Is there anything better than sassy nonagenarians living their best lives? - I think not!! As I have never personally feared aging.. only living a life without purpose - The Excitements is a perfect dual-timeline reminder of how to live your life to the fullest!!

A QUICK INTRODUCTION: in the case of the Williamson sisters, who lived through some of the worst parts of our world's history in the last 100 years -why shouldn't they have some fun..? Or.. excitement? Nothing much seems to happen to elderly people.. or so it may seem. But in reality.. both sisters led daring lives as WWII spies in their youths. As they aged and continued to master those skills for the greater good.. mysteries and secrets began to unfold.

REVIEW: While one might argue there's something inherently romantic about all stories or history - I'm a big fan of non-romance fiction every now and then. I think it truly puts other romantic tales into perspective and reminds us of what's really important/what we can look forward to as the years go by.

The books I love the most are the ones that leave me feeling a little in my feels when they're over, and this one definitely left me with the warm fuzzies. (Also, I desperately wish I could hug these two old English broads!)

**Thank you to William Morrow & NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. I received this book for free, but all thoughts are my own. – SLR 🖤

Why do I love books featuring seniors who are such bada** people! Because the characters are atypical and put aside any stereotypes. Set in England, sisters Penny and Josephine are WWII veterans, being honored in France for their role in helping to win the war. While Josephine was a WREN, Penny was in the FRAY, but each had secrets beyond those experiences. At 97 and 99, they are bright and alert and take no prisoners with their quest to still find "excitements" each day, squashing the stereotype of pensioners just taking it easy. Who would think that a sweet little old lady was a jewel thief, well trained in the art of self-defense and her sister a former SOE agent? They certainly kept their adored great-nephew Archie busy as he tries in vain to keep them occupied and safe. What he doesn't know is that the trip to France fits right in with Penny's plans to right a wrong from during the war. I thought it very clever that the sisters can speak to each other using morse code and others just think they are tapping away on their laps. This was just a fun story, full of humor, but interesting as well in the retelling of their wartime experiences. Some sad moments, some surprises and twists, and although I thought I guessed what was predicted, it was fun to see the secrets unfold at the end. This story had me reading until the wee hours of the morning. Certainly that says something about how entertaining it was to read. This is a book about friendship, respecting others, and being true to yourself. Many thanks to #netgalley #theexcitements #cjwray for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The Excitements by CJ Way. Wow what a great novel! Very interesting historical and present day fiction, but giving a different version of WW II for those of us not aware how it was for England and France. Fun to share the excitements with the three main characters while enjoying their very different personalities. I hope everyone gives this book a chance you will not be disappointed. Thanks to Net Galley and Mary Interdonati of Marketing & Publicity| Morrow Group HarperCollins Publishers.

To all the world, nonagenarian sisters Penny and Josephine Williamson are sweet, innocent, and much-lauded examples of the courage and bravery of a byegone era. The World War II veterans are trotted out for awards and honors across Britain to smile and wave and raise money for fundraisers and memorials. But are they really who the world thinks they are? What did they REALLY do during the war, and what secrets have they been keeping, even from each other, these last 80 years?

This book really keeps you on your toes. We get flashbacks to each sister's war experience and to things they did after the war, to secrets they've kept from each other for decades. The sisters themselves could only be described as "firecrackers". They are fun, funny, and unexpected. Everything anyone could hope to be should they be so lucky as to make it to their 90s!

What fun this is! I have fallen in love with the Williamson sisters!

Penney and Josephine Williamson are two of Britain’s surviving WWII Veterans. They are very popular and are in demand across Europe.

But they need a bit of assistance. Enter their nephew, Archie. Archie adores his aunts and manages their appearances and tries hard to keep them on the straight and narrow. And it is a job.

They may be over 90, but they are as bright as ever. They may be old, but they are still perfectly attired, always looking for the next excitement that Archie has arranged.

The ladies have been asked to come to Paris to receive the Legion d’Honneur for their part in liberating France. And of course Archie will accompany them as Arlene wrangles them.

The official story is that the ladies worked in the Royal Navy and Nursing Corps. In real life, however, Josephine was an intelligence operative! Penny was a spy and hand to hand combat! Will the truth be told?

All through the book, you know there are secrets. And something happened to Josephine in Paris when they were just teenagers. No one knows what that was. Not even Penney.

In Paris they are going to learn a lot and their age isn’t going to stop them from settling old scores and maybe another heist?

This is such a good story. I adored these ladies and can only hope when the time comes I am just as daring!

Netgalley/ William Morrow Paperbacks Jaunary 30, 2024

My early rating doesn't really match with other early ratings, but I felt like The Excitements was all over the place. And by all over the place, I mean both in time and in genre - it feels like it is trying to be way too many things. Which is said, because the concept of the book appealed to me of two nonagenarian WWII veterans getting into shenanigans in modern times. The book goes back and forth between the present and the past, but not always the past in consecutive order. And it's mostly told by Archie and his great aunt Penny, but not always. It's historical fiction. It's a comedy. It's a modern day adventure. It's a romance. It's a spy novel. It's a coming of age novel. It's a novel about resourceful and underrated elderly people. It's full of plot twists. It's a lot. Penny is truly the irascible main character, with her sister Josephine the stolid and overachieving older sibling and Archie the affable, organized and underwhelming sidekick. The thing is, I'm not sure how you could rearrange things or trim things and have it make more sense, because there were definitely moments that would have provided more context earlier in the story than they were revealed, and there were things that felt unnecessary and overdone. I'm clearly in the minority of feeling this way, so if you want to read a story about several women serving in Britain's forces during WWII that are still having (and creating) adventures in Britain and France in their nineties, by all means, read The Excitements. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was cute, and the characters were all likeable. I found it a bit slow for the first half, and it was tough for me to follow the changes in narrator and the leaps in time. Thanks to Netgalley and William Morrow for the ARC.

Such good fun. I was hooked from the first chapter. The characters are funny, engaging, and full of life. Similar to the Thursday Murder Club and Killers of a Certain Age.

For all the readers who are looking for more great, fun stories that feature older characters, this is a great one to recommend. Perhaps they've read The Thursday Murder Club, or Killers of a Certain Age, and are looking for more. This is terrific, about two British sisters, both WW2 veterans, who are ready for one last big adventure in espionage, and drag their nephew, Archie, along with them. It's perfect!

I am always excited when a book features characters who are older than 20 or 30. This one was a little slow but it was interesting and fun to read about these quirky spies! I love the title, too!

The Excitements, by C.J. Wray

Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy of this book.


Archie Williamson, single, only relative for his eccentric 97 and 98 year-old great aunts, shepherds them through the social engagements they crave and call “excitements.” The aunts, Penny and Josephine, are two of the remaining women veterans of WWII, and are regularly interviewed and honored for their service. They often feel in competition with two other elderly female veterans, Davina McKenzie, 101 years old, Sister Eugenia, 98. The current excitement, in 2022, is their all receiving the French Legion d’honneur, the highest French order of merit, for their work during and immediately after WWII.

At first the aunts seem to be a bit scatterbrained, but as the book travels back to 1939 and through the post-war years, they are shown to have complicated and compelling stories and secrets. Entries from their early diaries and letters seem pitch perfect to their youthful concerns and escapades, and provide the necessary backdrop to their current adventures.

Much of the action centers on Penny, the younger of the two great-aunts and the one with debatable morals, who through her post-war life plays Robin Hood to orphans of war. Josephine’s secret is more personal and familiar. Both are involved and engaged with the contemporary world and with younger generations, and both are able to re-think their pasts and bring insight to their current lives and relationships.

This engaging book is filled with droll humor and twists that are sometimes quite startling, and almost over-the-top. But it also champions the capacities of women later in life, and how much skill as well as knowledge they can bring from their wells of experience.

In sum, The Excitements is a thoughtful, entertaining, and enjoyable read.