Well I did laugh through this book and felt the emotions of new friendships and how we in our top middle age, before we are considered old, have to force ourselves to do something exciting and make new friends and have new experiences. A delightful book

Loved it! Being 61 myself I want to belong to the old Duck's Club. Great story set in Greece with lovely characters and plenty of humour and fun perfect for the beach

If you are looking for your next summer vacation/beach read look no further, this book is for you. This story swept me away to Rhodes, Greece with the descriptions of food and scenery, and I couldn't have enjoyed it more. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, seeing as I'm in my mid-30s, but I felt for the character as if she was my mother, or my aunt. It's definitely one I would recommend.

I really enjoyed this, is so little representation for older characters and by that I mean 60s plus,having fun, romance and a life, this book is so great. I really enjoyed the friendships in this book, such great characters and the descriptions of Greece are perfect. Thoroughly recommended for anyone who enjoys a story about real women, friendships and life.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I absolutely and thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved everything about it: setting (Rhodes), characters, food, dynamic, relationships, quirks, jokes, laughter...

The voice... Well, Sophia Gregory is definitely could have been my friend. She is hitting 60 and believes her life has ended. She lived her life without splashes, colours and waves. But she finally decides to put a stop to it and runs away from Cambridge to Rhodes... And this move changes her life and changes her.

Here on the dreamy ancient island she meets a bunch of people who uncover the best in her and let her unwind, reload and dream. Sophia finds friends and chances, amazing food and blue sea, freedom within herself and hidden reserves she never thought she had.

I laughed with Sophia and thinking of Sophia and Old Duck Club's antics (Old Ducks Club is something I definitely will want to think about when I am that age).

This book is a joy, life-affirming, possibilities- opening and confirming joy. It is never too late to change, to live, to love... Maddie Please has done an amazing job creating a place, a space, a voice and a story.

Sophia Gregory is almost sixty and doesn't have much to show for her life. She recently quit her job working with her married lover because she is tired of the way he treats her. When she looks at herself in the mirror, she doesn't recognize the old woman staring back at her. She decides a trip is what she needs, so heads off to Rhodes, Greece. She's hoping for a nice quiet holiday, but her neighbours, "The Old Ducks" are anything but quiet. Juliette, Kim and Anita are three friends who are determined not to grow old gracefully and finally convince Sophia to joint their group. She lets loose and has a wonderful time. Dancing, drinking and a handsome neighbor, all help Sophia see what she is missing out on.

I have been enjoying stories with characters close to my age. Being retired and widowed, I could identify with these women and would love to travel with some of my crazy girlfriends. It was great to see Sophia let loose and gain female friends to have fun with. I laughed at this story and the ladies antics, but was also worried, when one of them gets arrested. Juliette, Kim and Anita are bold, loud, brassy, colorful and caring. They are also supportive and friendly, welcoming Sophia to join them. Having female friends is so important, and it was like Sophie came alive. Theo is also caring and sweet. He was not pushy, he just befriended Sophia and let her move forward at her own pace. This is a story full of laughs, new friendships, fresh opportunities, a different outlook on life with a possible romance. It has great characters, a beautiful setting and life changing events that put a huge grin on my face. I really enjoyed this story and it was a perfect book to read sitting by the pool.

Irrepressible, hilarious and simply terrific, how can you possibly resist Maddie Please’s wonderful new novel, The Old Ducks’ Club!

Recently single and about to turn sixty, Sophia can barely recognise the old woman staring back at her in the mirror. Feeling as if life has passed her by and determined to enjoy life while she still can, Sophia books a quiet holiday in Rhodes, little realizing that her plan for a serene and sedate vacation is going to go seriously awry when she meets The Old Ducks’ Club, a group of women who will not let the fact that they are not in the first flush of youth keep them from having fun!

Juliette, Kim and Anita are determined to grow old disgracefully. Forget about knitting patterns and early nights with a mug of Horlick’s, these Old Ducks prefer wild nights out on the town where they dance on tables and flirt outrageously with unsuitable men. Brash and loud, they are the kind of women Sophia usually gives a very wide berth to – until they make her an honorary member of their club and show her that age is just a number! As Sophia begins to shake off the shackles of her stuffy old life, she feels alive for the first time in a very long while – and there might even be romance on the horizon when she meets her gorgeous new neighbour, Theo.

Sophia has got a brand new lease of life and she plans to live it to the full. After all, it’s never too late to teach an old duck new tricks!

Maddie Please’s The Old Ducks’ Club is fabulous! A fun read that will inspire women everywhere to stop worrying about getting older and to live life on their own terms, The Old Ducks’ Club is a delightful tale that celebrates the power of female friendship, the joy of knowing your own worth and the freedom of doing what you want and putting yourself first that will make you laugh out loud on plenty of occasions.

A feel-good read you are simply going to love, Maddie Please’s The Old Ducks’ Club is required reading this summer.

A great book about older ladies
Having fun ,finding love and having a great time on the Greek island of Rhodes .
A definite book to loose yourself in this summer.
Thanks NetGalley

The perfect feel-good summer read. This is a book for ladies over a certain age who intend to grow old disgracefully, much like me.

At the beginning of the book we meet Sophia, a research assistant who has had enough of dreary grey Oxford and she’s had enough of her boss Lucian. He is rude, arrogant, self absorbed and very controlling. He doesn’t appreciate Sophia and all that she does for him. This only fuels Sophia’s low self-esteem and lack of confidence. As her 60th birthday is fast approaching, she’s feeling rather old, lonely and invisible.

Sophia books a holiday to Greece, she’s looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet and maybe a bit of sightseeing. However, her new holiday neighbours Anita, Juliette and Kim aka The Old Ducks’ Club have other ideas.

This is a fun read and sheer escapism.

When life is a bitch turn it around and have as much fun as you can, it is never to late to start over. This is a fun read and welcome either curled up somewhere cosy or holiday relaxing. Laugh with the Old Ducks and enjoy this book. 5 stars from me.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for this ARC

What an absolute joy to read this novel is! I read it over a very chilly, rainy weekend and I found myself transported to the beautiful island of Rhodes through the pages of this book, it was just gorgeous.

There is so much to praise in this book. The characters just jump off the page, and I loved Sophia in particular.

The setting is obviously sublime, and the descriptions of Greek food are mouth-watering.

The “old ducks” themselves are hilarious and are proof that at any age you can still have fun and change your life.

A book full of humour, sunshine and hope, I found it so uplifting and joyous, as well as thought-provoking. Can’t recommend it highly enough.

There are so few books with characters over 60, making this story fun and relatable. Sophia leaves her home in Oxford to take a vacation in Rhodes, Greece. She is leaving a bad relationship and hoping to find some peace and quiet. Next door to her rental is a house of three women vacationers, loud, brash and enjoying life. I really enjoyed the story of their growing friendship, Sophia’s relationship with Theo, and the descriptions of Greece. I recommend for readers of women’s fiction, particularly those of us in the mature years. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved the tag line about being able to teach an old duck new tricks. It sums up this book in a nutshell; a group of older ladies on holiday, going home at the end having rediscovered themselves, eager to make changes at home and try new things. What a beautifully refreshing change from the formulaic approach of some modern fiction. I am fortunate in that I can pick and choose which books I review and so I enjoy the vast majority of books I scrutinise. This book I thoroughly enjoyed and struggled to put it down. (Mental note to self to keep the Kindle out of the bedroom at night!) I think that the things that I will take with me from this book, are that you are never too old to have fun, and regardless of your age, it’s good to learn to say ‘no’.

I was reminded of @judyleighwriter with this book, and that is a genuine compliment as I so adore her books. It is always refreshing when books steer away from the normal and have older characters as their mainstay. This book did not disappoint. Sophia was a fantastic main character, on her first holiday abroad by herself since the death of her Husband 8 years ago. She has ostensibly come to Rhodes to get away from a doomed affair and do some work. Her male counterpart, Theo, provides a potential romantic interest, and the way he is described and the way he acts towards Sophia is just beautiful. I found myself hoping for more and more interaction between the pair. I love that in this book, romantic interludes are not limited to ‘beautiful young things’ and the older ladies get a look in! I loved the comment from Sophia ‘I could still still learn new skills, find new friends, grab everything the world had to offer me. I was determined I wasn’t going to just give up and spend the rest of my life thinking about what I could have done.’ The author recognises that if there is to be some kind of relationship between Theo and Sophia, it will be different this time around; at their ages they don’t have time to dither around. I liked this recognition; I found it comforting and wholly appropriate for the characters involved.

Sophia has gone to Greece for a holiday, and also seemingly to get away from Lucian. Upon reading this Sophia endeared herself to me, as I love a strong female character that knows her own mind. Sophia certainly does know her own mind, having decided that she definitely doesn’t want to speak to Lucian. I think his condescending attitude and behaviour would wind me up too, to be honest! I don’t think Sophia realises it herself, but she is desperately in need of some female friends and a bit of fun. On a mission to complain about the partying noises well into the early hours, she meets the ladies of a similar age holidaying next door and they pretty quickly become friends, and ‘The Old Ducks Club’ is born. Sophia is struggling to get into the editing work she was meant to be doing for her ex, Lucian and instead finds herself out on a day trip around Rhodes with Theo, who owns her holiday let and is also a neighbour.

The new friends spend an increasing amount of time together, but as a reader I could not help but detect a hint of jealousy when on the day out with her new girlfriends, Sophia spots Theo in a restaurant with a woman. By this point I was feeling so interested in the book’s characters and Sophia in particular and found myself willing Theo’s lunch assignment to be an entirely innocent occurrence that wouldn’t get in the way of anything between Sophia and Theo.

I am disappointed in myself, but when characters come across so well in a book, I can’t help but feel invested in what happens to them! I know it’s only a book, but when the author draws you, the reader in so competently, like an angler landing his catch, you can’t help but care about these people!

Much as I liked both Theo and Sophia and would not be adverse to some romance between them, I did feel proud of Sophia and liked the assertiveness bestowed upon her by the author. I appreciated the way that women were shown as being able to speak their own minds, without having to be subservient to men! You will have to decide for yourself whether Sophia should have asked Theo straight out about the woman he had been seen with!

A nightclub trip for the Old Ducks? Manna from heaven for an author such as Maddie Please; ‘what can possibly go wrong?’ they said. ‘It’ll be fun’ they said. The potential content seems endless, from wardrobe malfunctions and general clothing disasters, to overdrinking incidents – the list of possibilities seems endless, but from what I had read I knew that Maddie would treat this subject matter with fun; I was surprised, to say the least at what happened; fun, laughs and originality abounded!

When 3/4 of the Old Ducks. Went home (it was. 2 week stay for most of them, but a 4 week stay for a Sophia), I thought at first that I was nearing the end of the book, but was pleasantly surprised to see I had nearly 1/2 a book left. I wondered at how the author could keep up the standard of fun, laughs and surprises throughout the rest of the book.

I laughed out loud, partly at the awkwardness of it all, when Sophia turned up for the lunch that she had been invited to by Theo’s Uncle Nico. She was expecting a cosy lunch à trois, only to discover that the whole extended family had been invited to a massive party! Sophia was only too aware of the family politics involved and just wanted to please everyone and be liked to them all. The scene was very ‘Vicar of Dibley-esque’ – the episode where Geraldine ends up eating several Christmas dinners on one day. Sophia found herself having to try every dish that had been brought to the lunch by various family members – she couldn’t get away with trying one person’s food without trying them all, for risk of offending someone. Theo practically has to roll her home! The scene was so descriptive I could close my eyes and imagine it was happening at that very moment in my own house!

I loved the sense of community portrayed in this book. On the one hand, as Sophia finds out, everyone knows what you are doing, but I also sensed that she was cosseted and no harm could come to her, due to the fact that so many people cared about what she was doing and what happened to her.

Was there any future in a relationship between Sophia and Theo, or with so many miles between them is this a story about a holiday romance? Will Sophia go back to the hideous Lucian. All questions that need answering…….

The next best thing to spending quality time with a superlative group of girlfriends must surely be reading about this kind of fun. In order to do just that and buy this book for yourself, please just click on this link: https://amzn.to/2P2uKDE

Fifty-nine year old Sophia Gregory realises she needs to change her way of life. She’s recently split from her married lover after realising how he was using her – and he was caught with a student by his wife. She’s resigned from her job and booked herself a month’s holiday in a villa on the Greek island of Rhodes to give herself a chance to consider her options. The noisy trio of ladies who are holidaying in the neighbouring villa initially appear to be just what she doesn’t want, but soon prove to be exactly what she needs. Juliette, Kim and Anita are slightly older than Sophia but all three are determined to grow old disgracefully. They’re bold, loud, colourful and caring, supportive and friendly, welcoming Sophia to join them as members of their Old Ducks’ Club.

Get ready for laughs galore, new friendships, fresh opportunities, a different outlook on life and a possible romance, too in this fabulous read. It is a hilarious story, with great characters, a beautiful setting and life changing events that put a huge grin on my face. This is a keeper, a story to go back to if you’re feeling in need of a healthy dose of sunshine and laughter. This is a brilliant, inspiring and fantastic read that I highly recommend to anyone but especially to those around sixty years old!

Thank you Boldwood Books and NetGalley for my copy of this book which I have voluntarily read, grinning and chuckling my way through it and honestly reviewed.

Gloriously Sunny...
A fun, uplifting read with a well drawn, colourful cast of characters and a gloriously sunny backdrop. Lighthearted escapism to make a reader smile.

Sophia has escaped to Rhodes to get away from her married ex. She plans on working while she’s away and enjoying some peace. Until she’s woken early in the morning by the new arrivals next door – three older ladies who are swigging from the wine bottle in the hot tub and laughing ridiculously loud. She’s not impressed and knows she’ll have to have a word with them. What she doesn’t expect is to be inducted into the Old Ducks Club!

Hanging out with them, drinking and laughing makes her realise how she’s changed over the years, and how she needs to find the real her again…….And as well as making some wonderful new friends, she catches the eye of the gorgeous Greek neighbour Theo, and after spending time with him realises she needs to be brave and see where things go…….

This is the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time………I don’t think I’ve ever laughed out loud so many times in one book! The things the Old Ducks get up to are hilarious – I really hope I”m like them when I’m in my sixties!!

The characters are all brilliant. Sophia appears to be a bit snooty at first but soon relaxes and I loved the other side of her. Watching her re-find herself after five years with an idiot was wonderful – she really does spread her wings which is lovely to watch. Juliette, Kim and Anita are fabulous! You won’t be able to not love them! Theo is an adorable older man and Lucian…..well, I’ll let you read about him for yourselves!

I adored the setting and just wanted to be with them on holiday! Even though it was nearly out of season, the twisting alleyways, flowers, little bakeries and taverna’s made it sound so beautiful – it will make you yearn to be on holiday (especially after us being locked down for so long!). The little house Sophia is staying in sounds perfect; who wouldn’t want to stay there, and then wake up and have tea and pastries in the little garden with the Greek sparrows?!

I loved the plot which will keep you turning the pages, keep you laughing and have you hoping for Theo and Sophia to get together!! You’ll also be cheering on the other Old Ducks to make some changes to their lives too. The fact that this was about women in their sixties was brilliant, and even as a thirty-something it was easy to imagine how life might be for them all, and I loved that some of them just didn’t care! The way the story is written really worked for me and was part of the reason I laughed so much. I felt like Sophia was chatting away to me half the time, and that made it a thoroughly enjoyable book to lose myself in.

So overall, I can’t praise this enough. If you’re looking for a book that you won’t want to put down, will have you laughing your socks off and will give you that bit of romance that we all love, with some outstanding characters, then you should definitely check this out. I can’t wait to read more from Maddie. Highly recommended by me.

Favorite Quotes:

I’d been finding now I was approaching sixty that there had been a gradual increase in my invisibility… But sometimes that was a good thing, to be able to merge into the background. It meant I’d probably make a good shoplifter. Not that I ever would of course.

I didn’t have the figure for crossover bodices and dangling ties. I tended to look as though I was wearing a hospital gown backwards which wasn’t the look I was hoping for.

I needed to get the tweezers out and check my incipient moustache. I think it’s to do with hormones or lack of them. I dimly remember my grandmother when I was a child; she could have given Hercule Poirot a run for his money by the time she had died at eighty-seven.

I bet she will look at you with an evil glint in her eye and ask you awkward questions. That’s what they do, old aunts… Stewart had three of them who were positively poisonous. Like the witches in Macbeth without the cauldron. Or the humanity. They came to our wedding because Stewart was too scared not to invite them and they sat together making snide comments. Asking if I was pregnant or just fat. Did I think it was appropriate to wear white? … And she will probably have an evil old dog on her lap, so make a fuss of it… but don’t try and stroke it because it will probably bite you. Stewart’s Auntie Mim had a Pomeranian with teeth like needles and the same temperament as Mim. I sometimes think Mim would have bitten me too given half a chance.


My Review:

Being that I am of a certain age and well qualified to be an Old Duck – I delighted in this lively and engaging tale featuring mature women with spunk; and yes, we do exist. This was my first exposure to the wry wit and amusing charm of Maddie Please and I quickly succumbed to her magic and found myself in Greece, overindulging in food and drink while sitting in a hot tub with new friends. Clearly, her clever arrangements of words resonated with me. Her characters were colorful and uniquely quirky yet endearing and curiously knowable. The storylines were pleasantly entertaining and easy to follow with generous helpings of humor, lush descriptions, and observant insights. Proof that we can be sassy and still classy and it is never too late to start a new chapter of our own. I need more of this and have added her to my list of favorites.

In The Old Ducks Club we meet Sophia, a newly single woman who is fast approaching turning 60. When she catches sight of herself in the mirror, she is shocked to see the woman staring back at her, she is someone who Sophia doesn’t recognise anymore.

Deciding that a break is needed, Sophia packs her bags and sets off to a beautiful Greek Island. As she is settling in to her holiday home and looking forward to such much needed time to relax alone, the last thing she expects is to run in to her neighbours Juliette, Anita and Kim – who are also known as The Old Ducks Club.

However, the Old Ducks Club want anything but a quiet two weeks in sunny Greece, and what’s more – they want Sophia to join them on their adventures. As Sophia get’s to know these women better and becomes a member of their club – she also starts to live her life again, something she didn’t think possible at her age, and something The Old Ducks Club soon proves her wrong about.

This is one of those feel good books you can quite happily lose yourself in for hours on end without realising it!. Set in beautiful Rhode’s, the author does a fantastic job of bringing the setting to life for the reader, allowing you to picture the apartment that Sophia was living in vividly – and making me rather jealous in the process I have to admit.

There is such a colourful cast of characters in this book, all of whom I loved getting to know better as the story progressed. The friendship that formed between the four women is so incredibly heart warming and fun – I wanted to join their club myself. A truly beautiful read that allows us to escape to the beautiful Greek Islands.

One of the joys about books featuring older characters is that ability to identify with their lives – but I must confess that, at least at the start, the only thing I felt I had in common with Sophia was my age. Actually, she was younger than me – approaching her 60th birthday – and I did find her rather difficult to love. When we first meet her, she’s had a particularly rough time – her married lover, who’s never shown any sign of being ready to commit (he’s waiting for their children not to need them any more – they’re in their 30s, and that did make me smile!), has had a fling with a young student, and she’s taking a holiday in Rhodes to lick her wounds. She’s hurting, she’s spiky, and just a little bit whingy – and seriously, planning to edit her lover’s book while on her break, after everything he’d done?

I did start to sympathise though when she found her peace disturbed by the three 60-something women next door having a riotous time in their hot tub in the early hours of the morning. She’s justifiably grumpy about that – but, instead of immediately looking for somewhere else to stay (which is what I think I’d’ve done!), they become firm friends (the Old Ducks’ Club of the title) and go on to lead her on a series of madcap and out-of-comfort-zone adventures. She does become far more likeable when she loosens her stays a little, and begins to gain in self-confidence – there’s some good character development, some interesting and well-told back stories, and a satisfying portrayal of female friendship and the difference it can make.

And then there’s the romance – and it’s surprising how that can make your sense of self-worth blossom too. Theo – who owns the houses the women are staying in – is an all-round nice guy, family-orientated, with an edge of sadness about him. He’s wonderfully persistent too, and won’t be rebuffed however hard she might try. I thought the developing relationship and the chemistry between them worked really well – until it’s approaching the end of her stay in paradise, the other three Old Ducks have returned home, and Sophia has a badly-timed and particularly unwelcome visitor.

I didn’t really find the book “laugh out loud”, but there was certainly a lot that made me smile – and I particularly enjoyed the book’s conclusion, tying up a few loose ends, and finding Sophia a very much changed person from the woman we’d first met. The “adventures” delighted me rather less – they did make me cringe a little at times, particularly the one big moment of drama (at their age they really should have known better – but that perhaps says more about me being particularly po-faced and lacking a sense of fun!).

One thing I did enjoy very much was the book’s sense of place – whether walking by the harbour or visiting the bakery on the corner, sailing to a nearby bay, visiting a beach or eating at a taverna with a particularly perfect view, the author does a lovely job of bring Rhodes to life, and you can really feel the warmth of the sun. And there’s a lot of lovely eating and drinking – that’s something I always rather enjoy on holiday too!

So I will admit it was a bit of a mixed bag for me – but full kudos to the author for showing that age is no barrier to fun in the sun, and that it’s never too late to make changes in your life and think about a fresh start. The book might have worked rather better as a beach read (I read it with the heating cranked up, as the rain pounded the windows…), one you could happily pick up and put down between liberal applications of suntan lotion – there are certainly a good number of Shirley Valentine moments, and the whole book has a real sense of fun, balanced with just enough reflection about age not being the barrier older women can sometimes make it. I’ll be looking forward to seeing what the author does next, with every confidence that she’ll successfully iron out the few tiny niggles that prevented me from entirely loving this one.

(Review copied to Amazon UK, but link not yet available)

I’m sixty and I totally related with these ladies! I did great with my fiftieth birthday, but the day I turned sixty I looked in the mirror like Sophia and seen me and wrinkles and OLD looking back! Sophia realized she had been a dupe for five years by her married boss. So, she quit her job and went to Rhodes, Greece for a month holiday.
She meets three other ladies all in there sixties facing different life dilemmas and were there to decide what they were going to do next. These ladies had formed a friendship from their University years and now they called themselves the Old Ducks Club. They asked Sophia to now join since she was in their same boat.

This book grabbed me from start to finish! The author Maddie Please has some great witticisms and obviously knows what men are like when they are hangers on! Plus she had some super funny observations about the male sex that were spot on! Lol!

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a great book!

I received a free advanced copy from NetGalley and these are my willingly given thoughts and opinions.