Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella (Book Review).

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Twenties Girl tells the story of a 27-year-old woman named Lara whose life is in shambles. Her boyfriend broke up with her months ago, and she's still trying to live down the embarrassment she made of herself, an embarrassment that her parents won't let her forget. Her headhunting company is going down the toilet because her partner whisked away to another part of the world to follow love. Oh, and her great-aunt just died. That is, her great-aunt Sadie who she has no recollection of actually ever meeting. 
At Sadie's funeral, Lara hears a voice that no one else does. She thinks she's going crazy. When the spirit doesn't go away, she's determined to do whatever it takes to make it do so. Lara is met with the ghost of her great-aunt when she was 23, a sassy, demanding, and feisty woman who only wants one thing - a gorgeous beaded necklace with a dragonfly. 
After many misadventures, people thinking she's crazy for talking to herself, and following the demands of Sadie, Lara is thrown into a whirlwind of a mystery she doesn't know if she's prepared for. Soon, Lara becomes attached to the great-aunt she never got to know in real life, and they find that they may have more in common than they originally thought, in spite of several decades between them. Here's the book trailer for a little more info:

I don't know why it took me until after I finished the book to realize that the title referred to the fact that Sadie lived in the 20's, and not the fact that both of the girls were in their 20's. I guess it could be referring to both. But I digress.
The first few chapters of this book were hard for me to get through. Part of me wanted to just stop reading because Lara was such a pathetic character. It made me sad that she was 27, and there wasn't one part of her life that she was happy about. Her love life - sad. Her social life - sad. Her family life - sad. Her work life - sad. It was all just sad. I didn't think I was going to make it through the book. Not to mention, Sadie was such an annoying character at the beginning. She was pushy, selfish, obnoxious, and loud, and I didn't know if I could handle a whole book with the two of them.
After the girls finally came to an understanding with each other, the book started to pick up a bit. Both girls still had their annoying habits, but there was a lot of growth in both of them by the end of the book. The supernatural element of Sadie's ghost was also an interesting hurdle, and I love how Lara handled it by acting like she was talking on the phone instead of just talking out loud to nothing like a mad person.
Sadie really pushed Lara to her limits in both good ways and bad. She made Lara do things that she normally wouldn't have done, and she helped Lara come out of her shell in ways that she wouldn't have had opportunities to do otherwise. When the two really started connecting with each other and relying on each other, I started loving both of their characters. It just goes to show that even if you're several generations apart, you can still find things in common with other people. People still fall in love, experience broken hearts, feel loss, loneliness, and happiness. There's a way to relate to almost everyone, and I loved the way that lesson was portrayed in this book.

I give this book a 3.5 out of 5. I love the Confessions of a Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella, and while this book had a lot of elements that I really enjoyed, there were some nuances that were hard to get past. While both characters did show growth, it was hard to believe that Lara was 27. She was immature in many ways, including how she handled the break-up with her boyfriend, even several months after their breakup. Also, Sadie was really selfish throughout, even at the end. It's a unique story with unusual elements, but it wasn't my favorite book by her by any means.

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