West End Girls

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 show more and good fun, but not mind blowing. show less

This was a light fluffy book and perfect to read on a depressing winter day. I do have a major problem with it -- as I was reading, I kept thinking that I'd read it before but it published in 2021 so how was that possible. After doing some research, I found out that it was originally published in 2006. I need to watch dates on books that I order more closely because this is the second time that it's happened with one of Jenny Colgan's books.

Lizzie and Penny are twins but totally different in both looks and attitudes. Penny is blond and thin and always looking for a good time. Lizzie is very introverted and not happy with her extra weight. They live with their mother in a poor part of London and when they get a chance to stay at their show more grandmother's flat in Chelsea, they both know that their lives are going to change drastically. Penny tries to totally re-invent herself. She becomes a receptionist at an art gallery and her main job is to sit and look pretty. Lizzie gets a job at a restaurant and works very hard learning how to cook. In the evenings, Penny wants to party and Lizzie wants to stay home. They are both looking for love but in all the wrong places. After the trials and tribulations that they go through, they both learn what's really important in life. show less

Twins Lizzie and Penny couldn’t be more different. Penny is outgoing and brash; Lizzie is quiet and backward. Penny loves parties; Lizzie would rather stay home. When they are asked to house-sit their grand-mum’s expensive home in a ritzy neighborhood, they jump at the chance. Once they arrive, they job hunt and practically fall into jobs. But it’s not at all what they expected, and the their expectations - and dreams - change as they mature, adapting to the things life throws their way. It’s quite an interesting tale with equally interesting characters. Jenny Colgan has a great storytelling style, and this one does not disappoint, even though it’s not quite as good as the some of novels in her various series.

The characters in this book, Lizzie and Penny, 27-year-old non-identical twins, are just barely likable. Lizzie is a doormat to her sister, a self-absorbed, shallow loser looking for a man with money to take care of her. Penny stays thin to be more attractive to men, as she sees the situation, and Lizzie eats too much to compensate for being the less attractive one, as everyone lets her know.

When they are asked to move into a large flat in Chelsea both of them see this as an opportunity to escape their boring lives in a tiny council house in Brandford, and off they go. Both find jobs right away, meet shallow, pretentious friends, find possible boyfriends, and drink and party a lot.

Somehow, they both find success in totally unexpected show more ways.

Generally I like this author and her characters a lot more. show less

The story is about non-identical twins called Lizzy and Penny. They grew up in a council house and have the chance to move to the West End. Lizzy is a junk food addict with poor self esteem, but she's a likeable, caring person and her story is encouraging.

Penny, on the other hand, is trite and materialistic and excessively self-centred. I didn't like her at all - and the neighbours they meet are so caricatured that I really couldn't believe in them. Possibly intended as humour, but not remotely amusing.

It's one of Jenny Colgan's earlier books and I've liked some of her later ones so it hasn't put me off her novels; but I really wouldn't recommend this one. It's full of bad language, wild partying, and no real character development show more (other than Lizzy).

Still, the ending is fairly satisfying, albeit somewhat predictable, so I'm giving it three stars rather than two.

Full review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2019/12/west-end-girls-by-jenny-colgan.html show less

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.

Normally I can't put a Jenny Colgan book down. This was finished by sheer will to make it to the end. The beginning was okay and finally, the end was okay too. The middle was redundant and took me forever to get through. The characters were shallow and I couldn't get attached to them nor did I want more of them. There was potential but we never got there. Maybe that was the point as once you start reading, the life they are leading is meant to be shallow. Thankful you get what you want at the end.