Book Review: Blue and Green Should Never be Seen (Or so Mother Says) by Colette Kebell

Blue and Green Should Never be Seen (Or so Mother Says) by Colette Kebell
Release Date: 24th December 2014
Publisher: Skittish Endeavours
Buy: Paperback | Kindle
Rating:

GiGi (well, Griselda Griswald actually, but everybody calls her GiGi) is a woman with a mission: to help people improve the way they look, increase their self-esteem, and eventually, make them happier people. Being a personal shopper is a dark art, with few tangible rewards. Spread by word of mouth, her clients would never admit they needed her assistance. Not even if they put them under torture. Let us be honest, who would admit to being in need of a style consultant?

With the constant struggle to keep her business afloat, a powerful enemy is lining up ready to make a meal out of her, knowing very well that GiGi’s approach, eventually, will make her successful. Whilst she invents new ways to make her consultancy firm successful, she finds who could be the love of her life, thanks to some of her best friends. 

In Blue and Green Should Never Be Seen (Or so Mother Says) we meet the fabulous GiGi. Along with her best friend Ritchie, GiGi has set up her own personal shopping business. Secretarial work and babysitting were never really ideal careers for GiGi – all her wages went on clothes anyway, so what better job to have than one of styling and buying clothes for other people?
However, it’s not all plain sailing running your own business in the cut-throat industry of fashion in London, as GiGi finds out when she meets Jasper Barnes who is set to open up The Battersea Fashion Centre right opposite GiGi’s office. Can GiGi really achieve her dream and make her personal shopping business a success or should she listen to her mother and stick with secretarial work which may be solid and safe but isn’t the stylish career that GiGi dreams of…?

As a self-confessed shopaholic and lover of all things fashion I knew that this book was going to be perfect for me and I certainly wasn’t disappointed.
I bonded with GiGi right from the off. She thinks that the right to shop should be up there in the American Constitution, is a bargain-hunter through and through and goes by the motto “The Clothes, the Shoes and the Handbag maketh the woman.” I LOVE HER.
It’s not just her love of shopping that I could relate to, though. Colette Kebel has created a whole cast of well-drawn, realistic and genuinely likeable characters (there’s a few that are genuinely unlikeable too…) I love GiGi’s work ethic and the way in which she treats her friends. She’s loyal, caring, honest and above all else extremely hard-working. I loved her steely determination and how she was dead set on making this business a success, no matter what it took.
I really like Ritchie too and their friendship goes down as one of my fictional favourites. Then there’s Raffaele who is completely dreamy-sounding and supplies more than the required amount of romance to the story. I think many readers will be able to relate to the relationship that GiGi has with her mother too and I’m sure some of their conversations will sound all too familiar…

As a fashion lover myself I found this story to be absolutely fascinating. I would just LOVE to do what GiGi does and so naturally I loved reading about her battle to follow her dream and what was involved in starting up her business. When she got excited about clothes, I got excited about clothes – her enthusiasm and love of fashion is infectious and will jump off the page and haul you into the story with both hands. Some of the ideas she had were excellent, especially her wardrobe App and collaborating with bloggers. I also loved reading about how she sourced out clothes for clients from secret suppliers. I just was in heaven reading this book, as I’m sure you can imagine.

Of course, it’s not all clothes, clothes, clothes (not that I see that there’s anything wrong with that…) Colette Kebell has created an exciting, funny, adventure of a story – you might be rooting for GiGi and her friends with all your might but you’re never quite sure if she’s going to succeed (in both her professional and personal life…) and that keeps you turning the pages right until the end.
If you like your chick-lit then you won’t be able to resist this book. It has elements which remind me of my all-time-favourite-novels-in-the-whole-world; Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic series, which makes it an instant winner in my eyes.

The cover is eye-wateringly gorgeous and gives high expectations of what you can expect from the story – all of which were completely met for me. Colette Kebell is definitely an author to look out for in the future and I really hope that we will become re-acquainted with GiGi and co again very soon!

A huge thank you to Colette Kebell for very kindly offering me the opportunity to read and review Blue and Green Should Never be Seen (Or so Mother Says). ♥

After being a Legal Secretary for about 10 years, I was on the hunt to find something else that I would find just as challenging. I found that in writing and I hope you like what you read.

♥Colette Kebell♥  | Website | Twitter | Goodreads |

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