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British novelist Sophie Kinsella made a splash last year with her bestselling debut, Confessions of a Shopaholic. Featuring plucky financial journalist (and compulsive shopper) Rebecca Bloomwood, the Delta trade paper original spent four weeks on PW's charts and boasts more than 280,000 copies in print after 15 trips back to press. Kinsella's second outing, Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, seems set to follow Confession's, er, shopping patterns: after six printings in its first month on sale, the total stands at just over 161,000. The publisher's aggressive marketing campaign has included ads in both national and New York–based publications, including New York magazine and the New York Times Style section. The novel was also targeted as a Valentine's Day gift during last month's 20-city TV satellite tour. Compulsive book buyers, take note: 2003 will bring more on Ms. Bloomwood in the tentatively titled Shopaholic Ties the Knot.

With reporting by Dick Donahue