Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

by Jenny Colgan

Sophie is a girl about town - living the party lifestyle with Daddy footing the bill. But when she gets embroiled in a scandalous affair, she is thrown out of home and left to fend for herself on the mean streets of London.

Scraping a living as a cleaner in a photographic studio, living in a bedsit on the Old Kent Road, eating baked beans from the can - this is one spectacular fall from grace. On top of that, she is papped by photographers every time she leaves the flat, with her so-called friends laughing at her downfall. But stepping in to solve a crisis at the studio, Sophie discovers that she is also quite handy with a camera, and a new career behind the lense is born.

But when she is hired as the photographer for a society wedding, Sophie is thrust back into her old lifestyle, and discovers that perhaps money can't buy you happiness after all . . .

• ISBN10: 1847441580
• ISBN13: 9781847441584
• Publish Date: 15 January 2009 (first published 7 August 2008)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 29 March 2010
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Sphere
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

After reading West End Girls a while ago I saw the synopsis for Jenny Colgan’s new book, Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend and loved the sound of it. I got my hands on it a couple of weeks ago and have just finished it.

Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend tells the story of Sophie, an IT girl living the high life until one day it all comes crashing down around her. Twisting the old rags-to-riches tale on it’s head it tells the story of Sophie falling flat on her face and trying to make her way in the world after years of being looked after.

I absolutely loved Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend and found it just as easy a read as West End Girls. Diamonds was written in first-person which worked brilliantly as there was only Sophie as the main main character.

I loved the fact that the novel was about someone rich losing it all and having to pick herself up. I think it was very cleverly plotted and a very good read. Jenny Colgan’s writing style is easy, the book actually has laugh-out-loud moments and she made Sophie, a spoilt rich girl, very sympathetic.

Sophie was a great character and I loved reading how she coped after losing all the money and having to live on her own two feet. Reading about her looking for a flat and a job was great and realistic.

I liked the male characters; Eck, James and Cal. I liked the dynamic between the three and how Sophie moving into their flat affected them. I can’t forget Wolverine either who is barely human – I’m still rather confused about whether he was an animal or an actual human! I thought all 4 of them (Eck, James, Cal, Sophie) got on really well and it was easy to see how they all got on so well.

I found Sophie’s IT girl “friends” irritating, Carena and Philly. I understand why they kept popping up but found them irritating and a bit mean to Sophie and wished she would just tell them to get lost.

The ending was surprising but the one I wanted – which surprises me as at the start/middle of the novel I wanted a different ending… But that’s how Jenny wrote the novel – changing our opinions on all of the characters. Sophie’s transformation was great but was also portrayed realistically – cleaning loos, dead end job, etc.

It was a really great read, very enjoyable and I can definitely understand why Jenny Colgan is a very popular author!

Rating: 4/5