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Molly’s seventieth birthday comes as something of a shock. The woman in the mirror certainly looks every day of those seventy years, but inside Molly feels she still has so much more living left to do. Widowed and living alone with her cat Crumper, Molly fears she is slipping into a cliché of old age.

When Molly’s sister Nell appears on her doorstep, distraught that her husband of more than forty years, Phil, has left her for a younger lover, the women decide to seize the day. By the morning, flights are booked, bags are packed, and off they go for an adventure in Spain.

The sun, the sea, the new friends, and the freedom are just the tonic for broken hearts and flagging souls. But even Spain isn’t enough to revive Molly’s spirit. A solo journey to Mexico is booked as Molly continues to chase the sun and to chase happiness. Will she find what she’s looking for in Mexico, or will she discover that true contentment can’t be found on a map, but it might just be found in a new flame.

Judy Leigh is back, with her trademark spirit of joie de vivre, fun, warmth, and timeless lessons in how to live.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

… our neighbour is a handsome Swedish man who sits naked in the hot tub on the roof terrace. What’s not to like about Spain?

 

You need to remember that we’re not living in the sixties now, Ryan. It’s not very flattering to be asked for sex like that – I felt like an after-dinner mint.

 

Ahead to the right was a white three-sided building wrapped around a courtyard, its interior dirt-dark. Molly thought it looked like a rotten molar.

 

It wasn’t every day they saw a teenage mutant ninja turtle crawling along the highway on a moped. And this turtle, Michelangelo with the green face, the orange mask and the wide grimacing tombstone teeth was wearing a tight leather jacket, an orange dress and a long black scarf that ballooned behind, resembling a cape… An American man wound down his window and shouted that she had made his day: the ninja turtles he’d seen on TV when he was a kid had never been cross-dressers. Another man yelled that she must be the most mutant ninja turtle he’d ever seen.

 

My Review:

 

I reveled in this tale of two older sisters who were capriciously traveling on an impulse to escape their restlessness and the drama of their less than satisfying home situation in England. I savored every word and adored the spontaneous and impetuous nature of Molly; she was unpredictable and prone to whimsy and highly amusing hijinks, even at seventy years young.   Molly is my new favorite septuagenarian. Ms. Leigh’s well-crafted storylines and writing style were fluid, engaging, easy to fall into, riotously entertaining, and extremely pleasing. Her wry wit, keenly detailed observations, and shrewd insights resonated with me and I want to amass and read all her clever words. I am now her ardent Fangirl For Life.