Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Chick Lit for a different generation, August 30, 2009
I like a good chick-lit book and Allison Bottke's new book is touted as boomer-lit because it is about the baby boomer generation ladies. This is the first of three books in the series and it should be an entertaining series. In this first book we meet Susan and her husband and friends. Susan is known as the Disco Diva and lives and works in Las Vegas as a hair dresser at her own shop. She lives for the 70's and all things 70's. The more memorablia the better! She loves it all - the fashions, the music, the furniture and the stars and she has the collection to prove it. Her dream has always been to open a Disco Hall of Fame, but that is just a dream right? Now her husband is getting ready to retire, maybe just a little sooner than Susan was prepared for... and just maybe all those years of not telling her husband what exactly happened to her in the 70's is going to catch up with her. Overall this is a good book and for fans of the 70's it is probably fantastic! My biggest complaint is just that Susan has things a little too easy in the money department, that just made it a little "yeah, right" as far as I was concerned. Not everyone has unlimited access to money, and it made me not very sympathetic to her character. Other than that, this is a wonderful addition to the chick-lit category with an emphasis in boomer-lit!
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3.0 out of 5 stars
You Make Me Feel Like Dancing Review, August 19, 2009
Susan is a woman who appears to have it all - a hip hair salon, Disco Diva, in Las Vagas, decorated with her collection of disco-era memorabilia who loves to dress the part in vintage designer clothing, many of her outfits from famous people. She is also on an online e-mail group called Boomer Babes Rock, where she shares with other ladies, her faith, prayer requests and life. There are many realistic story lines in this book, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing: A Novel (Va Va Va Boom Series)book, including, a husband and wife floating apart, a husband's dreams that are not hers, and dreams of what she would like to accomplish, yet fears of sharing with her husband. Just as she thinks she can leap forward with her dream of enlarging her her hair salon, someone comes unexpectedly back into her life that shatters dreams and brings back memories she was hoping to leave behind. It's a story of healing, faith, and giving and taking along with working to make a marriage survive.
I do not read many fiction books, but I found myself understanding this woman who is about the same age as I am along with realities of a difficult past. This 437 paged book seemed to drag on at times and just when I thought I'd give up on it, something would happen that would keep me reading to the end. I think some of it could have been shortened, but overall, it's a fun book for the Baby Boomer era to read! It also includes book discussion questions at the end.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
You are the Dancing Queen, August 18, 2009
This was a fun book to read. I would love to get my hair done at Susan's salon. It sounded like an awesome, hip place just to hang out and learn about history. I loved the scene where, in the middle of a hair session, the lights went off, the strobe came on, the disco ball came on and everyone got down and boogied. It's really a fascinating concept and if it doesn't already exist in real life, there's a gold mine idea for you right there. Susan's disco collection is massive and extremely valuable. It's interesting as to how much time and effort Susan put into her collection as opposed to relationships in real life as well as her faith and beliefs. The story starts off very breezy and happy go lucky and then spins off into more serious subjects as Susan is forced to dredge up old memories from the past. Her relationships are evaluated throughout the book, with her husband, her friends, her co-workers, old boyfriends, and new acquaintances.
It might be because I'm not the targeted baby-boomer audience, but there were some parts of the book that dragged a bit for me. Not that it was boring or not written well, I just felt that there were parts of the book that could have either been omitted or shortened. Also I got annoyed with Susan's husband Michael several times throughout the book because it didn't seem as he was concerned about his wife's feelings. I realize that he was at retiring age but it seemed like just because he was ready to call it quits that Susan had to as well. Also from the back of the book, I was expecting the online community to have a bigger role than they actually had in the story.
That being said, I did enjoy this book and it was fun to take a trip through disco memory lane with Susan's collection. After reading this book, I had an urge to put on some bell bottoms, grab a disco ball, and put on the Stayin Alive soundtrack and boogie in my living room. The Baby Boomer generation will get a kick of this book and younger readers will enjoy this blast from the past. I'll be looking forward to reading the next books in the series.
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