Nancy Thayer

The Summer We Started Over by Nancy Thayer takes us to Nantucket, Massachusetts. The author’s vivid descriptions made me feel like I was on the island. Unfortunately, that was the best part of the book. I thought the story was lackluster and superficial. The tale plods along with naught happening until the last quarter. We follow the characters as they go about their daily lives during the summer months on Nantucket. There is no action, no tension, and no chemistry. I did not want the show more characters to be hopping into the sack together, but I did want feel chemistry (have an inkling that they liked each other). The dialogue was shallow (teenagers have had more scintillating conversations). Nothing of importance was discussed. The characters lacked development. I did not find myself interested in the bland characters. Dinah Lavender was not bland, but she was annoying. The characters did not talk or act as they should for their age (dialogue seemed suited to older characters). The story was disjointed and lacked a flow. There was too much repetition (the same details do not need to be repeated ad nauseum). The Summer We Started Over was not an enjoyable story to read (I just wanted to reach the end). While The Summer We Started Over was not for me, I suggest you download a sample to judge it for yourself. show less

Here is my recipe for the perfect summer book.

Ingredients…
At least one husband having an affair with his wife’s best friend
A wife running off to a guest cottage in Nantucket because of her husband’s infidelity
A dysfunctional trio of sisters who all have their own issues…including falling in love with a married man, getting dumped by a fiancée and losing a job and being the youngest in the family with no concern at all for other family members
An island widower still trying to show more recover from his own issues and the death of his wife

Directions…
Now toss all of these characters together, add some odd island old society characters, lots of angst and self doubt, a small theft or two, some blue fish, beach swims, bicycle rides and boat trips and you have a yummy novel that you will not be able to put down.

Nancy Thayer does a lovely job of keeping all of these many characters moving throughout the course of one summer. The book is charming and a total delight to read. And helped me to arrive at my decision to head to Nantucket in the Fall. show less

SOME SPOILERS - BUT NOTHING THAT WILL RUIN THE BOOK ;)

When four women in their 50s-60s meet by chance at a mutual acquaintance’s retirement party and duck out for some real fun (cocktails and chocolate), they find themselves commiserating over their mid-life issues. Deciding each one could play a part in helping the other through their difficulties, they form the HFC - The Hot Flash Club.

We then follow Faye, the recently widowed artist who is tapped to become a live-in housekeeper for an show more uber wealthy family to see if their daughter truly loves the son of HFC member Marilyn. Marilyn in turn, who is a tenured professor at MIT, takes on the role of assistant to Alice, the fierce executive to find out if Alice’s job is at risk. Alice assists Shirley, the flighty, hippie-dippie masseuse create a business plan to open a retreat, and Shirley spies on a young woman having an affair with Faye’s daughter.

While like any book where there are multiple protagonists, it takes a minute to keep the characters straight, but Nancy Thayer does an excellent job with that and with keeping the storyline moving quite cohesively. The downside for me was I really wanted more ‘hot flashishness.’

Written in 2003, The Hot Flash Club just sort of faded off into the reader’s imagination as the ending, which was a typical style of that time. This leaves the reader wondering about, well, everything. Did Faye’s daughter and her philandering husband work things out? Is Alice going to stay with the man whom she just met but confessed to having recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer? Will Shirley get the retreat up and running? And will Marilyn settle down with her co-worker? I’m not a fan of the fade to black ending as it leaves people like me with an innate need for clarity too many sleepless nights.

All-in-all, a fun, well-written, easy-to-read page-turner. (And for those of you who actually read reviews, that was likely the most hyphens I’ve ever used in one sentence!) show less

I just finished [Hot Flash Holidays] which was just what I needed--some humor, the ability to laugh at ourselves and deal with the changes that come with aging. I finished it in two evenings.Very humorous and so true, best understood by "women of a certain age." Now I need to read the others in the series. 5 stars