Book Blurb:
A senior citizens’ center and a daycare collide with hilarious results in the new ensemble comedy from New York Times-bestselling author Clare Pooley
When Lydia takes a job running the Senior Citizens’ Social Club three afternoons a week, she assumes she’ll be spending her time drinking tea and playing gentle games of cards.
The members of the Social Club, however, are not at all what Lydia was expecting. From Art, a failed actor turned kleptomaniac to Daphne, who has been hiding from her dark past for decades to Ruby, a Banksy-style knitter who gets revenge in yarn, these seniors look deceptively benign—but when age makes you invisible, secrets are so much easier to hide.
When the city council threatens to sell the doomed community center building, the members of the Social Club join forces with their tiny friends in the daycare next door—as well as the teenaged father of one of the toddlers and a geriatric dog—to save the building. Together, this group’s unorthodox methods may actually work, as long as the police don’t catch up with them first.
My Review:
I caught the title from a buddy bookblogger and had to check it out! Literally—from my local library. That pink cover might be off-putting, but it has a dog on it. How bad can it be?
Oh my goodness. Where does this Yankee start? Is there much difference between aging in the UK or the US if both are well seasoned and busy trying to find what mischief to get into next? I think not.
It’s Daphne’s 70th birthday, the youngster, and she’s thinking of maybe getting back out into society after lying low for some time. She’s looking at the 70s and feeling a bit lonely. It’s that colorful background, you see.
So she finds a senior social club at the local community center and quietly sets out to get some online dating experience at the same time. I spent some time at the beginning of the book wondering where this thing was going and if it would be worth it. But the writing style? Got me. I kept reading.
I enjoyed the dialogue, the sense of humor, the intelligence, and the life going on with these supposed aging citizens. Okay, maybe retired doesn’t mean dead from either the waist up or down.
Then, a plot begins to manifest, as well as glimpses of Daphne’s life experience and the support characters are beginning to develop into real people. The descriptions paint a picture of seniors as they might see themselves, absent facial lines and thinning hair: vibrant, driven, determined to save their community center.
AH! So at this point, you’re thinking BOORING!…not so! This is written with such heart, emotions. It is pure entertainment.
Is it a mystery? Yes. (well, sorta)
Sassy, snarky? Yes.
Is there a bit of romance? (Don’t groan!) Yes.
Is a dog involved? Yes
It’s sweet and it’s fun. And it hits many topical themes, aging of course, but loneliness, abuse, and teen pregnancy. The characters are memorable and I loved that little zinger at the end.
The narrator does a terrific job of mastering those voices. Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. The thoughts expressed here are my own.
Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars 
Book Details:
Genre: Friendship Fiction, Humorous Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Audio
ASIN: B0CKKNS75X
Listening Length: 8 hrs 11 mins
Narrator: Clare Corbett
Publication Date: June 11, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
The Author: Clare Pooley graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge and spent twenty years in the heady world of advertising before becoming a full-time writer.
Clare’s memoir – The Sober Diaries – has helped thousands of people worldwide to quit drinking.
Clare’s first novel – The Authenticity Project – was a BBC Radio 2 Bookclub pick, a New York Times Bestseller and the winner of the RNA debut novel award. It has been translated into 30 languages. Her second novel, The People on Platform 5 (titled Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting in the USA) was published in 2022, and How to Age Disgracefully is out in June 2024.
Clare lives in London and Cornwall with her long-suffering husband, three children and two border terriers. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her cooking, at the theatre, walking the South-West cliff path or wild swimming on the North Cornish coast.
©2025 V Williams
Rosepoint Publishing 