Enormous Wings

Enormous Wings ~ Laurie Frankel

When 77-year-old Pepper Mills, a retired English Teacher in Austen, Texas, is in a minor fender bender, the man she rear-ends cuts up her driver’s license, after which her children decide that she should no longer drive, and also no longer live alone. So they sell her car, sell her house, and move her into a retirement community. Pepper is not thrilled with this turn of events, but she accepts it, and makes friends quickly. One such friend is her next door neighbor, Moth Holden, a retired Chemistry teacher from England. A romantic relationship quickly develops between Pepper and Moth, and they soon become intimate. When she begins feeling unwell, her children are worried. She is 77, of course. She is a cancer survivor. A battery of tests reveals that her condition is temporary, if extremely improbable. She is pregnant.

Carrying a pregnancy to term is extremely unlikely, but when she doesn’t miscarry within a few weeks, her family want her to have an abortion. The problem is that the abortion laws in Texas are extremely restrictive, and unless her life is in immediate danger, she cannot legally get one. News of her pregnancy has become public, and there is a media circus surrounding the whole issue.

You guys, I loved this book. I loved Pepper, I loved her friends, I loved Moth, I loved their family. There were some characters along the way that I did not love, but without them, where would the drama be? Highly recommended.