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Meet Maddie Please<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
It is with this in mind, I am pleased to share a new favorite author with you: Maddie Please<\/a>\u2014who writes \u201cjoyous tales of older women<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because I read as many books as I do, and I read on my Kindle Paperwhite (I can read it in the sunshine, so it is good around the pool or at the beach), I am a Kindle Unlimited Member<\/a> (my book Wired That Way<\/a><\/em><\/strong> is available free for Kindle Unlimited members). As such, I like to take advantage of the \u201cfree\u201d books available with my membership. Within this category, there are many British authors whose books are part of the offerings. Maddie Please is one of these authors.<\/p>\n\n\n I first read Sisters Behaving Badly<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\u2014which features two estranged sister brought back together by an inheritance from an old auntie and takes place in France. I enjoyed it so much, as soon as I finished it, I promptly downloaded The Old Ducks Club<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. It takes place in Greece. The lead character is Sophia\u2014a 59 year-old woman from Oxford who has just extricated herself from an \u201cunwise relationship\u201d with her married boss. She escapes to Greece for a month in a vacation rental. Next door, in another vacation rental, are three other senior women from the UK: Juliette, Anita, and Kim\u2014previously unknown to Sophia. Needless to say they become friends and their lives all change as a result. The unfolding changes are the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The following passage is what prompted me to write this review. (Note verbiage, spellings and punctuations are typical of British publishing.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the time I arrived in their garden she was already in the hot tub, holding a tumbler of red wine. She was wearing an orange zebra print swimming costume and her blonde hair was pinned up on top of her head with a jazzy red clip. I felt quite dull in comparison.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018How do you manage it Juliette?\u2019 I asked as I clambered into the warm water.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Grab a tumbler. Manage what?\u2019 she said.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Always being so \u2013 so up. You\u2019re positive and colourful and optimistic all the time. You\u2019re full of\u2026\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Don\u2019t say it,\u2019 Juliette cackled. \u2018I know what I\u2019m full of. And I\u2019ll let you in on a secret. I\u2019m not actually that person at all. I used to be probably the shyest person you\u2019d ever meet, but life\u2019s too short isn\u2019t it? To let yourself be dragged down. And I can tell you have been in the past.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Oh, I don\u2019t know,\u2019 I said, holding out my tumbler for her to fill.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Don\u2019t argue, I\u2019ve been there,\u2019 Juliette said, shaking her head, \u2018been messed around, lied to, disappointed so many times. And then one day \u2013 just after I realised what a rat I\u2019d married, how my marriage had failed, how I had hardly any self-confidence and that I was about to lose my home \u2013 I saw a photograph of Elizabeth Taylor, and a quote, \u201cPour yourself a drink, put on your lipstick and pull yourself together\u201d. And I thought, nice one Liz. That\u2019ll do for me. So that\u2019s what I did. First, I started using lipstick. And then I had my first facelift. See? I still don\u2019t look like Liz Taylor because she was absolutely glorious wasn\u2019t she? But it did iron things out a bit. You know, the droopy eyelids.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018I\u2019m not having a facelift,\u2019 I said, \u2018not after what you said about it being painful.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Then don\u2019t have a facelift, have a life lift instead, have a brain lift, have a good go at life lift. That\u2019s my advice. It might all end in disaster but at least you will have tried.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Yes,\u2019 I said thoughtfully, \u2018I think I will.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n She gestured at my black tankini. \u2018And start buying colourful things, it\u2019ll make you feel better. At our age, you get ignored a lot.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Well that\u2019s true.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018People can\u2019t ignore you if you\u2019re wearing yellow or shocking pink or \u2013 I don\u2019t know \u2013 peacock feathers.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018They just think you\u2019re crazy,\u2019 I said.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Yes, but then they do actually see you and some of them remember you. I realised I spent my youth moaning because I didn\u2019t have hair like Farrah Fawcett, I wasn\u2019t cool like Cindy Crawford. But looking back at old photos, I was okay. Quite okay actually. And then it struck me, when I\u2019m eighty-five I want to look back at the way I was when I was sixty-five and think, hey I wasn\u2019t bad, I did my best. I didn\u2019t give up.\u2019 Juliette turned and shouted. \u2018Come on you two, we\u2019re already halfway down our first glass and we\u2019re talking serious stuff here.\u2019 She turned back to me. \u2018And remember, someone is out there holding their breath and waiting for you to fail. Make sure they suffocate, that\u2019s what I say.\u2019<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Those of you who know me can quickly understand why this caught my attention. I love color. I have embraced this overall view of life: a life-lift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later in the book is the following. This passage reflected the overall view of The Best-Life Project: \u201cI had my health and strength, I was financially comfortable, I still had chances. Opportunities, if I was brave enough to take them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I hadn\u2019t travelled much at all during my last years with Peter. My husband had come to hate any break in his routine; he hadn\u2019t even renewed his passport. And then, of course, he had been ill.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n What things did I want to do with the rest of my life, I wondered? Not so long ago I would have thought that I had achieved everything I was capable of, that I was slowly going to fade into old age and unimportance. But I didn\u2019t have to accept it had to happen, that was the thing. I had my health and strength, I was financially comfortable, I still had chances. Opportunities, if I was brave enough to take them.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I could still learn new skills, find new friends, grab everything the world had to offer me. I was determined I wasn\u2019t going to just give up and spend the rest of my life thinking about what I could have done.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n No choice, really, which was the most attractive option.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Well,\u2019 Theo said, as he turned back to me, \u2018have you thought of something you want to do?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Yes, I have. I want to see the Grand Canyon, I want to walk the pilgrim way to Santiago de Compostela with a cockle shell in my hat, I want to see the Statue of Liberty. I want to find out if the Rockies are as impressive as people say they are. I want to see the Norwegian fjords, and the sun rise over the pyramids.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I stopped, almost breathless, as I saw the world open up in front of me.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I hope these snippets pique your interest in reading works by Maddie Please\u2014and, in this style of fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I enjoyed The Old Duck\u2019s Club <\/em><\/strong>so much; I sought out a recipe that sounded similar to the Greek Lemon Chicken and Potatoes Sophia made. I just wish the recipe had been included in the back of the book. It sounded so wonderful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the other features I found interesting in The Old Duck\u2019s Club<\/em><\/strong>, is Sophia\u2019s \u201cunwise relationship.\u201d Extramarital affairs are often a part of the storyline in novels about older women starting over\u2014but, they are usually from the viewpoint of the wife, not the other woman. Here, Sophia realizes her error, accepts her loneliness following her husband\u2019s death and her resulting role in what she refers to as her \u201cunwise relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maddie Please will make you excited about being a woman of a certain age, an Old Duck. Someone who can still \u201clearn new skills, find new friends, grab everything the world has to offer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Sisters-Behaving-Badly.jpg\")
The Old Ducks Club<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Best-Life Depicted<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Unwise Relationship<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Keep Living<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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