Past, Present and Future?

Review of 'Twenties Girl', a novel by Sophie Kinsella

The Plot

Lara Lington is the main character of this novel.
Lara's life is in turmoil, on paper and according to what her family believe, Lara should be doing well. She is in business with her best friend Natalie, the pair run a supposedly upmarket, head hunting recruitment agency. In reality, Lara has been dumped by her boyfriend Josh, has indulged in a spot of stalking and harassment of Josh, her business partner has failed to return from a holiday in Goa where she has fallen in love with a local, leaving Lara to hold the fort.

Lara knows next to nothing about head-hunting or recruitment and whilst she is trying her best, the business is failing dismally. Lara's personal life is in shreds and her finances are looking decidedly grim.
Lara's great aunt Sadie has passed away aged 105. Sadie Lancaster had lived in a nursing home for many years and was all but forgotten by the her small family, which consists of nephews Bill and Michael (Lara's father) their respective wives and the three children the brothers have between them. No one had visited Sadie for many years and when the family get together for Sadie's funereal no one has organised flowers or spoken to the vicar about an eulogy.

Lara's uncle, Bill Lington, is the world famous boss of Lington's coffee, a coffee franchise and the millionaire author of 'Two Little Coins', a motivational, self help business guide which tells of his rise to fortune by means of his own hard work. In comparison, Lara's parents feel like the poor relations and Lara and her sister are somewhat overawed by their uncle, his perma-tanned wife and their spoiled cousin, Diamanté.
As the funeral progresses, Lara becomes aware of a presence, a disturbingly persistent presence, who tells her to stop the funeral. At first she ignores this presence, putting it down to stress or an over active imagination, but eventually begins to see the speaker, a young woman, dressed in the fashions of the 1920s. Lara realises that the girl is ghost, but no ordinary ghost, this is the ghost of her great aunt Sadie. Sadie has chosen to reveal herself as she was in the happiest period of her long life.

At Sadie's insistence, Lara makes a feeble attempt to halt the proceedings but fails. The young woman tells her to say that Sadie Lancaster was murdered. Naturally the funeral is halted, the police are called and Lara descends into a spiral of madcap events.
Her life is taken over by the ensuing situations and it seems that all is not well within the Lington brothers families. Lara delves to get to the bottom of the questions posed by Great Aunt Sadie and as a result uncovers family scandals and mysteries.

Will Lara resolve the Lington family mystery and reveal the long hidden secrets?
You'll have to read the novel if you want to know more!

My Thoughts and Conclusion

As many readers may know, Sophie Kinsella is a well known chick-lit author, she penned the immensely popular 'Shopaholic' series. I have to be honest and say that her writing style in these books was not really to my taste and as a result, she is an author that I have tended to ignore. That opinion has changed with 'Twenties Girl'. The book was given to me in a batch of books that I received from a local free cycle site. I wavered as to whether I should simply pass it on, but on reading the book synopsis decided to give it a try.
I am so glad I did!

The novel is a brilliant piece of writing in my opinion. Yes, it is chick-lit and yes, it is fluffy and light-hearted in places, but the strong story line and amusing characters make this novel highly entertaining and readable. The dialogue is witty, sharp and amusing, the characters are believable and well rounded.
Over and above the chick-lit essence of the novel, is a strong story line with many twists and turns. The drama begins to unfold from the very first chapter and the book had me hooked from the start. Admittedly, I am a very fast reader, but I had this book read in two sittings, I just couldn't put it down!

I particularly liked the way the ghost of great Aunt Sadie tried to get Lara to embrace the whole 1920's lifestyle, she was furious when Lara wouldn't smoke or go out dancing. The character of Lara was very well drawn, a thoroughly modern young lady of our times, who had to accept and embrace her own personal ghostly friend, even though she was not spiritually minded at all.
I feel that Twenties Girl is a typical 'good over bad' or perhaps I should say a 'nice girl going a bit wrong, but turns out all right in the end', modern novel!

I really enjoyed this book, in spite of not really liking other novels by this author. I may just grab a few copies of her other work to compare on the strength of the enjoyment I got from this novel.
I would recommend this novel to others, it is a fast paced read with lots of twists and turns along the way.
Thank you for reading

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