A Life – changing trip

Synopsis

Newly single at sixty, Elin Anderson decides it’s finally time for an adventure of her own. With her marriage to tedious Tom now officially over, Elin plans to visit the family she hasn’t seen in years. First stop: Australia!

But going home is harder than Elin thought. Everywhere she turns Elin sees brightness and colour, which only makes her own life seem even more drab and beige. How has she let herself fade away?

Determined to have some fun, Elin reluctantly agrees to join The Silver Surfers – a group of seniors who travel the coast, only caring about their next big adventure. Because life’s too short to watch the ocean when you could be making waves…

There’s only one catch – her road trip companion, Kit Pascoe. Kit is a man who doesn’t know the meaning of the word fun and makes it clear to Elin that this adventure will be subject to his own strict rules.

But with every new day, Elin slowly begins to rediscover who she really is. And she’s certain that rules are meant to be broken…aren’t they?

My review

Now that she is divorced from her husband Tom, Elin Anderson can finally do what she wants, even if she is in her sixties.
So that means that she can finally visit her family in Australia that she hasn’t seen in years. However, how lovely the reunion may be, it makes is also more clear to Elin that she allowed Tom and life in general to let her fade away. Because Elin sees how bright and full of colour life can be, no matter what your age is.
Befriending and also joining The Silver Surfers, a group of seniors looking for the next great adventure, Elin decides to have more fun in life.
But where does Kit Pascoe fit in, a man she met on her flight to Australia, linked to her sister’s partner and also having apparently forgotten the meaning of having fun? 

I always find it inspiring how people, not matter what their age is, dare to turn their lives around. Or are ready to start a new adventure, not knowing where that adventure will bring them. 

So while initially I pitied Elin, I quickly admired her! I felt sorry for her, because let’s be honest, Tom is not the most likeable person in the world, on the contrary! I couldn’t understand why Elin stayed so long with him, allowing him to drain all the joy and colour out of her life.
And I disliked him even more when reading how he juts walked away yet assumes that Elin would be jumping at every command. 

I found it great to see how Elin in Australia turned from a literal grey mouse into a bright woman again. I felt that she finally allowed herself to be Elin again, an not the Elin Tom turned her into.
And the old/new Elin is the kind of woman I somehow hope to be myself, ready for a new adventure, fearless and going with the flow! 

The Silver Surfers are a great bunch of friends, not acting like their age, but acting how they feel. Who has ever said that their a age restriction for surfing or having fun? But not only that, the Silver Surfers are also a group of friends, looking after each other and helping out however they can. 

And then there is Kit… we get to see two sides of Kit, which I found a bit difficult to put together. During the flight with Elin, he seemed like a genuine nice guy, however, when their paths cross again, he is the total opposite…
But the more I was reading the book, the more I understood Kit’s character and I could put all the dots together.  

This was a lovely story to read, about yes, people older than myself. But that didn’t make it impossible to connect with not only Elin, but with every character. I enjoyed being on an adventure with Elin, I loved seeing her life getting full of colour again, and even put people in place! This was a uplifting story, showing us that age truly is just a number and that surrounded with the right people you can feel as young as you want and no adventure is off limits!