West End Girls

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Twins Lizzie and Penny move to their grandmother's flat in Chelsea.

Fraternal twins Lizzie and Penny are used to living in a poor neighborhood outside of London, so when they have the opportunity to move into their grandmother's flat in Chelsea they are ecstatic. This flat will be the key to them living the high life and finding rich, eligible men.

The characters are over the top and pretty one-dimensional. Penny is the attractive wild child and poser looking for a rich man whose personality is summed up as "fake it 'til you make it" and Lizzie is the dumpy twin who falls for a man with a good heart.

Because this book is newly released, many readers will be expecting it to be new content. But the title was originally released in 2006 and it feels dated. Mentions of people like Bill Clinton and Colin Firth as if these people are at the top of the A-list is unusual. A few casual uses of the words "retard" or "retarded" also make the prose seem dated (and insensitive). Since they were going through the trouble of republishing the novel and recording the audiobook, it seems like an editor could have made a few changes to bring the novel into 2021.

Lucy Price-Lewis does a good job with all of the different characters' voices and accents, but the dialogue for Penny (arguably the most annoying character) is much louder than the rest of the novel, which is even more irksome. The narration and other characters' dialogue are much quieter, so if the volume is adjusted for Penny the other words are hard to hear.

Recommended only for hardcore Jenny Colgan fans.

Jenny Colgan is a bestselling author who focuses on women's fiction, particularly cozy stories of small towns. She lives near Edinburgh.

Publisher: William Morrow (print); HarperAudio

Narrator: Lucy Price-Lewis

Running Time: 8 hours, 33 minutes

Length: 400 pages

Release Date: January 5, 2021 (originally published in 2006)

I received an electronic galley copy of this title from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.