West End Girls

A Novel

By: Jenny Colgan

Narrated by: Lucy Price-Lewis

Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

The New York Times bestselling author of 500 Miles from You tells the hilarious and heartwarming story of twin sisters who set out to London in hopes of leaving their mark on the world, in this “gorgeous, glorious, uplifting” novel (Marian Keyes).

They may be twins, but Lizzie and Penny Berry are complete opposites. Penny is the life of the party—loud and outrageous, while quiet and thoughtful Lizzy is often left out of the crowd. The one trait they do share is a longing to do something spectacular with their lives, and as far as these two are concerned, there’s no better place to make their dreams come true than London.

Presented with a once-in-a-lifetime house-sit at their grandmother’s home in a very desirable London neighborhood, it finally seems like Lizzie and Penny are a step closer to the exciting cosmopolitan life they’ve always wanted. But the more time they spend in the big city, they quickly discover it’s nothing like they expected. They may have to dream new dreams…but are they up to the challenge?

©2021 Jenny Colgan (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Always a lovely escape

I can always count on Jenny Colgan to give me a respite from the crazy world. Let the story take you away! I especially enjoy when the female love interest is not an unreal, unattainable standard of beauty and the man is also not your stereotypical romantic lead of the ropey arms and taut body. Give me a real man, by day!

What happened?

I love Jenny Colgan’s books! So when this story showed up with themes of weak women who need a man, misogyny, allowing themselves to pinched, patted, pulled, fat shamed it brought me up short. This doesn’t compute with other books she has.
Skip this book and look for the many others that have strong females.

Love all her books, but wish she didn’t talk so much about fat people

Her books would be just as charming and entertaining if she didn’t bash fat people at every opportunity it’s honestly sort of odd how consistent of a trend in her novels it is

Great story and characters.

The voices and story line played beautifully together. Another Colgan success! I love her stories and the lives she creates, and the lovely endings.

cute quick listen

alittle slow to start, but picked up in the middle and the ending was cute

I love everything she does

I honestly love everything Jenny Colgan writes. This novel is a bit different from some of her previous novels… less about fish out of water, although it’s got a bit of that. It’s more about aspirations and dreams and even about family and how you just have to accept them as they are and not for how you wish them to be. Entertaining and just fantastic

Just an easy fun read

The book was interesting and enjoyable and just a fun read while puttering around the house!

Okay but not her best

Love Jenny Colgan, but this one was not her best. George was my favorite character. Hard for me to get into a story about rich girls and those whom pretend to be rich. And I did not care for the twins. Ending was cute. Minimal foul language throughout.

Not good.

I’ve enjoyed many of Jenny Colgan’s books but this one is embarrassing, I could never t finish it..

Don't Bother - Total Train Wreck

I found it impossible to believe this was written by Jenny Colgan, until I learned it was first published in 2006. Let's just say that she's evolved ... mutated, in fact ... to a favorite author in the intervening 15 years. They should have never resurrected this book.

It is truly cringe-worthy. Populated by stereotypes - each of them an unlikeable caricature, including the "West End girls" themselves who - of course - we're supposed to find simpatica, as we follow their exploits in the big city. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

And OMG, does Colgan have jaw-dropping issues with weight! It is nothing less than a key theme in this novel ... the overweight sister is unceasingly mocked and scorned by every character, spurned and ridiculed by all, and it's not until she loses weight that she's pronounced lovable. Literally. At one point, her (eventual) boyfriend tells her that he always "liked her", but when he returned from a trip and saw how she'd slimmed down, well - the "like turned to love." Yup. Colgan went there ... and, unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg,

The voices assigned to each individual by the narrator are absurdly cartoonish ... atrocious, over-the-top. Nails on a chalkboard, every single one. On the basis of these voices, alone, you should give the book a wide berth. Total train wreck of a listen.