Aug 20, 20235 min read

The Widows' Wine Club by Julia Jarman. Review

Book Description

The beginning of Janet, Viv and Zelda’s friendship could not have been less promising…

Navigating their new lives as widows, the three women venture to the same dreary bereavement group in a chilly church hall. But what bonds them is not their shared predicament, but instead how quickly they all decide to flee the depressing gathering, choosing instead to share a bottle of wine. The Three Muscat-eers is born.

The women may be down but they’re not out; in their sixties but certainly not past it. They agree a mission: to find fulfilment as single women and recover their joie de vivre. And as they start to feel ready to face the world again, the friends support each other to dive headlong into new hobbies, new adventures, and even to dip their toes into the wonderful world of dating again.

When one of the ladies gets life-changing news, there’s only one thing for it. The Widows’ Wine Club closes rank, and it’s ‘one for all and all for one’. Because when they stick together, there’s nothing the friends can’t achieve.

BLOG TOUR REVIEW

Review for 'The Widows' Wine Club' by Julia Jarman.

Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Julia Jarman, Book And Tonic, Boldwood Books and Rachel's Random resources Tours.

Publication date 14th August 2023.

This is the first book I have read by this author but it most definitely won't be my last!!

This novel consists of 75 chapters. The chapters are short to medium in length so easy to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!

This book is well written with vivid descriptions setting the picture perfectly in the readers mind. The title, description and cover works perfectly with the storyline.

This book is a lovely read about three women who become friends after all bumping into each other at a funeral parlour where they are discussing their husbands'' funeral arrangements and then later at a meeting for widows. They all decided to leave the official widows meeting prematurely and start their own. The three women Viv, Janet and Zelda all have extremely different personalities as well as different lifestyles. They are all of the older generation which I really enjoyed reading about as it makes a change from the majority of the books that I read where the main protagonists are in their 20's and 30's. these women all have different life experiences, have learnt different lessons and have different outlooks on life but they all form an unlikely friendship group which doesn't always go as smoothly as one would hope! I absolutely loved having three strong female protagonists, being female myself, and hearing from each of their points of view!! Julia captivated their individual personalities perfectly and her evocative writing skills made each of them jump out of the pages and come to life. There were moments of laughter, tears, jealously, heartache, resentment, humour, sorrow and all the emotions you can think of and Julia captured them all perfectly with her words! I enjoyed watching their personalities and friendships develop and change throughout this book as well as seeing them enjoying new hobbies, getting back into dating, their bond with their pets Mack, Morag and Claudia, their children/step children Grant, Tracey and Errol (loved this name in particular as it is my Grandads name!!) and seeing how their life's changed overall after they lost their husbands. It was also intriguing to read about what their husbands had been like, how they treated their wives so differently and some of the secrets some of them were hiding!!! Their friendships get tested throughout the book with several different events going on and with opinions divided but they all lifted each other up and had a special bond throughout which was amazing to 'see'!! It also just goes to show and prove that age should never be a barrier to living your life!! I would love to see this book turned into a movie with Dame Judie Dench being involved, of course!! . I don't want to say anything else about the storyline as I don't want to give to much away, I will admit that I did find it slow at times but then at others I was crying with laughter so it is definitely a mixed bag and most definitely worth a read!! I am looking forward to reading more books by Julia and am off to see what other books she has written to add them to my Amazon Wishlist!!

The characters are strong, realistic and I became completely invested in each and every one of them. They all had their own problems, secrets, feelings and all had unique personalities and I just absolutely loved getting to know them all. I felt each of their love , friendship, pain, heartbreak, happiness, anger, sorrow and so much more. I loved the main protagonists Viv, Janet and Zelda who were both such strong females but were also very realistic having their individual strengths and weaknesses which I enjoyed getting to know more about. I love seeing strong female leads in books being female myself and these two were both fantastic women. I loved seeing their personalities change and develop as individuals as well as watching them bond with each other as the storyline went on. I am a huge animal lover so any books that contain animals as part of their plot are always a huge hit for me and I absolutely adored Viv's Claudia and Zelda's Mack and Morag, especially the 'conversations' with them, which definitely reminded me of myself talking to my gang!!! Julia does an absolutely amazing job of bringing the story to life and the characters leap out of the pages as your turning them thanks to her evocative writing skills!! It is so hard to say what I feel about the characters without giving anything away so I won't say anymore about them as I don't want to go into too much detail at the risk of spoiling it for other readers but Julia really has done a brilliant job at bringing each of the characters to life and I am missing them already. Well done Julia!!!

Overall a beautiful book filled with strong women, friendship and a rollercoaster ride of emotions!!

395 pages.

This book is just £1.99 to purchase on kindle, free with kindle unlimited and £9.99 in paperback (at time of review) via Amazon which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!

Rated 4/5 (I enjoyed it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

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Author Bio

Julia Jarman has written over a hundred books for children, and is now turning her hand to uplifting, golden years women’s fiction. She is now drawing on her own experience of bereavement, female friendship and late-life dating.