West End Girls (edition 2007)

I agree with Sassm that the main characters at the beginning were difficult to find empathy with and did think about giving up but soldiered on. I'm glad I did, because although, yes it was predictable it was still an ok chick-lit book. Good for holidays?! ( )

Very funny chic-lit book, a must as a holiday read. ( )

Judging from other peoples' comments, I was lucky to come across this in Audio CD. Morwenna Banks's voices were wonderful and infused the story with life. It was a shame that the version was abridged but I don't suppose I missed too much :)
Two council house twins, Penny and Lizzie, suddenly have the good fortune to move into a large flat in Chelsea. It belongs to their grandmother, now languishing in an old people's home. Unfortunately they are not allowed to move anything so it's not the huge airy white expanse that they dream of.
The twins launch themselves into Chelsea life, a steep learning curve involving the inevitable mistakes. The ending is hardly a surprise, it's more the method of getting there that kept my interest.

Well read and good fun, but not mind blowing. ( )

When twins Lizzie and Penny move up to their gran's flat in Chelsea, they are expecting the West End to give them everything they've ever desired. Things don't go as planned, but the girls land on their feet nonetheless. Cute, if a little long. ( )

I really thought that Jenny Colgan's books were getting better with each new release, but West End Girls takes the reader right back to the days of Amanda's Wedding.

The lead characters are unlikeable, they don't deserve the incredibly coincidental run of good fortune that comes their way, and the entire plot can be predicted by the end of the third chapter.

I do have some time for easy formulaic fluff or I wouldn't read chick-lit, but this book fails to incorporate the redeeming aspects of this genre. There's no feel-good factor, no effort at genuine characterisation, and the fact that the rude self-absorbed heroines manage to luck their way to a happy ending just proves that sometimes, even in chick-lit world there's simply no justice. ( )