Surfing in Stilettos [Kindle Edition]

We begin our journey with a blog post. Amanda has blogged on Fortifying Your Fifties about the impending gap year. Some of the comments make me chuckle.

Chapter One sees Todd Bradshaw experiencing a night of passion with Amanda. Waking exhausted he finds it was only a dream! Todd is a man who has missed the opportunities in the past but Amanda is still haunting him.

On the road, we learn from Phil about the night before. Amanda and her mother Grace (having recently got in touch) were up all night drinking and reminiscing. Amanda is feeling rather ill ...

Next we meet Bibi and we're introduced to her life and her relationship with husband Didier.

With all our characters in place, what follows is a fast paced and engaging story of how their lives end up weaving in and out, with moments that make you laugh out loud but others more serious and in one particular case, life threatening.

Phil has lost his place in the world after retiring and right from the start of their gap year is grumpy. After Bertie the camper van breaks down and they stay in a rustic village, what should have been idyllic only exacerbates his feelings. With son Tom texting with disasters at home, one such text sends Phil home leaving Amanda in France.

Bibi's husband has been having an affair and she uses social media as a non-threatening way to try to win him back. Amanda and Bibi become friends ... and two other connections become important to them both (not both in a good way!)

Grace's zany front hides a vulnerability underneath. She is such a fabulous character. We could all learn something from her!

With each character narrating in the third person, we get to know them well. Interspersed with the story are the blog posts from Amanda, filling in information and garnering some funny comments. I was delighted to see DizzyC making a comment

Surfing with Stilettos touches on some very real and harrowing life experiences. Marital infidelity, false identities and how that can be used to prey on vulnerable members of our society ... and how we in our culture identify strongly with the work we do.

I have enjoyed being transported to France and being a part of these characters finding their own places in the world. My imagination has been fired, I've chuckled and bitten my nails in tension. I have no hesitation in recommending you add Surfing in Stilettos to your reading pile.

I would like to thank the author for gifting a Kindle copy in exchange for an honest review.

Surfing in Stilettos is the follow up to Mini Skirts and Laughter Lines. However, saying that, Surfing in Stilettos can be read as a stand alone book. Having not previously read Mini Skirts and Laughter I did not have any difficulties at all getting into the story of Surfing in Stilettos.

Amanda and her super grumpy husband Phil are off on an adventure 'Gap Year' with Bertie the very unreliable camper van. The first leg of their journey starts off in France but Bertie has other ideas and breaks down. Amanda and Phil are forced to spend longer in France than they first intended. Amanda spends the time wondering if she will be able to stop herself from strangling Phil as he constantly complains, is poor company and seems downright miserable! Amanda is kept company via Skype with her very eccentric and totally bonkers mother Grace, whose philosophy of life is to live it to the full. Grace is a die-hard party animal who believes that one can never have too much fun, with age being no barrier!

Amanda and Phil leave their son Tom to house-sit, although they soon realise that this was a huge mistake and soon Phil leaves France to evict some uninvited house guests. Amanda decides to stay in France and soon meets the wonderful Bibi and they two become firm friends. But, Bibi has her own story and difficulties within her marriage that she endeavours to fix. However, Bibi's plan may backfire, having consequences for poor Amanda!

I have to say I absolutely adored this book! The characters were so entertaining and there were parts in the book that did make me laugh out loud. I loved them all! Grace is the sort of person I want to be when I am elderly! She is without doubt a Granny who rocks! I love that Amanda is unaware of the effect that she has on those around her. She really doesn't realise just how loved she is. Anytime I thought of Bibi I kept thinking of a very young Audrey Hepburn.

The story has a wonderful plot with keeps the reader interested and entertained. There are a few exciting plot twists that were not expected at all! I loved the fact that Amanda has a blog and shares her adventures with all her online friends. The central message throughout the book is that you are never too old for adventure, love, new direction in your life and a damn good time! I highly recommend this book! Its great fun and wonderfully entertaining. It is very well written, in a refreshing and humorous way and has that 'feel-good' factor that lots of books sadly lack.

When I first started this book I admit that I was worried about not being able to relate to the main character who was in her fifties, because I hadn't got there myself yet. Well I'm pleased to say that it wasn't an issue at all - I grew very fond of Amanda and thanks to the clear writing style I was easily able to understand where she was coming from.

It did take me a little while to fully engage with the storyline but once I did I was hooked, from then on I found it easy to sail through the pages with laughter and a smile on my face. The blog posts and comments were definitely my favourite part of the book, I just loved the familiarity of it especially when DizzyC popped up - I actually shouted `yay it's Dizzy' which resulted in a raised eyebrow from my husband (he still doesn't really understand my obsession with fiction, bless him).

So as the blurb has already told you, Amanda and her husband Phil were on a tour of Europe and they both seemed to feel differently about the situation - Amanda saw it as a way of rekindling their love for one another but Phil, who was feeling troubled about other parts of his life, seemed to be annoyed by the whole thing. The author tackled the subject of marriage gone stale perfectly, it was written in a light and refreshing way but still managed to get the message across. I personally loved the idea of having a gap year and would be keen to do something similar in the future (though I'm not sure about being stuck in a camper van with my husband for a year either)!

Amanda's ex Todd was lurking in the background, he felt like Amanda was the one that got away and seemed intent on getting her back. I just couldn't predict how this part of the story would turn out and I must admit that I enjoyed the unknown. Amanda's mother was hugely entertaining and I absolutely loved reading about her antics, the mother and daughter Skype chats were a particular favourite of mine because I found myself comparing them to FaceTime chats with my own mum . I loved the dogs that were featured in the story, being an animal lover I always enjoy a book with a pet or two included - it makes a story whole in my opinion!

Being mostly set in France it gave me a warm holiday type feeling which was very welcome seeing as it was snowy and freezing cold outside my window. However, when the story took a sinister turn I got chills and felt deeply concerned for the character involved - it certainly made me think more about the darker side of social media.

Towards the end there was an interesting and very clever twist, it made my thoughts go in completely the wrong direction - the end result of this really made me smile and finished everything off beautifully.

This was a fun read that took my mind to many interesting places, it doesn't matter if you're facing fifty or not because there was something for everyone within its pages.