WEST END GIRLS - Jenny Colgan
West End Girls/Operation Sunshine
William Morrow
ISBN:9780751551075
January 2021
Fiction

London - Present Day

It's just another day in Essex for Lizzie and her twin sister, Penny. Lizzie gets laid off from her job at a stamp importing business, and Penny has quit working at the American themed diner after a phone call from their mother. It seems the twins' grandmother, their errant father's mother, is in a recovery center and wants the girls to flat-sit for her in Chelsea. It couldn't come at a more opportune time, for their mother is retiring from feeding school children and has decided to become an actress! The flat is, however, a hoarder's paradise, and the girls are under strict orders not to remove or tidy up anything. Their grandmother wants everything to remain exactly as she left it. 

Lizzie, the twin who worries, the one who stays in the background, the chubby one, wonders how she will find work in swanky Chelsea. Wandering the streets, stopping to ask various businesses for work, Lizzie realizes that her stamp import history isn't much to recommend to antique stores or art galleries. Entering a small cafe, she politely asks for a menu from the man at the counter. His reply sounds rude to her, so her response is anything but nice. That's when the man tells her to stay, places a plate full of delicious food in front of her, and seems contrite. But when a hoard of lunchtime clients rush in, Lizzie realizes that the man, who is obviously the owner, needs help. She jumps into the fray and after the crowd disperses, including a busload of tourists, Georges, the owner hires Lizzie.

Meanwhile, Penny, the twin who is tall, slim, and, well, a tad slutty, swaggers through the Chelsea area, assured that the perfect job, one that requires little work, and lots of opportunity to meet rich men, is awaiting her. When she comes upon a couple arguing on the sidewalk about someone pinching someone's rear end, Penny waits, taking it all in. After the tall, blonde girl stalks off, Penny steps up and asks what kind of job is available since it's obvious the blonde is not returning. Sloan, owner of an art gallery, explains that the work, if you can call it that, is basically having a pretty girl sit in the gallery, answer the phone, and occasionally sell art. Penny lands the job, hands down. 

Lizzie's boss, Georges, is a large, very chubby, kind man with a heavy accent who immediately starts teaching Lizzie how to cook, what supplies to buy, and how to run his cafe. Soon Lizzie is eating better, working hard, and starting to think better of herself. Penny, on the other hand, has met one of the artists who has his work displayed in Sloan's gallery. Knowing that he must be a rich man since his pieces sell well, she has plans for "their" future. 

WEST END GIRLS is a different Jenny Colgan for me! While all of her books are humorous, this one is downright hysterically funny. But it's also poignant as both twins come to grips with how life has treated them. With their mother struggling to raise them after their father disappeared, Lizzie and Penny have always had to make-do with everything, from food, to clothing, to just living. Now, their futures seem brighter. Or do they? 

Jani Brooks