I was immediately drawn to this book by the cover and title. I always say I love older men, and I enjoy reading stories about women’s relationships with them. I enjoyed Shepherd’s memoir about her life, romance, and the ups and downs involved with the love she finds. The writing is effortless and sucked me in! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This memoir tells the story of Deborah K. Shepherd’s unconventional love story with a man much older than her. She shares her experiences with honesty and reflection, looking back on their twenty years together and the challenges they faced. The book thoughtfully explores love, age differences, religion, and social expectations. It’s an honest and engaging read that stays with you. I recommend this book to all public libraries to purchase.

I don't read many memoirs, but Deborah Shepherd’s poignant exploration of her unlikely relationship with a much older man drew me right in and wouldn't let go. I was fascinated by what brought these two very different people together. A young Jewish woman at the tender age of twenty-one falls madly in love with a married, Christian man thirty-four years her senior during the late 1960s. The sexual attraction is electric, and the spiritual connection is deep and unwavering. I simply couldn't put this book down as I followed the evolution of this relationship through decades of good times and bad until it reaches its surprising conclusion. Shepherd's writing is emotional, eloquent, and incredibly thought-provoking. She delves into themes of love, loss, societal judgment, and the power dynamics within a relationship. Ultimately, this touching memoir is about finding love in unexpected places and making peace with painful endings. An unforgettable story.

There are many reasons to love An Old Man’s Darling. The most obvious is a brave first-person narrative about love and sex between naïve library clerk, a woman of 21, and a married male executive of 55 years. The astounding connection, illicit at the start, turned into a lasting and meaningful relationship, one that included marriage and family.
The narrator dives into the effervescent joy that can be sex between new partners and she amuses with gooey love letters written by witty people. She also explores the conflict that inevitably rises when one who has become the other woman begins to insist that her man marry her: “I had no conception of what kept people together in a marriage, that history and obligation and social convention and guilt and inertia could take the place of love and desire. I didn’t understand why, after all he’d told me, he hadn’t just walked.”
This is how the story gives new life to questions about the definitions of love, family and happiness. It’s how the author leaves an impression, one that can be filled with revised notions about how important parts of human emotion work. -- Spencer Stephens, author of Blood Lily and Church of Golf

This is a memoir about an unlikely romantic union between a man and a woman with a 34-year age difference. In 1968 Deborah was 21, living and working in New York City, when she met 55-year-old Bill at work. Bill was in a loveless marriage at the time. Deborah was Jewish and Bill was Episcopalian. Despite these disparities, the couple lasted twenty years and had two children. The sexual appetite between these two was electric.

What I liked about the book was her honesty and self-deprecating commentary, as well as her easy-to-read writing style. Deborah's musings begin with the discovery of a trove of love letters from Bill, which are sporadically recounted throughout the book. Through these letters one can see a very intelligent man who knows how to communicate his deep thoughts, emotions, and concerns to his young love, Deborah. There are also some letters from Deborah written to Bill. The book takes you on a journey through their struggles such as overcoming the need for a divorce from his difficult first wife, housing and financial issues, and the inevitable, heart-wrenching consequences of age difference. At the beginning of the book we know she is remarried to Henry, so the book is a looking back over the bittersweet memories of her first marriage.

This is not a book about famous people, so there isn't that lure to peek inside a celebrity marriage. Even so, the core issues of this story were enough to draw me in. The book clocks in at just under 300 pages, but I think it could have been edited down some. Things dragged out a bit towards the end and got repetitive.

Thank you to the publisher Caitlin Hamilton Marketing & Publicity for Heliotrope Books who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.