First thing first: I'm a great fan of Judy Leigh's silver panthers and I love their zest for life and how they face difficulties counting on their friendship and accept the change that can bring happyness.
This is the follow up to Five French Hens and was elated to catch with the ladies and read about them again.
There was a lot of changes, new adventures in the life of some of them but Tess is acting like a lurker more than an active member of this group.
A tragic event will bring them to Highlands and things will change.
I laughed out loud and was moved, rooted for the ladies, and thoroughly enjoyed the story as Ms Leigh is an excellent storyteller.
A story that keeps you reading and feeling different emotions. Loved it
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to Boldwood Books and Rachel's Random Resources for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Saucy seventies

I thoroughly enjoyed this quirky sweet story about people mainly my age, that is the seventies. There's still a lot of life! Some of life's challenges, too! All treated with sensitivity and verve. Obviously not literary fiction, this is a book to be enjoyed beside the fire or under the duvet.

Thank you to the publisher who lent me a time limited e-arc via netgalley with no obligation. This review is optional and my own opinion.

The Silver-Haired Sisterhood by Judy Leigh

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to Rachel's Random Resources and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Blurb

Five years after seventy-something Tess jetted off to Paris with her best friends, Jen, Rose, Della and Pam - the Five French Hens - for Jen’s hen do, a lot has changed. Prospective groom Eddie has been given the heave-ho, Tess’s husband has been sent packing and the Hens are making the most of their golden years.

But Tess is stuck in a rut. Rather than embrace her independence, she watches on as Rose wows Paris, Jen explores Iceland and Pam heads to Greece. But when tragedy strikes Della, Tess is shaken into action. They both need a change of scenery and longing to see the Northern Lights, they head to the Highlands of Scotland and the magical Isle of Skye.

There Tess and Della get more than they bargained for. Along with stunning scenery and breathtaking history, they find new friends, grand adventures and even romance. And when they’re joined by the other Hens, together they start plotting a fabulous new future for them all.

My Opinion

Judy Leigh has once again written a delightful book with some older characters – even though our characters are in their 70s they still manage to go on an entertaining adventure. I started reading this book with the aim of just reading a few chapters and before I knew it, I was at the end. Our Hens support each other through both the good times and the bad in this uplifting read.

Rating 4/5

I enjoyed reading The Silver-Haired Sisterhood by Judy Leigh. You will fall in love with all the characters. I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely. Happy Reading!

Every bit as good as I expected!

Five women - best friends - are used to doing things together. After their last adventure in Paris, Rose remained there and is wowing the crowds. Jen is exploring Iceland, Pam is heading to Greece and Tess is stuck in a rut after finally calling time on her marriage. But when disaster strikes Della, it motivates Tess to get them both moving to Skye, in the hope of spotting the Northern Lights. But, of course, it's not as straight forward as a simple trip and before they know it they are making friends and keeping busy . . .

I love this group of women! They are living life to the full and laughing about it all the way. Always entertaining, Judy Leigh brings her characters to life and shows what lovely women they are. Thoroughly enjoyable and a great read if you are in need of a little lift. I'm happy to recommend this one and give it 4.5*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

The Silverhaired Sisterhood returns to friends Tess, Rose, Jen, Della and Pam.
They all have carried on with their lives and changed things for the better. Then something awful happens to Della, and so Tess and Della head to Skye for some away before Christmas. It’s beautiful and helps them to relax and re evaluate their lives Then Rose and Daz arrive from Paris. The success of their show has made them need some relaxation with their friends. Quickly followed by Jen from her trip around Iceland and Pam from Greece.
They have to pull together to help some friends they pick up while in Skye, showing how loving and caring they are as friends.
I love all these characters and welcomed the chance to read this arc copy from Boldwood Books. It left me feeling so grateful for what I have in my life and I felt so happy. It’s such an uplifting story.
Definitely highly recommend this book, even the series!
Many thanks to Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read this arc copy via Netgalley. My opinion is my own.
#Netgalley, #Boldwood Books, #JudyLeigh.

I'm reviewing this via NetGalley, as part of a tour with Rachel's Random Resources.

At the start, we meet Tess, who is celebrating her birthday. I enjoyed her energy, and I loved the backstory behind her group of friends. Tess and Della decided to take a trip together, to the Isle of Skye, and I was keen to read about their adventure. They encountered some loveable characters who made me smile.

I found this was actually a great choice for a winter read, as it felt quite festive too. It was a fun read with humorous characters, and the friendships between the characters warmed my heart. This book paired well with mince pies and a cup of tea.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rachel's Random Resources, and to the author and publisher, for the opportunity to read and review this.

I really liked the characters attitude to life, even though they were in their seventies, they had no intention of slowing down. I also liked the way the 6 friends were there for each other. The setting on Skye was lovely and would certainly make anyone want to visit. I did think the one romance was rather quick and seemed to develop without any signs of liking each other. The characters all had different personalities but all seemed to work well together. I did have a chuckle at some of the drag artist’s names! This was an enjoyable read, it does have one vindictive character, to add some interest. I received a copy and have voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was such a delightful, heartwarming, and charming read (although I admittedly teared up early on in the book).

The story is about friends in their 70’s who always show up for one another - for the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.

As I get older, I find myself greatly enjoying books about mature women who know the importance of keeping their minds busy, their souls young, and their hearts full of love and laughter.

I can’t wait to read more stories from Judy Leigh! This is a definite MUST-READ!

How utterly refreshing to read a book that is based on older charcters. I am in my 50's now but could absolutely resonate with all the main charcters.

I loved this story, i thought it was fun and funny and highly entertaining. I have read a few of the Silver Ladies books now and they have all been a really gread read, keep them coming!

Five years ago, Tess and her friends went to Paris for Jen’s hen do. Now, Tess is in a rut, and it takes a tragedy to jolt her out of it. Wanting nothing more than the see the Northern Lights, she books a room on the Isle of Skye in the Scottish Highlands, and takes Della with her. Their trip turns out to be more than they bargained for… which might turn out to be a very good thing.

I discovered this author not too long ago, but she has quickly become one of my favorite “fluff” authors. Her stories are usually about older women who learn about being true to themselves, about enjoying the place they’re in, about second chances, and about treasuring the people around you. All of this with a touch of humor makes Ms. Leigh’s books jump onto my to-read shelf without any hesitation :)

I loved the descriptions of the setting and would love to add the Isle of Skye to my travel bucket list. I too would love to see the Northern Lights someday, but traveling that far north in the winter is an iffy proposition. I really like all five of the French Hens, but could especially identify with Tess. Each of them has her own strengths and weaknesses, but together they’re a force to be reckoned with. The people they meet and befriend grew on me as the book progressed, even crotchety Murdo. The story took a few twists that I wasn’t expecting, which made the book even more fun to read, and I can’t wait to pick up Ms. Leigh’s next book.

The characters in this book were so well written, I loved following their journey as they celebrate life and their future.

After a couple of chapters I questioned whether this book was for me. Having friends who have lost their partners through divorce or death and others who have had health problems, I thought the story was going to be depressing. How wrong was I?
This is an uplifting story about women over 70 who have a fantastic friendship circle and are not afraid about taking on new projects and looking forward to whatever the future brings.
I laughed out loud at some of the antics the friends got up to and shared the sadness too.
Although I had not read any previous books in the series, I do not think it stopped me from enjoying this book.
Lovely characters including those from Skye- a community which worked together to provide another friendship circle.

In my normal fashion although I had read the first book in this series, The Golden Oldies' Book Club, I managed to miss the next in the series, Five French Hens. This didn't affect my enjoyment of the book, although sometime I'll have to go back and read that one.
This time the main character is Tess, a seventy something divorcee, who is fed up with being in a rut and decides to book a stay in a hotel in Skye that she saw on the Web (Skye seems to be very popular this year, I have read a couple of books set there already). She is joined by another of her friends, Della, but when they arrive at the hotel it isn't all that it seemed. They are eventually joined by more of their circle of friends which brings them all back together again.
Skye certainly sounds like a wonderful location and it again makes a pleasant difference to have the main characters a similar age to myself. There are some devious goings on occurring that the girls have to help contend with, but they have some help from new friends as well. A book that I definitely enjoyed and there is an open storyline that could lead to another book, which I'm looking forward to.
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley, however this did not influence my review of the book.

It was only after I got the ARC of this book that I realized that this book is a sequel to Leigh’s book “Five French Hens” which I now would very much like to read. However, while I noted a couple of places where I was just a touch in the dark about some things, overall, I don’t think that disrupted my reading of this sweet novel, because Leigh does a very good job with leaving enough hints, so that we’re not entirely clueless about any of these characters. In fact, it could almost be a stand-alone book, but I’m sure that I would have felt more comfortable with these ladies had I known their full back-stories.

This is to say that Leigh really knows how to portray women of a certain age, and the various types of dilemmas and trails that we go through. That isn’t to say that I would act exactly as each of these women, if I was placed in similar circumstances, but that’s me. Still, there wasn’t anything here that felt strange or totally unrealistic to me. That said, there were a couple things that felt somewhat overly convenient or too obvious. One of these has to do with the conflict in this book (sorry, no spoilers), and the fact that quite early in the book I figured out – at least in essence – how that problem would eventually be resolved, at least in part. While that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I do believe I got a little impatient for all the characters to see what I was seeing. This also happened with the antagonist where bad things were happening and I immediately knew who did those things, but it took the characters a bit more time to figure out who it was. Perhaps Leigh could have thrown in a red herring minor character to gum up those works, and make that bit more mysterious. Of course, this isn’t a mystery novel, so I am taking that into account with my rating.

I should mention that the primary focus of this particular book is on Tess, with Della as the secondary protagonist. I really felt like I got to know both of these women very well, and I had a great deal of sympathy for both of them. After these two, Rose comes in as a tertiary protagonist, and later on we get Pam and Jen as minor characters. Obviously, there are others in this story, but the titular sisterhood is what really matters in this book. And, since Leigh likes to include some romance in her books, we’ve got male characters as well (including two men who begin a romantic relationship with each other)! I really enjoyed their interactions with each other, and with the locals they discover in Skye. Plus, we get some lovely descriptions of this enchanted island, which I would love to visit again – especially now that I know you can see the Norther Lights there!

But the best part is that, once again, I found myself guffawing and giggling throughout this story, and that is something I truly appreciate these days. Getting to know these adorable older women, in such a lovely setting, with an interesting plot (that also includes some romance and a bit of a cozy mystery) are the types of ingredients that combine to make for a very well-rounded novel. If that’s your thing, and even if you aren’t someone my age, I think you’ll enjoy this novel. That’s why I’m very warmly recommending it, and I think it deserves 4.75 stars out of five. Thanks, Judy. I knew I could depend on you to give me such an enjoyable book.

Tess and her 4 friends Jen, Rose, Della and Pam are in their 70's and all have different problems. Tess decides to do something different and books a holiday to Skye. Della who's just lost her husband asks to go too.

Earlier I had read [book:The Golden Oldies' Book Club|62803560] by Judy Leigh and remembered enjoying it very much, so I picked this one up when I saw it. Since I'm getting older sometimes it's fun to read about 'women of a certain age' and their adventures.

Description:
Five years after seventy-something Tess jetted off to Paris with her best friends, Jen, Rose, Della and Pam - the Five French Hens - for Jen’s hen do, a lot has changed. Prospective groom Eddie has been given the heave-ho, Tess’s husband has been sent packing and the Hens are making the most of their golden years.

But Tess is stuck in a rut. Rather than embrace her independence, she watches on as Rose wows Paris, Jen explores Iceland and Pam heads to Greece. But when tragedy strikes Della, Tess is shaken into action. They both need a change of scenery and longing to see the Northern Lights, they head to the Highlands of Scotland and the magical Isle of Skye.

There Tess and Della get more than they bargained for. Along with stunning scenery and breathtaking history, they find new friends, grand adventures and even romance. And when they’re joined by the other Hens, together they start plotting a fabulous new future for them all.

My Thoughts:
This is a funny and sweet book of friendship and new beginnings. The women portrayed are the best of friends and come together to help each other when in need. They are women I would love to know. I got a warm feeling reading this book and loved the time I spend with the women in Skye. I admired that they are so determined to help and that even at their age they are not afraid of something new. I recommend this to women who like to read books centered on friendship and love.
Thanks to Boldwood Books through Netgalley for an advance copy.

The protagonist is seventy-seven, supported by a vibrant cast of similarly aged friends, including eighty-year-old Rose, who refuses to let age or health challenges dampen her spirit. Judy Leigh emphasizes the importance of maintaining a positive outlook on life and seizing new adventures, regardless of age.

Aging brings its difficulties, but how we confront them defines us. Some characters face grief in different ways—one finds comfort in memories, while another struggles with survivor’s guilt and turns to alcohol. However, an epiphany inspires him to embrace change, reminding us that our worth is shaped by who we are now, not past mistakes. Leigh weaves a message of resilience: “Out of something bad, there’s always hope.”

Friendship is a central theme, celebrated as “the family you choose,” offering strength and support in challenging times. Set primarily on the stunning Isle of Skye, Leigh’s vivid descriptions immerse readers in the beauty of a snowy December landscape.

The novel highlights the power of second chances, showing that while we cannot rewrite the past, we can create a brighter future. The Silver-Haired Sisterhood is a heartwarming, uplifting story filled with hope, friendship, and the joy of new beginnings. Judy Leigh’s storytelling continues to captivate and inspire, leaving readers eagerly anticipating her next work.

✨4 stars✨

This was my first book by this author and it didn’t disappoint!

This book follows five best friends, all of which are in their seventies (love reading about older characters), and explores themes such as friendship, loss, new adventures and proving that age should not be a barrier in preventing people from living life to the fullest!!

The main bulk of this book was set on the Isle of Skye as our protagonists help rebuild the reputation of a struggling hotel. I loved the setting was really rooting for all of the characters and the success of this hotel!

I will definitely be reading for from this author and would recommend this book!

I received an ARC from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

This book is a great read from the first page. It tackles ageism in the first chapter and the older women are such fantastic role models - I need my daughter to read it! At times hilarious, at others very moving, it is the perfect read at any time of year, not just at Christmas! The descriptions of Skye are so beautiful this book should be used by the tourist board! I would love there to be another book to continue the story of the hotel and the hens.