’t have to do much to make it happen in the first place. With that being said, like I stated earlier, I enjoyed this book. I was sucked into Arielle’s strange little world and I thought the writing was quite snappy and fast-paced. So even though I think I had a love/confusion relationship with Arielle, she still thoroughly entertained me.
4 stars