Customer Reviews

The Hot Flash Club

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

How refreshing to read a book about four women in their mid-fifties to early sixties who experience pleasures and problems we real women of a certain age can relate to: grown children and their problems, retirement, husbands, and boyfriends and menopause with weight gain, to name a few.
It's a story of friendship and support told with humor and compassion that will be a break from books with that always young and perfectly beautiful protagonist.
All the women are so interesting, and the book so well written, you will find yourself eagerly turning each page, yet dreading when the book ends.
How I'd love to find more books like this!

Faye, Shirley, Marilyn and Alice meet and bond over dessert, while sharing their issues with aging. Their different views and abilities (a clueless science professor, an uptight personnel director, a flighty massage specialist, and a lapsed artist) combine to tackle the varied problems that plague them.
Their concerns about their appearance, treatment as older women, sexuality, finances, loneliness, worth in the workplace, and other issues will ring true for many readers. Despite these topics, the book uses humor well.
You can almost see the movie in your head as you're reading. The dialogue and scenes reminded me often of Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin in the hilarious movie "Nine to Five."

"The Hot Flash Club" should be mandatory reading for every woman over 50! If one doesn't feel good about themselves before reading this little gem, they will love themselves afterwards.

Contrary to popular belief---mature women are vital, sexual, and outrageously, deliciously dynamic! Nancy Thayer creates memorable characters whom the reader will identfy with, laugh with, cry with, and love. Several story lines are woven in "THFC" like a colorful, unexpected quilt--quick, witty dialouge, fun, fun, fun!

Nothing is over, baby. Even if a few things are drooping, wrinkled, and not the same as when you were 20 years old---they are still very much alive, lovely and lush.

You are still a tigress--only at 50--you are more wise and wonderful!

When I bought & read this book, I was unaware that there were sequels to it. I enjoyed this book so much that when I came to its conclusion, I was saddened to leave behind what felt like "4 good friends" - the protagonists of this novel. The 4 protagonists - Faye, Shirley, Marilyn and Alice, are each so unique - yet because of this very reason, the merging of their lives into the wonderful friendship that blossoms is terrific to follow as one turns page after page filled with what unravels to be their lives, their insecurities, their fears, joys and accomplishments. Through this, I could so easily identify with what they were each going through. The author did a marvelous job of pinpointing issues of the midlife woman and making the reader really feel one with the characters, also realizing that it's OK to feel the insecurities and special problems of this age group. I felt that the characters were very real-each in their own way. As I said, I felt the kind of sadness one feels as a reader (though not too often I might add) when a book ends that feels like its characters and setting have become like family. That is why I am so pleased now to have discovered that there are more "Hot Flash" books available by Nancy Thayer. And I've begun reading the next one already! I very highly recommend this book to every woman who is of the "Hot Flash" age - you'll find yourself within at least one of the characters - and you'll laugh and cry with how she handles the ups and downs of this special time in life.

This book was cute, and very entertaining. I enjoyed reading it and laughed aloud at some parts of this book. I think the biggest problem with this book was the ending. It ended too soon. I believe it needed another chapter where they tell what each character is up to 5 years later. We need to find out how everything turned out for them! What also was sort of unbelievable was how these women became "fast" friends. I still think it's a fun read, just think the story could have been improved upon.

A must read for any woman over 50 who understands what that means. A very good story line as well as the humorous parts of menopause.

Nancy Thayer is a fantastic writer. She knows women and the way they think and feel. There are so many issues that women have dealt with since the "liberation" movement that come into play in this novel. I loved all of her characters. I read the book right away and am now disapointed that I have to wait for her next one!I have introduced many of my friends to Nancy Thayer and they all love her novels. Happy Reading!

The only thing keeping me from giving this book five stars was the ending. While I loved the entire book, I felt everything needed to be settled, which didn't happen. I can only hope there will be a sequel to this book so we can find out what really happens to Faye, Shirley, Alice and Marilyn. I'd also love to hear what becomes of Lila's sister Dora.

If you discovered Nancy Thayer with the Hot Flash Club, don't read this review, which is written within the context of her earlier body of work.

I've been an ardent fan of Nancy Thayer's since the early 1980's. Nell, Morning, Family Secrets, Stepping, My Dearest Friend... all intelligently-written and thoughtful insights into women's lives. It had been a while since I found a book of hers. Apparently I wasn't looking in the right spot: Chick (or rather Hen) Lit. When I saw this book, I bought it without even bothering to read the blurb. I was a dozen pages in when I realized that this had a completely different style from her previous novels.

Every other paragraph contains an italicized word or two. The language has been dumbed-down to appeal to a wider audience. I doggedly read through it, hoping it would redeem itself at some point, but it's complete fluff. There are gaping holes of logic in the plot, points that are never explained, characters you can't relate to unless you read personal-confessions-type magazines. It didn't flow like Thayer's past work, but rather seemed to have been phoned in by her personal secretary. It almost seems ghost-written.

Then I found out there are several sequels to this book, and realized that Thayer has struck gold. If she was after better sales, she's got them. If she wanted to retain her former fans, she's failed.

I have read all three of these books!!! What a hoot!! I have passed them on to other friends and all of us have read them one right after the other! I snicker to myself as I read them and my husband looks at me and wants to know what is so funny. . .I just say you had to read the whole book to understand (not true!). Highly recommended!! ;-)