Jeanie Lawson runs a modestly successful health food store in London and has been married for more than 30 years. Her husband, George, is looking forward to retiring to the country, but as Jeanie turns 60, she's not quite ready to be put out to pasture. Plus, moving to the country would mean less time with her granddaughter, Ellie, whom she takes to the park once a week while Ellie's difficult artist father prepares for an exhibition. On those Thursdays in the park, she meets Ray, who is there with his grandson, Dylan. After the first few awkward meetings, Jeanie and Ray begin to form a connection beyond their grandchildren. As her marriage crumbles under George's determination to sell Jeanie's shop and move and his failure to stiff-upper-lip away past trauma Jeanie is far too tempted by Ray. This first novel is heartfelt without being angst-ridden and full of likable characters (even the unlikable ones warm up), and readers of women's fiction will relate to Jeanie. A warm, tender novel about a woman finally finding a place of her own.--Maguire, Susan Copyright 2010 Booklist

After 30 years, Jeanie's husband, George, has withdrawn from her, and she can't figure out what went wrong. On her weekly trips to the park with her granddaughter, she meets Ray, who's there with his grandson, and the two hit it off. Fortunately, the plot of this unique love story keeps the listener's attention on its own merits since Joanna David's narration leaves much to be desired. There is little change in the diction of female characters, making it difficult at times to figure out who's speaking. Breaks in fluidity show poor editing, and awkward illustration of speech tags, such as forced laughter and chuckling, are quite distracting. Yet listeners will agonize along with Jeanie as she faces the prospect of sacrificing her own needs and desires in order to save her stagnant marriage. They will empathize with her as she fights her desire to move on and engage in an exciting new relationship and celebrate her personal growth as she makes difficult yet unexpected choices. Verdict Boyd's realistic and bittersweet later-in-life romance is well worth checking out, but many listeners will prefer it in print.-Erin E. Forson, Columbus, OH (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A sincere tale of late-in-life love. The book, first published in 2011, was a best-seller in the U.K. The year Jeanie turns 60 marks a decade since her reliable but controlling husband, George, started sleeping in a separate room and refused to tell her why. Adrift in a marriage that is now more comfortable routine than partnership, she focuses instead on the health foods store she owns, outings with her frank friend Rita and play dates with her granddaughter Ellie, whom she takes to the park on Thursdays. It's there that Jeanie and Ellie meet Ray and his grandson Dylan. While the kids play, the adults feel an immediate connection, unlike what Jeanie has felt before. Soon, they are sharing life stories--each including the heartbreaking loss of a loved one--and enjoying a clandestine, burgeoning romance. When her husband decides, against Jeanie's firm protestations, that they will move to a house in the country and that she should retire and sell her store, the choice, to readers, will seem obvious. But how can Jeanie end 32 years of mostly happy marriage? Who would care for George? And though her daughter, Chanty, is no more supportive of Jeanie's desire to keep living and working in the city, Jeanie is loath to disrupt Chanty's (and Ellie's) life with such a thing as divorce. Even Rita, who initially encourages a full-fledged affair, citing the improvement in Jeanie's life since meeting Ray, cautions her against abandoning a stable marriage. When none of these prove reason enough to ignore potential happiness with Ray, a revelation takes the decision out of Jeanie's hands, at least for a while. A subplot involving Chanty and her surly artist husband is the least subtle of the obstacles facing Jeanie and Ray, but it adds good dramatic spice and satisfyingly prolongs the outcome. Boyd's delicate rendering of Jeanie's interior grounds the novel, and readers will root for her to finally get her own. A poignant love story featuring refreshing characters in their 60s.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.