It’s almost impossible nowadays for any author, especially a female author, to write a better book about financial success than the hugely popular Suze Orman. Magazine columnist, speaker and author Ellie Kay tries hard, but misses, with her own light and lively book on how a woman can turn her financial situation around. It is a good book filled with great information, but it just doesn’t measure up in comparison.

Ellie Kay has a delightful writing style that sometimes edges into the too-personal, and she makes way too many semi-insulting religious references that allude to Christians having special and more morally-based financial problems the rest of the non-Christian world don’t have (this really threw me off and may turn other reader’s away, too). But the content of this book is solid as it takes the reader through the world of financial responsibility mainly from a woman’s point of view and experience, from going on a debt diet, to being sensible with a budget, to getting to know your own money style, to finding a mortgage you can live with and hopefully pay on time. Most of the advice is helpful to couples and families as well, but always the emphasis is on empowering a woman’s financial knowledge and confidence.

There are even chapters on how to find extra money via eBay, garage sales, consignment shops, and buying clothing and other items from used goods stores. The author explains the various forms of future saving, from IRAs to college funds, and of course covers the importance of learning to compare your in-come with your out-go. She uses personal experiences and anecdotes to drive home her points, but I tell you, after awhile I did get a little tired of hearing about how brave she was when she dove out of a plane!

A Woman's Guide to Family Finance is a good book with good information. However, if you want something great that really gets into the nitty-gritty of money, both from a spiritual and practical angle, might I suggest anything written by Suze Orman instead. It just has more meat.