Book Review - A Vintage Vacation by Maddie Please

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Title: A Vintage Vacation

Author: Maddie Please

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Boldwood Books

Publication Date: 30th May 2023

Rating: 5 Stars

Clover Harrington might be sixty-one, but she’s still bossing it in the corporate world and can still run rings around her younger colleagues. And then she is made redundant….

Devastated and now suddenly the wrong side of sixty Clover doesn’t know what to do with her life or her corporate wardrobe! What does she wear if not red lippy and a power suit?! Rather than offer her any support, her partner, Jack announces he's off on a golfing weekend, leaving Clover completely adrift.

Desperate to get away from it all, Clover decides to visit her cousin Zoe at her small taverna in the gorgeous Italian Lakes. There she can rest and recuperate and plan the next stage of her life.

Until Clover’s eighty-year-old mother, Eleanor decides to turn up for the holiday too! Instead of gentle ambles around the lake, Eleanor seems more interested in late night poker and swigging Prosecco and Clover can’t quite believe her mum is having more fun than she is. But as the saying goes - if you can’t beat em, join em!

But is Clover brave enough to live La Dolce Vita?

I felt totally transported to the Italian Lakes in this gorgeous story, about how life is to be lived, and that age really doesn't matter. 

When Clover is made redundant and her partner is rather unsupportive, Clover decides she need a change of location and jets of to Italy to visit her cousin who she hasn't seen that much of.  She is though rather used to the corporate world. so doubts herself almost immediately as she realises she is now in rural Italy. 

This is a story of great character development for both Clover, and her mother too. As I have come to expect from Maddie Please, the main characters are in the advanced years of their lives, which always makes a nice change of pace from some of the other books I read. 

And the adventures these ladies get up to while in Italy, especially for affairs of the heart, are rather special. Just goes to show you can teach an old dog new tricks not that any of the silver foxes in this story are dogs!  

I especially love Clovers mother's antics on arriving in Italy, as well as her thoughts of the other people in her assisted living facility.  

There is a new lease of  life for both ladies that is incredibly pleasing to see, with a spattering of Italian words, and plenty of great Italian food. This was a joy to read. 

Thank you to Boldwood Books and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.