This is such a delightful read! It has just the right amount of humor and sadness. It also has one of the cutest meet cute and courtship I’ve ever read in a graphic novel. The artwork is gorgeous and the skillful paneling lifts up the narration to whole new levels of emotion.

It is at its center a wonderful and inspiring love story, but more than that it is also a meditation on old age, death, and second chances. The novel forces you to look at the harsh reality of life and strips off the glamour of youth to reveal not an ugliness exactly—but rather the cruel truth about your mortality.

It explores loneliness and how it makes you look back at your life and evaluate its value so far. It bravely makes the readers realize that our pursuit of happiness is also the pursuit of passion and purpose. And that without both, we may just be better off dead.

Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Europe Comics for providing a copy of this wonderful book in exchange for an honest review.

There are so many romances about young love. This is a romance about old love. Or rather, a romance about people in their late 50s, early 60s who are in love. Ulysses who has been forced to retire early and Mediterranean, who has spent a long time watching her mother die.

Both adrift, they find each other.





Being European, the author is from Brussels and the illustrator from the Netherlands, they are open about showing bodies in all their glory, and in this case, all their wrinkled glory. This is all tastefully done, but would still be NSFW in most offices.

A most enjoyable romance. Highly recommend it.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

4.5/5

I have all kinds of feelings right now. I hate feeling things.

This is poetic. As a person living in a very oppressive place, my only hope as that when I am old I'll do whatever I feel like doing. This graphic novel gave a little bit of hope.

I thought it's beautiful and I'm completely mystified as to why it doesn't have a higher rating.

What a wonderful graphic novel that tells a story about finding love and happiness at an older age. This is a short and sweet read about two elderly people who find each other by chance, and who start to build a new (and incredible) life together. The story gives a keen insight into the lives and thoughts of people above the age of 60, who may have already retired, and who are trying to find ways of coping with a very sedate and often lonely life that's much different to the one they're used to. It's full of the nostalgia for 'better days' that lends the story a slightly sad but also comforting air. The topic of the elderly in this graphic novel is certainly one that hasn't seen much light of day, but the authors do a beautiful job illustrating it in this comic. The artwork is so beautifully done; it's not the super clean lines of many of the graphic novels that I read these days, but it reminds me of the older comics, which I thought complemented this story quite well. A great read!

Here are some of my favorite quotes from it:
"How many times have I told them that I'm enjoying life and finally taking my time? While in reality, it's actually time that's taking me, bit by bit, like the cruel tide gnawing at the cliffside."

"The body gives up faster than the soul. Time wrinkles it, wounds it, debases it. The body plays along, a good sport. But the soul is a sore loser. It concedes in fits and starts, through painful revelations, through a series of frights."

Thanks to Netgalley and the authors for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

This was so good! So many romances leave out this age group, and it was sweet to see them fall for each other

(Warning, this is explicit - there’s lots of nudity, sexual and non-sexual - so if that bothers you it might be best to avoid this)