The Gap Year for Grown-ups

by Annie Sanders

After twenty years of comfortable marriage, and with the kids finally off her hands, Sarah Lewis realises she has filled the washing machine once too often. Surely there must be more to life than this? What she wants is an adventure - a wild, unpredictable adventure - but her husband, good old reliable David, is very happy with the status quo. Besides, he's got his old car to tinker with, when he eventually gets round to it. What Sarah needs is a gap year for grown-ups - and she wants to do it alone. Confident the grass must be greener elsewhere, she heads for France, leaving behind a devastated and resentful David, faced with an empty house and a freezer full of meals-for-one. But is life really better on the other side of the fence? With a gorgeous French man demanding her company and a renewed joie de vivre, Sarah certainly seems to think so. But then a catastrophe threatens to de-rail much more than Sarah's little adventure. Pretty soon, she begins to wonder whether gap years are for grown-ups after all...

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Romance, Audiobook

352 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 2008

About the author

Annie Ashworth and Meg Sanders met at ante–natal classes and bonded as they learnt the benefits of raspberry leaf tea and relaxation breathing. Neither remedy worked but a friendship was born.

Annie's background is in advertising copywriting and journalism. She cut her teeth on a great little magazine called Southside, and put in the journo donkey work at Essentials, editing knitting patterns, and the late lamented Woman's Journal. Since going freelance in 1990, she has written for several publications including the Evening Standard and Homes and Gardens, as well as editing Inspector Morse for serial in the Sunday People, without giving away whodunnit. She has three boys and has built her own house on a hill in Warwickshire. She is director of the Stratford-upon-Avon Literary Festival.

Meg comes from a book publishing background, though she started out by translating thirteen volumes of robot technology from French to English. Things got more interesting when she edited and wrote a series of activity books telling children how to cover the kitchen table in glitter and PVA glue. This was obviously before she had children of her own. After a diploma in horticulture, she edited and wrote gardening books but still can't work how to prune apple trees. She is married, has twins – a boy and a girl – and lives near Stratford upon Avon.

They started out together with a mission to save the planet from grammatical horrors and badly placed apostrophes by offering their services as website content writers. Luckily they were rescued from catatonia (after a very dull foray with a government quango report) by the commission to write a book. Trade Secrets resulted, a spin off from the cult BBC2 series of the same name, and was followed by Trade Secrets Christmas, How to Beat the System, Trade Secrets Parenting, Fat Club, Celebrity Fit Club, The Property Chain, but they definitely didn't write a Channel 4 book called Am I Good In Bed? (A title that doesn't bear an answer but the research was entertaining.)

A tedious train journey spawned the germ of an idea for a novel and the rest is literary legend...

Reviews

[Shauna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whine, whine, whine. The lead female character drove me crazy. I kept wanting to reach into the book and slap her.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sarah Lewis wants a time out. She feels stagnated in her twenty-year marriage, her children are gone and the same-ness of every day is pushing her beyond the point of frustration. Her husband David doesn’t see is quite the same way! Regardless, Sarah puts everything on the line and leaves England for a year in Paris. Of course, in books as in life, nothing goes quite according to plan, especially when the peripheral people are not willing to follow script.

Annie Sanders is a new author for me and I was surprised to find “her” books are collaboration between two authors, Annie Ashworth and Meg Sanders. I enjoyed this light read enough to pick up another.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐

Okey dokey, so.... fairly predictable, simple and a fair read.
Great if you're in the mood for a 'pick me up', 'put me down' type of book.
Didn't require a lot of brain power😀

[Jelle Floris Kooij-IJkema · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book for the most part. The beginning of the book is very relatable and well-written. I enjoyed reading from the perspectives of all the different characters. The author perfectly captures the emotions of both David and Sarah. The book started to get away from me towards the end. Up until chapter 30 or so I could understand where the plot may have been going, but the ending was completely different from what I would have liked. Most of the time I do not mind this but for this book, I just did not connect with the closing chapters. The climax of the plot was too much of a cliche for me.

[Mallika · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Super needy characterization of the female lead made me not want to read it beyond a few pages

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It's the story of Sarah and David and their twins Tom and Claire. The twins leave for university and Sarah finds herself thinking about her life. She decides she needs to get away, although not sure how long for or whether it's permanent, and heads for France to stay with a friend. Both her and David learn things about themselves and each other, both assuming that the twins are fine, but Claire is also learning that she hates university....

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the writing was smooth and read well, the plot was so predictable. Everything was signposted well in advance, and jumping from POV to POV meant that all the characters were given a rather slight amount of screentime. In fact, for such a slight novel, the authors tried to pack in more than perhaps was needed.

[Mandy Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, maybe you have to be at a certain point in life to appreciate it,I know I get fed up looking after everyone sometimes and putting my career on hold and a break would be lovely! I understood why Sarah did what she did but I was also happy David started getting on with his life too and ended up happy. I thought it was good highlighting the problems Claire had at university,been a lot of suicides at University in the media lately.

Sarah is fed up with the same routine and looking after everyone but herself,she decides to go and stay with her friend in France,taking a break from her marriage. She has some lovely experiences but was what she had at home that bad?

[Sadie-Jane Huff · Rating 2 out of 5]

it only got better towards the end cos
1) i was almost done
2) it got a lil' more interesting
3) i could leave the read behind and move on to something better

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit slow to begin with but found it most enjoyable with a twist.

[Cath Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good story.
Told hidden family secrets as well as a wife and husband rediscovering themselves
And teenage children starting university.

[Indoorplant · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did actually enjoy it.

How nice ☕️ *sips*

[Juwairia · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quick, light read. Hallmark cliche, predictable - not bad, but if that's what you're looking for, this book is a good pick.

[Cherryls Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

The sort of thing you might read on a beach holiday, nothing too gripping - bit of a chick lit type thing. Not sure she took a holiday from he life as much as ran away from it before returning to it.

[Linzi Day · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's astonishing how much your idea of what makes a relaxing read can change over just 9 years (even at my age). Last time I read this I gave it 4* and a perky little "Nice holiday read"

this time I have wanted to throttle the annoying, unbelievably wimpy and whiny protagonist since about 15% into it.

I actually found that listening to the audio of it was making me short-tempered as I snapped at my husband, my dog and even a friend!

I feel that my criticisms perhaps say more about me than the authors - but I do notice that they haven't been writing any more books and that their GR scores for books are much lower than similar ones by other authors ... so maybe it is just a function of 'time moves on'

[Kirsty · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I picked this book up one afternoon in the hope of reading somewhat decently written chick lit, I did so on the premise of an interesting blurb. All I can say now is that I am considerably glad I merely borrowed this book from the library and did not spend a cent on it.
The story is very predictable and the perfect happy ending is so contrived and sickly sweet that it'll have you feeling nauseous. While Sarah is unbelievably naive, selfish and shallow, her husband David is no more likable. The teenagers do allow for a much needed change in perspective although this too becomes just as predictable as the main storyline.

[Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Gap Year for Grown-ups was not in any way what I expected. I chose it thinking it would be about a middle-age woman taking the time to travel and finding herself in exotic places discovering the wonder of life and getting a new spring in her step.

What I got was a family of the most self involved people on the planet that made one stupid decision after another. It tried to hide it behind the whole 'Finding herself' facade, but I believe that's a bunch of crap, and discovering yourself does not mean you have to destroy your family, in fact, they should be along for the ride. Eh. just not for me.

The lady reading it was awesome though!

[T · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of this light novel (about an empty-nester who decides to leave her husband and journey to the South of France) seemed just the thing for a blah January week. But while the book's above average for chicklit, it was all too predictable, with its requisite lesson-learned, tragedy-averted, happy ending. Probably the best thing I can say about this read is that it taught me more about what to appreciate in good writing.

[kimberly_rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the heroine--she was so relatable, so imperfect, just so... real that I connected with her and her desires and choices, despite their social unacceptability. And the hero--her sorta ex--he was also entirely real and relatable, just as perfectly imperfect as the heroine. Clair, the young adult daughter, who propelled part of the plot, was annoying, but understandable. Drags a few chapters near the end, but, yes, worth it!

[Shay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this - other reviews have said it's predictable, and it is, but I liked the journey, and the places it took me to. I cared about the characters too, which isn't always the case. It is easy to read - although I did notice quite a few editing errors.

[Lindsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I ditched this at page 72 and went off to find something more gripping, I am afraid I found it very dull and uninteresting - I didn't care for any of the people in the book or want to read more about them. Its chiclit but not at its best.

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

About a woman that becomes discontent with her life and marriage who leaves to 'discover' herself and it all blows up in her face. Frankly it was a boring book and if I was the woman's husband I wouldn't have taken her back kids or no.

[Yvette]

Not everyone suffers from Empty Nest Syndrome - some face "What next?" or "Is this it?" when their children are grown.

[Kathy Chung · Rating 1 out of 5]

reviewed at :Mama Kucing Books :The Gap Year For Grown Ups by Annie Sanders

[Clare Coffey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thorough enjoyed this book. The characters were very believable including the main female character. Annie Sanders is a mature chick lit author ( I know that it is two women writers)

[Tracy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was fairly slow to start an never really got much better. It was a good story premise but lacked any sort of enthusiasm or excitement in its delivery.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

pertinent.

[Commander · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get into it at all.

[Melissa Burtt · Rating 4 out of 5]

great read - one of those books that comes along at just the right time too!

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was a bit slow to start bit then came a couple of surprises, I enjoyed it.