Twenty-One Locks

Book excerpt: Jeannie is twenty years old and she's Lancashire's worst perfume girl. She works in her small town's department store, where all the other girls have perfect make-up (if a little too orange, and a mite too thick) and hair in buoyant ponytails. Jeannie, with wet hair and pale skin, doesn't fit the bill. And she doesn't really care--she arrived as a temp two years ago and has never got round to leaving. Being bored by work gives her plenty of time to think about her impending nuptials to Jimmy, her teenage sweetheart who's now a mechanic. He's a local lad and like everyone in the town, he lives for Saturday nights: beer, brawls and bare flesh. Jeannie is happier at home on the sofa, or better still, day-dreaming about leaving the town behind. Just as her feet are at their most cold, she stumbles upon Danny at the train station. He's a well-read, well-travelled, sophisticated ladies' man and represents everything her life is not. Or at least that's how it seems. And before long, it all becomes complicated. As the big day arrives, which life will she choose?