“Ruth the librarian fears she’s too old to find love, but a discussion about Lady Chatterley’s Lover makes her think again.

Aurora doesn’t feel seventy-two and longs to relive the excitement of her youth, while Verity is getting increasingly tired of her husband Mark’s grumpiness and wonders if their son’s imminent flight from the nest might be just the moment for her to fly too. And Danielle is fed up with her cheating husband. Surely life has more in store for her than to settle for second best?

The glue that holds Combe Pomeroy together is Jeannie. Doyenne of the local cider farm and heartbeat of her family and community, no one has noticed that Jeannie needs some looking after too. Has the moment for her to retire finally arrived, and if so, what does her future hold?

From a book club French exchange trip to many celebrations at the farm, this is the year that everything changes, that lifelong friendships are tested, and for some of the women, they finally get the love they deserve.”

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the e-book of The Golden Oldies’ Book Club (Amazon US) (Amazon UK) to read in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Hats off to Judy Leigh for writing about older people! It was a breath of fresh air after reading about all these 20 or 30-somethings recently. Giving the older population a voice and showing that they can lead interesting lives, and even have romance after you hit 50 was enlightening. I understand Leigh has written other books about the above 50 crowd, and I’ll definitely be checking them out in the future.

I don’t know if I could ever be a part of a book club because my tastes definitely don’t run along the lines of book club fiction. I also don’t know if I could deal with the inevitable arguments that would arise discussing books, which would just be disappointing to me given how I feel about books. And I know I’d end up with someone like some of the husbands in the book. Oh, I was ready to reach into my book and slap the misogyny out of one guy! I’ve had to deal with more than my share of those in the city I live in, mostly older gentleman who still want to live in the 1950’s with their wives at home, barefoot and pregnant.

I absolutely loved the setting of the apple farm and the whole production of apple cider. Every year, without fail, my mother and I would go apple picking, and with my mother, she always picked for an army. My best memories are apple picking with my mom and the kids, and it was bittersweet to take her bushel baskets to the orchard this fall and go picking without her. The fact that the woman running the apple orchard is in her 70’s made the whole story that much sweeter, as sweet as the cider she makes. 🙂

What I liked best about the book is that even though the characters are older than me by a decade or two, they’re completely relatable. Leigh has a way of making the characters jump off the page and seem like people you would meet off the street. That takes a special kind of writing skill.

The only thing I didn’t like was the field trip to France. The characters’ actions and reactions and just the fact that the action took place outside of England was a bit of a downer for me. If you’ve read my blog for any time at all, then you know I love a great many things I’ve read about the English, the countryside or seaside, the bigger cities and quaint villages, everything. But that was a minor inconvenience to me and probably wouldn’t take away from the story if you read it.

I look forward to reading more from Judy Leigh in the future.

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