Alan & Heather Winterbottom have run their medical centre in rural Cornwall for many years but have decided that it is time to hand over the reins to younger folk & enjoy their retirement whilst they are still healthy enough to do so. However it seems that the pair have very different ideas as to what the next stage of life holds. Heather longs for a leisurely trip round the Greek Island whereas Alan has decided to go in for gardening in a big way! As Horticulture seems to possess Alan she decided to take off for Greece & have a belated Gap year!

This was an enjoyable story that explores the huge changes retirement brings. It was full of interesting characters & some laugh out loud moments along with needing a tissue now & then. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Retirement and what to do with your life. Two people, two different ideas and what they do about it.. 4 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley, author and publisher for this ARC

This was about two women retiring from their practices. It’s about self journey and enjoying what life throws at them. Enjoyed the read.

It was so frustrating to see how her family took Heather for granted and how they wanted to control her choices.
Retirement has no universal pattern for all, Everyone should be allowed to find her own new rythm without others pressurise them.
That's why I was happy to see that Heather was brave enough to set off on her own Odyssey and do what gave her joy.
I can recommend this book to everyone, but mainly people facing the same dilemma: how to adjust their life to the new framework of retirement.

Joanna Nell does it again. She has such a winning formula with her characters. I absolutely loved reading about Heather's dilemma once she and her husband retire from their GP practice. It seems that they are out of sync. Her husband wants to become self sufficient and she wants to travel to Greece.

What ensues is a fun adventure. Had me smiling at many stages throughout.

Heather Winterbottom is a GP and has run a practice with her husband Alan for many years. They reach the decision that its time to retire and hand over the reigns to somebody younger. Heather dreams of travelling around Greece but after retirement, Alan prefers to stay at home and set up an allotment in their garden.
Feeling disappointed and invisible, Heather confides in one of her oldest patients who encourages her to follow her dreams otherwise she will regret in the years to come. Heather makes an impulsive decision to travel to Greece alone much to the surprise of her family.
She soon settles into the culture and makes friends with some locals who show her around the island away from the normal tourist areas.
Her journey makes her reflect back on her marriage and her life back home and starts to wonder if she can ever go back to the way things were.

This makes you think of what you want out of life and not having regrets by missing out on life.

This is the first book I’ve read of Joanna Nell’s, although she has been on my radar for a while.
This is a gentle story of Heather and Alan Winterbottom, both local GP’s who are retiring at the same time but it seems they want different things from their retirement.
Heather doesn’t want to live Alan’s dream of a veggie patch and monster pumpkins, she yearns to escape to the Greek Islands. And a chance presents it’s self when her beloved elderly friend passes and she takes the ashes on a trip to the Greek Islands.
This is a story that centres around retirement, losing identity and purpose. It’s difficult also when you have been entrenched in a small community for decades and worked together for all that time. Thoroughly enjoyed this, nothing too mind bending but gives food for thought to a stage of life.
A quick read, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

As with all of Joanna Nell's books, this one is so very enjoyable!

Heather Winterbottom is retiring - and she's not alone; having worked alongside her husband for over forty years in their GP practice, she cannot wait to have time to do all the things she's dreamed of, like taking a holiday. Greece is just waiting for them to visit, but husband Alan doesn't seem to have got the message. While Heather want to travel, Alan wants to go no further than his own back garden, planting their very own vegetable garden. Frustrated, Heather eventually decides to take some time out = from their home, their marriage, their family and take her Grecian trip after all . . .

This author never fails to take real-life scenarios and turn them into the most entertaining reads! Being of retirement age myself, I know of several couples who have struggled with being thrown together at home 24/7, and understood Heather's dilemma only too well. Luckily, my other half and I are on the same page and do lots together as well as singly. Heather's adventure is beautifully described with lots of historic details about Greece, it's myths and legends, and it was a delight to read. Thoroughly enjoyable and one I would recommend. 4.5*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

<i><b>“Dr Heather Winterbottom often joked that she’d fallen half an hour behind on her first day, and forty years later, she was still trying to catch up.”</b></i> I feel you Dr. Heather! I can only hope it’ll take me less than 40 years to be on time 😂

Heather and Alan sold their medical practice, where they worked side by side for forty years, and begin a new chapter in their life: the <i>desired</i> retirement. The only problem is that they desire totally different things.

I tend to love books about older people doing things for obvious reasons: we will all get older and it doesn’t mean we want to stop living adventures and enjoying life to its fullest.

Mrs Winterbottom Takes a Gap Year it’s an easy relatable story of a couple who discovers they grew a bit apart, while showing you can follow your dreams at any age/ point of your life.

A moving, lighthearted and uplifting story that celebrates aging, life, family and friendships.

<i>I would like to thank Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Dr Heather Winterbottom and her husband Alan, also a GP, are retiring. They bid a fond farewell to looking after patients, long days, missed lunches and high levels of stress, and try to get used to being in each others company all day.
Heather has always wanted to go on a cruise, to visit the Greek Islands, to enjoy the history, food and bask in the sunshine. To her dismay, Alan decides he wants to stay at home, plan a vegetable garden and perhaps keep hens!.
Retirement, ironically requires work! You have to plan what each person wants to do, and make compromises. Even shopping together is worthy of negotiation, very similar to a war zone, smiling through gritted teeth, as the minutes and hours go by.
Heather has been inspired by a dear friend to ‘ Stop complaining and take action’ ! So, this is exactly what she does, you can’t always get what you want, but with baby steps, you can find a sort of contentment.
Full of humour, wry observations, sarcasm and emotional revelations, this is a blueprint for how to tackle retirement, the importance of talking and listening to others points of view.
There were times during this novel, I thought the author had been eavesdropping on my conversations with my husband, bemoaning my humdrum existence and frustration at becoming a caregiver due to his becoming badly affected by Covid. Sadly, my thirst and yen for adventure remains unfulfilled.
My thanks to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton, the publishers, for my advance digital copy, freely given in exchange for my honest review.
I will leave copies to Goodreads and Amazon UK. A five star read indeed.

EXCERPT: Dr Heather Winterbottom often joked that she'd fallen half an hour behind on her first day, and forty years later, she was still trying to catch up. she always apologised for keeping her patients waiting, even on the rare occasions her appointments ran to time. What's more, her face, with its harried arrangement of frown lines and down-turned mouth, had taken on an expression of permanent contrition. All that was about to change. Today, on her last ever day as a doctor, she would take back those thirty precious minutes and add them to the rest of her life. There was an entire world beyond Netherwood Medical Centre, so many things she wanted to do and see. This day marked the beginning of a whole new chapter in her life, if not a whole new life. But first, she had to remove a cotton bud from Mr Clifton's left ear.

ABOUT 'MRS WINTERBOTTOM TAKES A GAP YEAR': It's never too late for the adventure of a lifetime . . .

Heather Winterbottom has worked side by side with her husband as GPs in their idyllic rural practice for over forty years. But as the time comes to hang up their stethoscopes, the Winterbottoms discover that they have rather different visions of retirement . . .

Heather dreams of exploring the Greek Islands, of escaping the shackles of her routine life and embracing an exciting new adventure. Alan dreams of growing his own vegetables.

When things come to a head at a family lunch, Heather announces that she has decided to take a year off. From her old life, from her marriage - from Alan. Alone in beautiful Greece, Heather embarks on her very own odyssey - complete with peak experiences, pitfalls and temptations. But what if coming home is the biggest adventure yet?

MY THOUGHTS: Joanna Nell is a very wise and witty woman. I always get so much from her books, and Mrs Winterbottom Takes A Gap Year is no exception.

Retirement - something to look forward to, or to dread? Time to do all those things you have always wanted to do, or an endless desert of time needing to be filled? It's a big step, one not negotiated well by many of those who face it. And when there are two retirements at the same time - the adjustment is twice as big.

Although Alan and Heather have worked in relative harmony together for forty or so years, retirement isn't so easy. Alan has his ideas of what he wants to do and Heather's dreams apparently can wait til 'later'. A friend's death is the catalyst for Heather to realise that there may not always be a 'later', and so she takes off alone for a year to herself - the gap year she never had when she was younger.

I love Joanna Nell's writing. Her characters are fully fleshed and very relatable. Although I cheered Heather on for making the decision to go it alone and then see what happens, I admit to also feeling a certain amount of trepidation. Would the gap between Heather and Alan widen, or would they reach an amicable compromise? Not telling . . .

Nell manages to inject humor into the direst situations, taking the serious business of aging and retirement and making it wholely relatable in this amusing and warm-hearted read. This book is a joy and a reminder that life is an adventure if you let it be. There is also a poignant reminder of the humanity of the refugee crisis.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

#MrsWinterbottomTakesaGapYear #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: Joanna Nell is a UK born writer and doctor. A former ship's doctor, Joanna now works as a GP with a passion for women's health and care of the elderly. She writes character-driven stories for women in their prime, creating young-at-heart characters who are not afraid to break the rules and defy society's expectations of ageing.
Joanna lives on Sydney's Northern Beaches, and as the mother of teenagers enjoys long walks with her dog and talking to herself.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of Mrs Winterbottom Takes A Gap Year by Joanna Nell for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

This book is so good, it should be essential reading for anyone who is about to retire! I retired 6 years ago, and completely empathised with Heather’s situation: what to do next? The book is as much about the poor communication between Heather and her husband than her gap year. Husband Alan is also sympathetically drawn, and his new friend, Kevin, is hilarious. The book is often moving and sometimes laugh out loud funny. The descriptions of the Greek islands are absolutely beautiful. I definitely recommend this book.

There were so many facets to this story and I enjoyed all of them.

What I loved most about this book is that it covered lots of things I found really interesting. For instance how patients stop the Dr and want advice on their aliments and the medical jargon. The insights into The Odyssey by Homer, and most of all how someone someone you think you know can have such a different outlook on your life.

There were so many facets to this story and I enjoyed all of them. The characters were given depth through the eyes of Heather as she sifted through what she knew of them and what they meant to her. How her relationships and path in life had changed now she was officially retired. There were also flashbacks to the past covering how she met her husband.

Slightly comical was her unexpected travelling companion to the Greek Isles who had introduced her to The Odyssey. As was the couple she breakfasted with when she couldn't avoid them. Each time I put this book down I couldn't wait to get back to it, which is always for me the sign that I am really enjoying a story. It was a wonderful read, just like all the other books I've read by this author.

Another great easy read by Joanna. I love it how she brings her older characters back to life.
Recently retired doctors Alan and Heather are struggling with being at home. Can their change in their work status have a serious effect on their long marriage?

It’s not that I’m nearing retirement now, but I’ve always had a problem with people who say they ‘are going to enjoy life as soon as they retire’. Or people who have absolutely no idea about what to do after that very important date. After all, you usually have about 40 years to think about this important time of your life. Heather and Alan Winterbottom have worked hard all their working life and I could really relate to both of them. Heather wants to spread her wings and do and see things she feels she’s missed; Alan wants very literally put his feet to the ground and carve out a new life from the soil he’s lived his whole life on.
Their differences become very clear in the first chapters; Heather and Alan going shopping for food for the first time in many years is a very funny ‘adventure’. That is, if you’re Alan and not Heather. Joanna Nell gives an absolute correct description of how most older couples do their shopping; I see them regularly. There is a reason why I order most household shopping online 😉. There is, however, a very serious undertone in all that happens the first few weeks of Heather and Alans’ retirement. Finally Heather takes the only possible solution: she takes her book about Homer and decides to try and follow in his footsteps. For a while anyway. She’s off to Greece, without knowing what awaits her – the good things, the bad things, the insightful things.
I just loved Heather and Alan, because Joanna Nell gave them both their own voice, first seeing only one side of the coin, but eventually both sides. It was also a pleasure to see how several difficulties were solved in this story, and not just the simple ones. It was realistic and uplifting, and made me think of some of the books of Maeve Binchy, and author I read a lot of books by.
Needless to say I bought the book immediately and I’m sure I will reread it in the future – maybe at the first day of my own retirement. Although I know now already my husband and I have booked a short holiday to celebrate that occasion. And not to Greece…
Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this review copy.

This was such a light, enjoyable read. Just what I needed after a few heavier subjects.
The character all frustrating at times but still likeable. I wanted a happy ending and got one.
I look forward to reading more by Joanna Nell.
Thanks to Netgalley.

Another warm-hearted story from Joanna Nell. This story features doctors, Heather and Alan Winterbottom as they retire from their practice. Suddenly finding themselves with free time to share, they discover that their priorities and interests do not overlap. Heather, yearning for a trip to the Greek islands, becomes a "Shirley Valentine" and undergoes the journey on her own.
This is a lovely, funny story of self-discovery in later life as well as a tale of reconciliation and co-operation.
A quick and light read, another ideal holiday book.

Heather and Alan Winterbottom are recently retired GP's. Heather has big plans for this new stage of her life, but all Alan wants is his garden. When Heather decides to jet off to Greece alone, can their relationship survive?

A gentle tale of aging and wanting different things from your partner. It took a long time to get going, but it was a pleasant enough read.

I’d like to thank Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Mrs Winterbottom Takes a Gap Year’ written by Joanna Nell in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

After forty years of working side by side at Netherwood Medical Centre, Doctors Heather and Alan Winterbottom hang up their stethoscopes and retire. Whilst Heather has dreams of travelling around Greece Alan is only interested in building a vegetable garden and greenhouse so she decides to take a year off from her home, her responsibilities and Alan.

‘Mrs Winterbottom Takes a Gap Year’ is a gentle story of a couple who have very different ideas of what they want to do in their retirement. It tells of relationships and the importance of family and friends, is easy to read with likeable characters. Although not my favourite novel by this author, it’s still a pleasantly involving story and ideal to take with you on holiday.

How I loved Mrs Winterbottom takes a gap year. It shows that life doesn't end when you retire and adventures can be fun but also a little scary. A really good read.