Running in Heels by Helen Bailey

Running in Heels by Helen Bailey
Buy Running in Heels by Helen Bailey at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: A great riches-to-rags story with characters you'll love. Recommended.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 336	Date: February 2011
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
ISBN: 978-1444900842
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You'd like Daisy Davenport. Her father might be rich but she's a lot nicer than most fourteen year old girls. She's perhaps a little too attached to the good things in life, such as her mother's Louboutins and her own cracked silver Mulberry bag, but as she's always had that sort of lifestyle it's easy to understand why she sees nothing wrong in them. And besides everyone else at her private school has the same sort of lifestyle: some girls don't even look the side you're on unless you have a swimming pool at home.

Then it goes wrong. Her father has been a little creative with his business accounts and there's the dawn raid from the police, a court case and a prison sentence to contend with. The publicity was bad enough – and some of it was really mean – but then there are the debts. The house will have to be sold, they have to borrow a car and Daisy's pony has to go. Worst of all though, Daisy can't return to her private school and has to go to the local comprehensive. The uniform comes from Asda! What could be worse than that? Well, there's a lot worse. Daisy inadvertently stirs up a storm of dislike when she arrives at school and it's not long before she's subjected to some serious bullying. Her old 'friends' don't want to know her and how do you make new friends when the safest place to be is hiding in the toilets?

With the recent cases against high-profile individuals for financial irregularities it's struck me that it's not just the miscreant who pays the penalty. The families might have enjoyed the spoils but the reverse hits them very hard. Helen Bailey captures this well and Daisy's fall from rich bitch to victim is wholly believable and her fight-back quite wonderful.

On the back of the book we're told that it's blisteringly funny and whilst there are moments when I laughed out loud I wouldn't call it blisteringly funny. In places I found it heart-breaking, but it is a very good read and I devoured it over the course of an afternoon and an evening with great enjoyment.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

For more on this theme we can recommend She's So Dead To Us by Kieran Scott.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Running in Heels by Helen Bailey at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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