TITLE - The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village
AUTHOR - Joanna Nell
FORMAT - Kindle
PAGES - 368
SYNOPSIS -
It's never too late to grow old disgracefully...
The life of 79-year-old pensioner Peggy Smart is as beige as the décor in her retirement village. Her week revolves around aqua aerobics and appointments with her doctor. The highlight of Peggy's day is watching her neighbour Brian head out for his morning swim.
Peggy dreams of inviting the handsome widower - treasurer of the Residents' Committee and one of the few eligible men in the village - to an intimate dinner. But why would an educated man like Brian, a chartered accountant no less, look twice at Peggy? As a woman of a certain age, she fears she has become invisible, even to men in their eighties.
But a chance encounter with an old school friend she hasn't seen in five decades - the glamorous fashionista Angie Valentine - sets Peggy on an unexpected journey of self-discovery.
Can she channel her 'inner Helen Mirren' and find love and friendship in her twilight years?
MY REVIEW
This book really did make me laugh out loud and I want to grow old disgracefully just like the main character Peggy Smart.
I wasn't really sure if this book was my kind of thing as I don't normally read humorous books, but someone had recommended it to me so I thought I'd give it a try.
Well, I kept picturing my Nan, my Mum's Mum, as she was a fun loving lady and I can imagine her living like this if she'd gone into a retirement home. This made me smile even more. I wondered if the author herself had modeled it on people she knew.
Peggy was a hen-pecked Mother. Hen pecked by her own children, who thought she should be in a home and not in a retirement village. There are so many comical sentences in this book and I highlighted so many on my kindle to include in my review but I don't want to spoil the read for others. From her Grandchild saying that Peggy needed some marbles as his Mum said she had lost hers. Or Peggy commenting on a dirty work surface saying it was full of orgasms, instead of organisms.
I loved the way the author had developed the relationships between all the characters, from her old friend Angie to the other residents in the home. There are some fabulous people in this book. I'm sure if you read it you will be able to identify with people in your life too.
A while after reading this book, the publisher asked our local library if we would like to have a Jacaranda tea party just like the one in the book, including the Port. So we decorated the library with bunting and ate food the same as in the tea party itself. We invited a few keen readers along who had also read the book and sat and had a book discussion. It was fun.
Peggy was a hen-pecked Mother. Hen pecked by her own children, who thought she should be in a home and not in a retirement village. There are so many comical sentences in this book and I highlighted so many on my kindle to include in my review but I don't want to spoil the read for others. From her Grandchild saying that Peggy needed some marbles as his Mum said she had lost hers. Or Peggy commenting on a dirty work surface saying it was full of orgasms, instead of organisms.
I loved the way the author had developed the relationships between all the characters, from her old friend Angie to the other residents in the home. There are some fabulous people in this book. I'm sure if you read it you will be able to identify with people in your life too.
A while after reading this book, the publisher asked our local library if we would like to have a Jacaranda tea party just like the one in the book, including the Port. So we decorated the library with bunting and ate food the same as in the tea party itself. We invited a few keen readers along who had also read the book and sat and had a book discussion. It was fun.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In 2003 she moved to Australia where she now works as a GP with a passion for women's health and care of the elderly.
Joanna writes character-driven stories of self-discovery for women of a certain age, creating young-at-heart characters who break the rules and defy society's expectations.
She lives on Sydney's Northern Beaches with her husband and two children. THE SINGLE LADIES OF JACARANDA VILLAGE is her first novel. Her second novel is THE LAST VOYAGE OF MRS HENRY PARKER.
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