29 - Adena Halpern (2010)

Widow Ellie is about to blow out the candles for her 75th birthday. Still young-at-heart, she gets along better with her 25-year-old fashion designer granddaughter Lucy than her interfering 55-year-old daughter Barbara. But even with some cosmetic tinkering, Ellie can't hold back time. After wishing to be 29 again, she wakes up the next morning in a much younger body. She hits the town with Lucy - masquerading as a cousin from Chicago - while her best friend Frida and Barbara pair up to track down the missing birthday girl. A fantastic read if you want to lose your preconceptions about older women. Ellie is a wonderful feisty character who needs to face up to some of her life regrets. But it's the bumbling duo of best friend and daughter that really steal the show.

Adena Halpern believes that being 29 is an interesting age. "It's my belief that it's the last year of being considered a kid. At 30, you sit at the adult table," she reveals in an interview on her website. It is also the age her The Ten Best Days of My Life heroine was when she died. And her latest novel, 29, is about an elderly woman who wishes to be 29 again. The summary says: "Ellie Jerome is a young-at-heart 75-year-old who feels she has more in common with her 29-year-old granddaughter, Lucy, than her 55-year-old daughter, Barbara. Ellie's done everything she can to stay young, and the last thing she wants is to celebrate another birthday. So when she finds herself confronted with a cake full of candles, Ellie wishes more than anything that she could be 29 again, just for one day. But who expects a wish like that to come true? While Ellie finds that the life of a twenty-something is not as carefree as she expected, the sheer joy of being young again prompts her to consider living her life all over. Does she dare stay young for more than this day, even if it means leaving everyone she loves behind?" 29 is out in June.

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