HOT FLASH HOLIDAYS

Author: Nancy Thayer ISBN: 0345485513 11/2005 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: BALLANTINE

The intrepid women of The Hot Flash Club are back for the holidays, soothing jingled nerves and stressed shoppers in their exclusive spa and celebrating the joys of the season. In her witty and delightfully wisecracking prose, Nancy Thayer tells a heartwarming tale packed with fun, secrets, romance–and an ample dose of good cheer. When the Hot Flash friends gather at the spa to trim the Christmas tree, they share steaming mugs of hot chocolate, a few laughs, and a vow to make this holiday one to remember. And it is–but not in the cheerful, ho-ho-ho way they expected. Instead, Christmas brings family conflicts, household accidents, plane delays–and that’s just the beginning. After a hazardous holiday season, the women make resolutions that they intend to keep . . . in a perfect world. But life–and their friends and relatives–cause complications. Shirley lends financial support to her boyfriend’s schemes, which infuriates Alice, whose own son commits an act she’s not sure she can accept. Marilyn travels to Scotland and falls in love, but her octogenarian mother needs her at home. And when Polly and Faye find themselves pitted against each other by a younger woman, an they overcome this clash to make a new, entrepreneurial dream come true? Then real disaster strikes, bringing new challenges and surprising revelations. Just as every month of the year throws new problems at us all, so too does the end of the year give us the chance to reunite and put these problems into their proper perspective. And when the Hot Flash Five get together for the holidays, we should expect nothing less than the unexpected.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

HOT FLASH HOLIDAYS is one of those "feel good" books reminiscent of the TV show, The Golden Girls. Featuring a five-some of over-50 women who form a group called The Hot Flash Club, these ladies prove that life doesn't end after the half-century mark. Nancy Thayer has created captivating characters that are sexy, funny, witty and smart, and supportive of each other as they deal with daily problems that arise.

Marilyn takes in her mother, Ruth, who at a spunky 85 is dealing with bouts of dementia. If that's not hard enough, Marilyn's current boyfriend seems to have a problem with "rising to the occasion" in the physical department of their relationship. While Marilyn struggles to take care of her mother, at the same time she re-evaluates the relationship between herself and her boyfriend and wonders how to balance the needs of her mother without sacrificing those of her own.

Polly, the newest member of The Hot Flash Club, is pretty much set in the boyfriend department, but has daughter-in-law relationship issues and a grandson she's prevented from getting too close to. Still feeling a bit of an outsider to the group and suffering from low self-esteem, Polly's hesitant to share her problems with the others. When Polly suffers from a humilating incident in front of her boyfriend, she discovers just how supportive and wonderful her Hot Flash friends can be.

Shirley goes for younger men. Her relationship with an aspiring writer many years her junior causes concern for the rest of the girls in the club. Never having had children of her own, Shirley is determined to get close to his kids and do all she can monetarily to support him in his struggles to get published. Are there ulterior motives to this December-May romance on the part of the Boy Toy? The rest of the girls seem to think so, but Shirley is too blinded by love to see.

Finally there's Alice, the minority member of the group and also the most closest to Shirley. She too, has depressing thoughts of becoming older, and struggles to accept her son's choice of a white woman for a girlfriend. Worried, too, that her Hot Flash friend is being taken to the cleaners, Alice clams up, deciding not to confront Shirley with her own thoughts on Shirley's choice in men. But when Alice finds out Shirley's about to gift the cad with a very sizeable check, Alice sees red and voices her opinion, straining not just her relationship with Shirley, but straining her health as well.

HOT FLASH HOLIDAYS is the third book in a series that starts with THE HOT FLASH CLUB, followed by THE HOT FLASH CLUB STRIKES AGAIN. You can bet I'll be picking up those previous books the first chance I get. No matter what age you are, HOT FLASH HOLIDAYS will appeal to everyone as these women tackle problems that relate to us all. It's heartwarming and emotional with just the right dashes of humor, and I highly recommend it.

Nancy Davis