Reading The Old Duck’s Club made me think of Judy Leigh’s Chasing The Sun and Heading Over The Hill. I’m really starting to enjoy reading about older folks redefining themselves and finding adventure, romance and love again.
The Old Ducks’ Club
Sophia Gregory is fading away…
Recently split from her married lover and about to turn sixty, Sophia doesn’t recognise the old woman staring back at her in the mirror. Where has her life gone so wrong? How has it come to this? A quiet holiday in beautiful Rhodes is the perfect chance for her to find herself again.
Until she meets the Old Ducks!
Bold and brash, Juliette, Kim and Anita are three friends who are determined not to grow old gracefully – and they are Sophia’s worse nightmare! But when Sophia is made an honorary member of The Old Ducks’ Club, she begins to discover a new side to life. Dancing and drinking till dawn Sophia starts to shake off her grey, drab old life and finds the fun side to living again!
And when she meets her gorgeous Greek neighbour, Theo, she thinks that maybe, if she’s just a little braver, she can learn to spread her wings again….
It’s never too late to teach an Old Duck new tricks!
A rip-roaring, laugh out loud story about the importance of friendship and always, always having fun! Perfect for fans of Judy Leigh and Dee Macdonald.
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My Review
When Sophia, almost sixty, realises that her boss, Lucian, has been using her, having an affair with her and others, with zero intention of leaving his wife, she decides to quit and go for a break to beautiful Rhodes, in Greece. Being the kind hearted and people pleasing woman she, Sophia agrees to complete editing Lucian’s book while on holiday!
She lands in beautiful Rhodes and is starting to settle in when she gets disturbed by her noisy neighbours, a group of older women also on holiday, singing and partying late into the night. Upset with them at first, she is soon swept into their group, The Old Duck’s Club, as they call themselves. With their encouragement, she starts to let her hair down and slowly come into her own.
I loved the transformation of Sophia Gregory from a woman who has always put the happiness of others before herself – first her husband, then Lucian – she blossoms into someone who learns to stand up for herself and realize that she deserves to have fun too. Her three neighbours – Juliette, Kim and Anita, she realizes have their own problems with love and family. By the end of the story, each of these ladies decide to change things in their lives and learn to be true to themselves and their needs. Great characters in this story and the theme of women redefining themselves comes through very strongly.
I love Sophia’s thoughts here as she thinks about how she and the other women have been taken for granted by husbands, lovers and children. Was this what happened to women when were considered to old to be models, sports stars of that new thing that I didn’t really understand – influencers? Did we just become someone’s wife, partner, mother, someone’s carer? Not actually important in our own right? I think most women around the world would identify with this.
The Old Duck’s Club has a lot going for it – a beautiful setting, wonderful characters, humour, hope for change and romance. I absolutely enjoyed it.
Meet the Author
Maddie Please is the author of four bestselling romantic comedies, having had a career as a dentist and now lives in rural Devon where she enjoys box sets, red wine and Christmas. She will be taking a new direction in her writing for Boldwood with joyous tales of older women.
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