Hot Flash Holidays: A Novel [Hardcover]

Nancy Thayer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2005

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hot Flash buddies Faye, Alice, Marilyn, Shirley and newcomer Polly beat the postmenopausal blues by chattering, complaining, shopping, eating and laughing their way together through the series' third installment (after TheHot Flash Club Strikes Again). Their would-be picture-perfect holiday season starts out at Shirley's Haven, a thriving spa serving mature New England women. Snowflakes fall and Christmas carols play as the friends decorate the tree. Then sweet-tempered Polly goes home to cook for her vegetarian daughter-in-law and nearly burns down the house; artistic Faye breaks her ankle rushing to pick her granddaughter up at the airport; practical businesswoman Alice finds her family expanding in spite of her misgivings; paleobiologist Marilyn struggles with caring for her elderly mother; and Shirley gives her young boyfriend money to self-publish his novel in the erroneous belief that he'll reciprocate with an engagement ring. More holiday fiascoes follow, from New Year's through Thanksgiving to another Christmas. Thayer creates sympathetic sexagenarians with adoring (if sometimes impotent) lovers, untapped talents and visions of future happiness. Cholesterol-laden binges make for sluggish prose, hot flash jokes pall and contrived scenes spill over with sentiment—yet who could fail to root for the five as they face aging with honesty, determination and a lot of help from their friends?
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In her third book in the Hot Flash series, Thayer returns to the original group of characters featured in the first book, The Hot Flash Club (2003). Shirley, Faye, Alice, Marilyn, and Polly (the newest member of the club, from the second Hot Flash group) are gathering to discuss the upcoming holidays when the novel opens. The five are preparing to negotiate extended and fractured families, lovers, and, of course, those pesky hot flashes. Faye is looking forward to the arrival of her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchild, but a tumble derails her carefully laid-out plans. For Polly, who is excited about a visit from her son, his difficult wife, and their child, it's a fire that brings havoc. Marilyn is caught off guard when her devoted but impotent boyfriend proposes to her. Shirley is hoping for a proposal of her own when she spots a velvet box among her younger boyfriend's things. And Alice can't shake the holiday blues. Readers who loved the previous books as well as those new to the series will enjoy the adventures of these spirited women navigating family, love, and aging during the holidays. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345485513
• ISBN-13: 978-0739461587
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,121,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lively and heartwarming tale for female readers of that certain age, December 6, 2005

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hot Flash Holidays: A Novel (Hardcover)

Just in time for the holidays, Nancy Thayer brings out her third book in the Hot Flash series. Christmas finds the five friends gathered at The Haven, a successful spa that recovering alcoholic Shirley opened and that first brought the women together. All are planning festive and often complicated holiday celebrations centered on immediate and extended families. The best-laid plans are thrown asunder when Polly goes home to prepare a vegetarian Christmas dinner for her son and daughter-in-law and nearly burns her house down. Faye tumbles down the stairs and breaks an ankle on Christmas Eve just as out-of-town family are waiting to be picked up at the airport. The other Hot Flash Club members struggle and rejoice through Christmas, all the while giving moral support to their downed friends.

The book moves through the year, touching on holidays and their significance to each vibrant member of the club, with romances blooming and fading, families expanding, and health crises bringing poignant focus to the meaning of their lives.

A more disparate group of women you could scarcely find --- Shirley, the aging hippy who opened The Haven, is involved with a much younger boyfriend whom she supports financially and emotionally while he writes a novel, and she hopes for an engagement ring under the tree.

Type-A workaholic Alice, who inspired Shirley to go into business for herself, finds herself on the verge of grandmother-hood when her son marries a woman Alice believes is inappropriate for him. She also disapproves of Shirley's romantic partner and lovingly but forcefully inserts herself into the lives of her friends.

Paleontologist Marilyn, recently widowed, struggles with a new love interest who doesn't seem to fill the bill. Her aging mother, Ruth, is delightful but forgetful and presents a special set of circumstances that challenges Marilyn to seek new horizons that will change her life.

Faye's broken ankle and semi-invalidism goes from a disaster to a surprising success as her artistic nature re-emerges and she turns from teaching to creating again.

Polly, the younger newcomer to the group, turns her talented fingers to spinning gold as she designs and creates fashions perfectly suited for the members of the spa.

Nancy Thayer has created a lively, believable group of women who range in age from mid-fifties to Marilyn's charming octogenarian mother. They tackle problems that will tug at the heartstrings and resonate with female readers of that certain age everywhere.

--- Reviewed by Roz Shea

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The feel good book of the season., November 7, 2005

By 

Detra Fitch (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hot Flash Holidays: A Novel (Hardcover)

Remember the ladies from "The Hot Flash Club"? Well here they are during the holiday season, getting together at an exclusive spa. Sounds like it is going to be a great time.

Fate seems to be conspiring against them from the beginning. Most everything goes wrong. House fires, planes late, broken ankles, son problems, money worries ... You get the idea. Then one of the ladies has major health troubles. The ladies are about to learn that Fate has got nothing on Mother Nature!

**** I do not give spoilers, so my synopsis is vague and the name of the lady with the health trouble will not be told by me. You will simply have to take my word that you will thoroughly enjoy this tale. Keep the tissues handy, there are moments you will need them. This is the Feel Good Book of the season! ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sweet and Fun, June 10, 2006

By 

Wendy Kaplan (Houston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hot Flash Holidays: A Novel (Hardcover)

This third entry in the enjoyable "Hot Flash" series brings back our buddies Faye, Alice, Marilyn and Polly, in a sequel that takes them through the year, from holiday to holiday.

We follow the women through various triumphs and travails, from the appearance of Marilyn's elderly mother Ruth (a wonderful new character), who has become just a bit dotty, to the birth of new grandchildren, unwelcome family changes, relationships begun and ended, and other realities in any woman's life.

The story, as always, is endearing, not too meaningful, not too heavy, not earth-shattering, but terribly sweet. I would like a lot less graphic descriptions of the characters' sundry hot flashes, and a bit more fleshing out of their grown children's strange (in many cases) relationships, but on the whole, I have no complaints.

A lovely, heartwarming read, nice for an evening alone in front of the fire, or while lounging in the shade on a summer's day.