Dee MacDonald comes to the blog today with another tale of Connie’s adventures, this one three years after her famous ‘drive to nowhere specific’, this one with two new friends, plenty of laughs and a new start for all. Please read on for my review of
The Getaway Girls
I really enjoyed MacDonald’s debut, The Runaway Wife, which featured a 6o something Connie, fed up with the constant refusal of her husband and children ‘seeing’ or ‘appreciating’ her – so she packed her little green car (Kermit) and started driving- meeting new people, having adventures, and actually deciding that settling for what she had wasn’t quite enough. Now divorced, pushing 70 and living in London for the moment, she’s recently been given a box full of her family history – a history she never knew as her parents were killed in an accident when she was little, and she was raised by her aunt and uncle and their children. Discovering that she had a grandmother born in Italy is enough to get her feet itchy, and a half-formed plan is hatched.
But since her divorce, she’s been (mostly to get out and meet people) running a class on flower arranging, two of her “from the beginning” students are Gill and Maggie, and when she announces the end of the course, the two seem particularly downhearted – so she invites the two to the pub for a drink and lunch, and shares her plan of traveling to Italy and discovering her roots.
Gill is coming on 70, with six children and is finding life lonely and wants little more than a man to make her feel more complete. Maggie has been with the same man who brought her to London from Glasgow some years earlier: he’s a low-level criminal, who has currently been seen about town with a young blonde in tow. With a son who’s emigrated to Australia, and her fear of flying, she’s angry, neglected and feeling trapped. The three find a camaraderie in the pub, and set a weekly ‘get together’ before parting. But Connie’s determination to go to Italy hasn’t waned, in fact a chance sighting of an RV dealership have her looking at one of her own – a small, perfect for her trip camper – that soon is overcome by thoughts of the larger and more luxurious “La Bellisima” model , gently used and pushed by the salesman. Is it possible that she could survive (and thrive) on the trip by road, taking Gill and Maggie along?
And here comes the fun – from Gill’s determination to flirt with everything and anything in trousers, to Maggie’s sudden windfall taken from a duffel bag shoved in her oven, the ladies are adjusting to personalities, new sights, changes and a bit of tension as Maggie’s ex is following them everywhere. From meeting other Brits who are almost caricatures of an earlier time, to finding friendship, support and hope in the next chapter, the story is clever and light – with plenty of lovely descriptions of place and journeys with these women who are far different from what one would expect from these three woman who find that sometimes it’s only the journey that matters, not the destination. It’s not necessary to read Connie’s story (The Road Trip) to enjoy this book, but if you want a modern-day finding yourself story a la Kerouac with a heroine in an age where slippers, knitting and that birthday card with a fiver are expected, these two are books for you.
Title: The Getaway Girls
Author: Dee MacDonald
Genre: Contemporary Woman's Fiction, Humor elements, Setting: France, Setting: Italy, Travelogue
Published by: Bookouture
ISBN: 178681479X
Published on: 20 July, 2018
Format:eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Pages: 340
Rated:
Get Your Copy: Amazon ♦ Barnes&Noble ♦ iTunes ♦ Kobo ♦ IndieBound ♦ Google
One morning, Connie McColl wakes up and decides to swap her ordinary life, for an extraordinary adventure…
Connie McColl is finally free to make her own decisions for the first time in decades. And when she meets glamorous Gill and downtrodden Maggie, at a rather dull flower arranging class, it seems that she’s not the only one dreaming of adventure. The three very different women all agree it’s about time they had a holiday to remember.
So they make a pact for this summer to be their best yet - and drive off into the sunset together…
As they meander their way along the beautiful beaches of France and onto the glorious delights of Italy in their luxury campervan, the new friends have plenty of fun and frolics in the sunshine. But the vacation isn’t quite what they expected…
Gill will do anything to have one last holiday romance, Connie has a surprise inheritance awaiting her in Italy, and Maggie has a secret that is going to catch up with them all…
In the end, all three women discover that the journey they thought would be their last really is just the beginning…
From the bestselling author of The Runaway Wife, The Getaway Girls is a laugh-out-loud, life-affirming journey of friendship, romance and living life to the full.
A copy of this title was provided via Publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
3 responses to “The Getaway Girls by Dee MacDonald”
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Fun to have a book by and about older women.
this one was funny – perhaps a bit more somber than the first -but clever and unusual nonetheless
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