I Owe You One (by Sophie Kinsella)

I have been reading Sophie Kinsella’s novels for more than twelve years now. She is, in my opinion, an excellent writer of light women’s fiction. So I add her novels to my wishlist as soon as they’re available in paperback. I was given ‘I owe you one’ for Christmas, and have just finished reading it.

The main character of the book, who narrates it, is in her twenties and has the slightly unusual nickname of Fixie. We don’t even learn her real name until well into the book, and nobody uses it. She’s the youngest of three siblings, and by far the most organised. She got her nickname because she loves to fix things - indeed, it’s something of a compulsion. She becomes agitated if she sees anything in the wrong place, or a problem that needs to be solved, and she leaps into action. This isn’t always successful, but she hasn’t found out how to stop.

Her older siblings, Jake and Nicole, seem outwardly much more successful. Jake is a businessman, full of ideas and deals; he’s studying for an MBA and mixes with wealthy people, whom he considers a class above his family. Nicole is a dreamer, into yoga and healthy eating, but very vague and easily distracted. She is married to Drew, but he’s away in the Middle East so she’s living at home again.

Their father died a few years ago, but their mother keeps working, often too hard, to keep their family shop going. Fixie works there full-time; she had started her own business but it didn’t work out, so she feels a bit of a failure. Jake and Nicole theoretically help out too, but in practice are rarely there.

Then there’s Ryan, a friend of Jake’s who has been working in the United States, but has returned to the UK. Fixie has been in love with him since they were at school together, and it looks as though they might finally get together. I didn’t trust Ryan at all; it’s a mark of Sophie Kinsella’s clever writing that, even seeing him through Fixie’s rose-coloured glasses, there is something suspicious about him. He talks big, he behaves casually, and he’s remarkably self-centered.

But the real plot of the story starts when Fixie agrees to watch a laptop in a coffee shop while its owner takes a phone call outside. Keeping an eye on it turns into a dramatic rescue and a deluge when the ceiling collapses. And the owner, Seb, says he ‘owes’ Fixie something for this. He writes an IOU on the sleeve of a coffee cup, and she takes it, never expecting to do anything about it or to see him again.

The novel is a delightful mix of romance, family relationships, power struggles, and the development of character for several of the people involved. It’s quite fast-paced, and there is a big cast; but they’re clearly distinguished, so much so that I could even remember who the shop staff were, despite their having relatively minor roles.

There’s a thread about the shop weaving through the novel, with all three siblings having entirely different ideas about what it should sell and how it should run. There’s a storyline about Fixie and Ryan, and another involving Fixie and Seb. There’s a minor subplot involving Fixie’s best friend Hannah, who is a compulsive list-maker. And there’s ongoing family tension, much of it not as caricatured as it might seem at first glance. I could recognise traits of several people in folk I know.

It’s light-hearted, with places where I smiled, but it also involves some significant issues, with explorations of relationships and family dynamics. It’s an easy read, which I finished in a couple of days; but it has some thought-provoking ideas too, about honesty and trust.

It won’t be to everyone’s taste, and the ending is a tad predictable; but overall I enjoyed this book very much.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's Book Reviews